Asta in the Wings (Tin House New Voice)

A child narrator is a tough sell, but it works in Asta in the Wings, a lovely, moving novel about a child who is wise and naive, the way children are. There is love here, and unhappiness and fear. The tone is gentle and distant and yet this child is so winning that I warmed to her, hoped for her and felt for her. The world has never seemed so arbitrary as it does through Asta's eyes, nor life so confusing; the difference between the normal and the outcast so hard to see, nor the warmth of kindness so welcome. She bravely, stoically faces such trials as would make a less resilient child turn from love, but she is stalwart and faithful. As other reviewers have noted, this book is a page turner and I read it with breathless zest and then show more was exhausted the next morning. This is a grand first novel and I look forward to Ms Watson's next effort. show less

I am always dubious of the seven year old narrator, but this one is wonderful. Jan Elizabeth Watson takes us into the mind of a seven year old and reminds us how limited and literal our vision of the world was at that age, how pure and hopeful our outlook is, especially towards the adults around us. For Asta this optimism bears out as best it could considering the circumstances. Asta, and her nine year old brother Orion, are “isolates” in the parlance of the local media. Their strange little lives are blown wide open when they escape from their little rural cape-style house, in which they have been imprisoned by deceits. Their mother has convinced them that the world outside their doors and tar-papered shut windows is diseased – show more literally, and therefore too dangerous for children to ever venture forth. Meanwhile she loves them to death, slowly starving them. It sounds horrific, and it might have been except for the author’s beautiful light voice which allows the siblings love for one another to shine through as they adapt to the scary adventures of the real world after accidentally escaping. Social services steps in, as-it-were, for this local community, and Asta is taken in by her aunt, and Orion by a local Doctor, but to this brother and sister they are all strangers in a strange world. MAT06_11 show less

I really liked this book. I would recommend it to almost anyone. Right from the start you can tell the family is very different. The writing is descriptive yet holds the innocence and youthful thoughts of the narrator, which I particularly loved. You can tell this girl is intelligent and holds quite the active imagination for a seven year old. The mother comes off as egotistical and a bit cold but you can tell she holds love for her children. As the story goes on, we get bits and pieces of the bigger picture. The delusional world Asta is living in starts to emerge. I like how it's not spelled out to you, that there is a mystery to this and the author is making you work a little to fit all the pieces together. One line I really liked, show more "There is something particularly magical about listening to music from a car radio while looking out a window at a vast, open sky." I love experiencing the world through Asta's new eyes. It makes me remember all the little things we overlook and take for granted. I feel as if the story is speaking to people who feel they are different and saying, "It's okay, there are others who feel the same and there is a place for you in this conventional society of drones." What society considers normal is tested by the beauty and intrigue of characters that exude unusual actions and traits. Even Asta herself wondered about fitting in with the world, "for a minute - just a minute - I wondered if my specialness had been compromised." show less

Seven-year-old Asta and her nine-year-old brother, Orion, are kept locked in their house by their delusional mother, Loretta. Their mother fills their heads with tales of the plague-ravaged wasteland waiting outside their door. Equipped with little beyond what their mother provides, the children are wildly creative, surprisingly intelligent and share a deep bond with each other. But when their mother does not come home one night the two children venture outside to face the real world and real people for the first time.

The children find themselves at the mercy of kind yet sometimes misguided adults. Asta emerges as the stronger, more communicative child. Bright and sometimes wily, she remains steadfastly devoted to her gifted yet now show more mute brother. This she somehow manages while attempting to adjust to both home and school by herself, as the two children now live apart. The narrative is told from Asta's perspective, and initially the tone is eerie and unsettling. As the story unfolds, the situation feels less threatening and even incorporates elements of humor. show less

Asta and Orion got underneath my skin and lived there the whole time I was reading this book. It was a very different experience (for me, lately) to read about kids who had a hard life but did not talk about it emotionally. I guess I shouldn't say I enjoyed it, I know that isn't the word I'm looking for here but it was an enjoyable book. I liked the beginning where I was thrown into their world and I didn't look back until I turned the last page.

It is the story of two kids (told from the point of view of the girl, Asta, who is 7. Her brother is nine) being kept from the world by their mentally ill mother. She believes that there is plague out in the world, though she, herself, goes off to work each day. The children are very underfed because too much food is bad for them. That said, their mother appears to be raising them, for the most part, in a way that nourishes them emotionally, and also feeds their individuality. But one day she is in an auto accident and spends the night in the hospital. The kids make their way out of the house - where they are normally locked in, in order to look for her. The rest of the book is about their encounter with the bumbling ways of the outside show more world, healing them physically, but keeping them apart for quite some time - though the kids eventually see each other at school. The mother is hospitalized in a mental hospital, then put in an outpatient facility. Asta is with an aunt, her brother in foster care, but in a good place, with an ophthamologist, who manages to arrange a visit with the kids and their mother near the end of the book.

Their mother had said in a letter, "..when you're outside, amongst people , you have to give in a little - you have to follow rules. Stupid ones, even. I would have liked to spare you that kind of stupidity..." But in the hour or so they have together during this visit, you get to see them together as they are when they are not so much following the rules.

It may not be quite realistic - the portrayal of a mother who is simultaneously starving her children physically and yet, in the conversation we overhear sounds quite sane, wise and exciting - but it was engrossing enough to keep me up reading til late at night despite having to get up early. show less

Was the mother really mentally ill or just mean? Her children are locked up insider their window tar-pappered house, never allowed to go outside for fear they will catch the plague. They believe all other children are dead and that the bodies of the dead are piled up outside their house. The are starved. One night the mother does not come home and they inadvertently escape from the house and make their way to a gas station/store. Asta is the main character in the story and we see how she deals with school, a new place to live and how she reconciles with her mother- it is ultimately a hopeful novel....