Vanishing

by Bruce Brooks

Book Overview

Alice just can't stop crying. To her, it seems as if it should be simple. If your parents split up, you live with the one who understands you best. Alice's father had always been the one to "get" her.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060282363
• ISBN13: 9780060282363
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 103 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

cool book!!

Alice and Rex,11 year old kids, have been put in the hospital because of thier hunger strike. Alice is "starving" herself because she doesn't want to live with her cold mother, nor her abusive stepfather, the only person Alice does want to live with is her real father, but she knows that won't happen. Alicehas promised if/when Rex dies she will start eating.

cool book!!

Alice and Rex,11 year old kids, have been put in the hospital because of thier hunger strike. Alice is "starving" herself because she doesn't want to live with her cold mother, nor her abusive stepfather, the only person Alice does want to live with is her real father, but she knows that won't happen. Alice has promised if/when Rex dies she will start eating.

Brilliant characters

If there's one thing I hate in a novel, it's poor characterization. (Actually there are other things I hate in books, but bad characterization tops the list.) If there's one thing I love, it's good characterization. And "Vanishing" has very well-drawn characters. Rex was my favorite, probably everyone's favorite. If I ever get a terminal illness I hope I can be as upbeat as him. The premise was interesting too, and I liked the descriptions of Alice's hallucinations. The book was, however, shorter than I would have liked, and the ending -- (spoiler) -- is kind of fairy tale-ish. But still, a great book, suitable I think for 12 and up.

Life isn't automatic; sometimes we have to choose to live

"Vanishing" isn't written to imitate the speech patterns of 11-year-olds any more than "The West Wing" purports to give an accurate portrayal of dialogue in the White House. Instead, "Vanishing" presents the dialogue you wish you could have spoken when you were an adolescent faced with impotent parents who want to bequeath their legacy of hopelessness to you. What I found most fascinating in "Vanishing," however, was not the plot or the characters but the experiences of consciousness Alice has as the tether to her body gets slimmer and slimmer. The experiences take many shapes: synesthesia, in which Alice sees shapes and colors spill from the mouths of people as they speak; out-of-body awareness; and the ultimate Vedic mind-blower, the reduction of consciousness to a point before expanding to infinity. For the emerging soul, these depictions may be the most enduring contribution of this book. "Vanishing" is surely a book for adults. So the question becomes, is this a book for kids? I'm pretty sure my 10-year-old wouldn't read it. But when he turns 14 or 15 and his nervous system has become capable of abstract thought, it could be good. When he is physiologically capable of experiencing his essential being as pure consciousness separate from thoughts, feelings and the body, it may be important to read this book. When it's dawning on him that the simple act of living sometimes demands that we make a conscious decision to live, then yes, son, I have a book for you.

Vanishing Review

I think that Brooks could have made Alice and Rex a little more older than eleven years old. If you ask me eleven year olds don't talk like that and they would be a little more scared of dying. Brooks was making a good point though, "you shouldn't do things that could harm you just to get what you want." Alice wasn't only hurting herself but she was hurting her father, mother, and all of the people that cared about her.Just because Alice didn't want to live with her drunken mother, abusive stepfather, and couldn't live with her father because he wanted to keep peace with his mother, she came close to killing herself. But Rex and her made a promise that she would start eating again if/when Rex died, and she did just that.