Amber Dermont

Several years ago I read Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. I was impressed by his windswept tale of a trip of more than 46,000 miles over three years at the age of fifty, a solo circumnavigation. I mention this because that book is one of several that plays a supporting role in a first novel by Amber Dermont, a coming of age tale The Starboard Sea. Perhaps the teenager in this story will develop some of the maturity and courage that Joshua Slocum demonstrated. This is only the show more start for him, a jumping-off point for what is yet to be.

The story begins in 1987, when 18-year-old Jason Prosper begins a final year at Bellingham, a third-rate private school for well-off delinquents. Confused about his sexuality, he's alternately self-absorbed and self-aware. He does not seem to fit in with most of his peers during his periods of introspection which are some of the best parts of the novel. The author is successful in slowly developing Jason's background through these moments and the flashbacks to his life at his previous school with his best friend Cal. Dermont is a confident stylist, musical and alliterative. Jason has an older brother, a forerunner for avaricious bankers who discusses "turning their Renoir into an ATM", which is disconcerting because it sounds like something a wealthy philistine might conceivably say. Though Jason is not without faults he appears favorable in comparison. In addition to the coming of age theme there is an overlay of criticism of the privileged life of the boys and girls at the school. because the starboard sea of the title is "the right sea, the true sea … the best path in life". Dermont's strongest writing describes sailing but when Prosper competes in a championship, she sensibly resists a dramatic sporting climax. Instead, the skewed sense of loyalty that his unhappy parents instill in him suggests that, although Prosper is committed to breaking the cycle of inherited misery, he will never entirely escape the small world of the entitled. The economic news of the late eighties is ever present in the background.

Prosper confronts prejudice and corruption, befriending Bellingham's lone black student and investigating the fate of an enigmatic girl, Aidan, who was on the verge of becoming the friend that might replace his best friend Cal from his previous school. There is a certain amount of tragedy in Jason's life that must also be experienced before he can come to terms with his personal destiny. The idea that "sailing is the art of asking questions" reflects the novel's unresolved conundrums: fathers, present and absent, are a source of angst, so are we better off with or without them? And do Dermont's upper-class grotesques live with too little or too much shame? Along with the image of the ocean, the night sky becomes an indicator with stars as symbolic guides for life. The ocean is also the potential source for answers because the starboard sea of the title is "the right sea, the true sea … the best path in life". Dermont's best writing describes sailing but when Prosper competes in a championship, she sensibly resists a dramatic sporting climax. It is this writing that elevates the novel to the class with those like John Knowles' A Separate Peace that capture both the magic and the angst of developing the foundation for a life that is yet to be. show less

I was attracted to this book by its plot description, but unsure what to expect since it's a debut novel - those don't always live up to the promise of their synopses and hype. I needn't have worried. The Starboard Sea is a beautifully written elegy to the late eighties, to being hyper-rich, to boarding school, to love, loss, and adolescence.

Jason Prosper, our narrator, has been kicked out of his previous boarding school for initally undisclosed reasons and ends up at the boarding school of show more last resort - Bellingham - the place you go when there's nowhere else to go other than prison or drug rehab. Trying to deal with the death of his best friend and sailing partner, Cal, while navigating the rocky shoals of boarding school is a challenge. The Starboard Sea tells the story of his senior year - what happened, what might've happened, the prices that were paid.

Ms. Dermont has written an assured and honest book about how much adolescence sucks - no matter where you are. Anchored in loss, Jason's journey is one the reader wants to follow. The book is brutally honest. Adolescents can be maudlin and Jason is, too. His voice is captured elegantly and neatly integrated into his environment of privilege and bullying and deep friendships plus love. There is a lot of violence running underneath the surface and through it all there is Jason - trying to cope, trying to figure out who he is, trying to get through 'til the end.

Although I did not attend a New England boarding school, I did leave high school a year early. I was miserable and wasting my time. My best friend killed himself in a car accident the summer before junior year and I couldn't take it. I headed for college based on my SAT scores and hung on for dear life - not always making it. Ms. Dermont captures what that all feels like in a way I haven't read before. The voice, the emotions, the confusion, the moments of clarity and all the bitter despair radiate throughout the novel.

One of the best things I've read all year - you must read this book. show less

This is an interesting juxtaposition to The Secret History, which I finished reading just before I started The Starboard Sea. Both novels are concerned with issues of identity, shame, guilt, and violence both overt and subtle. Both are also examinations of how one devises his/her moral compass -- or sextant, in this case -- but whereas the former is obvious and tense, the latter unfolds so subtly. Dermont's voice, sparsely elegant and lush without being overwrought, suits the subject matter show more and plot perfectly. I enjoyed how moments from scenes that already happened would find their way into later narrative, as opposed to a straight, chronological-only style of storytelling. What a debut! I look forward to future Dermont stories. show less

Everyone has a story. Browse through the Memoir section of your local independent bookstore, and you'll find hundreds of them. They'll give you a slant, a spin, an angle of each person's life, the way they would have you see it. Ask their friends, their business associates, and they'll give you a totally different story. You could even sit down with the person in question and listen to their life story, and you'll almost have a picture of the entire life, from the high-crashing waves to the show more calm eddies that hide along the shore. But always hidden deep within the cores of our being are the pearls of our lives, which we clamp shut, hold fast, and no amount of muscle will let anyone see it. They are secrets, desires, the very foundations by which we see the rest of the world. Every once in a while, a person will come along and dive deep down into our souls, and we will let them in. We will tell them our stories, showing our pearls and the sand from which they came.

The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont is just such a novel. It becomes a porthole into the inner lives of the characters, especially the main one, Jason Prosper, who, little by little, tell us all his story. Each character is fully developed, fleshed out, with words that are worth reading completely, not skimming over as part of "something every author has to do." The writing is lyrical, soothing, much like the seaside town that Amber Dermont is writing about. The frequent forays into yachting, racing with the upper class New England town boys that seem to have no problems or cares in the world are done exquisitely, giving the reader an opportunity to experience the thrill of riding on the open ocean without the boring details that, ironically as he tried to do the same, Melville used in Moby Dick. I think that if Dermont had written a book about the White Whale, I would have read enthralled from Ishmael to Ahab and through the Romantic landscape of the seas. Most of all, I enjoyed the intimate contact between Jason and Aiden, and with Cal through his memories, and with Chester and the rest. I do wish that we could have seen more of Jason showing Aiden the Pearls in his life, or the other times he let people into his inner "oyster," for lack of a better word. But we have to be content with the side glances of these, as we should never see these ourselves, (one of the distinct advantages of writing in the 1st person) since Jason is telling the story himself.

I've read many debut novels recently, as an employee of Borders, and I have always been impressed with the potential in each of these authors to become better, to write truly great literature. I look forward to reading the follow up to Ford's The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, but I realized, as I finished this novel, that Dermont is closest to achieving those masterpieces. I look forward to those as well. I only wish that she had taught the Creative Writing course I took in my small university in Georgia, as I would have learned much. I thank you, Dr. Dermont, for giving a window into how you write, how the stories are meant to be told, and only hope that more people will witness the sea the way you have written it.

Short Review: If Dermont had written Moby Dick, I would have relished every word. The foray into the world of New England boarding schools, with all the heartbreak and ecstasy, is done wonderfully. Jason Prosper navigates his way through love, death, and all the swirling eddies in between in this amazing debut novel. I hope it finds it's way to the top of all the bookstores' "Staff Picks" displays. I know it would mine. show less