If I could describe this book in one word it'd be "different." I enjoyed reading this book because as a young adult fiction, there weren't necessarily many literary techniques to point out. In the first few chapters, ears were mentioned a bit. I thought that may have been an important thing to look for in that it may have foreshadowed the fate of some of the characters. But no such thing was true. All in all I thought that this book was an "easy breezy" sort of read. I felt that this book was going for the Hunger Games type vibe where children are put into life threatening situations. However, I don't know that Radium Baby was as effective because the prize was a title as opposed to increasing the food ration for a district. What I did most enjoy about this book though, as thenewgreen was saying was how odd this book was. It truly was strange in the same Willy Wonka sense and I wish that I had had that mentality in mind from the get go as I most likely would have enjoyed the book more.
I'm glad there was something to enjoy in there. If a novel has a primary purpose, it should be to entertain, whether it's dramatic, or funny, or thrilling. That's one of the nice things about YA literature — it's got to be entertaining or else you lose your audience. A lot of adult literature seems to think it's okay to be dull, with the result that no bastard wants to read it (Peter Carey, I'm looking at you…) However I'll disagree that it doesn't stand up to a more literary analysis. There is a general sort of coming-of-age theme in there, but the main thing for me was a dissection of the "chosen one" style of storytelling. We've seen these stories over and over again (Star Wars IV, Harry Potter, etc.) There's a chosen one who has magical powers and is destined to save the day, and in the end of the story he uses his magical powers to fulfil his destiny and save the day. Wooh! Didn't see that one coming. It's not that these are bad stories or they aren't entertaining, but there's something unsatisfying about a story that couldn't have ended any other way. It's also rather alienating to know that if I were in that story, I'd screw it up. I'd fail. I'd miss the vital shot and the Death Star would destroy the Rebel base. Radium Baby deconstructs the whole "chosen one" idea. Instead of having a chosen one, there are three chosen ones. And what's worse, Sam is the least capable of the lot. Sam fails at every hurdle. He never wins a challenge and he bungles every opportunity he has to succeed. What he realizes in the end is that success in this case is an illusion. The title of Radium Baby doesn't mean anything, and the fight to defend it is incredibly destructive. It's dangerous and it's turning him into a nasty person. Sam's shining moment as a protagonist is when he rejects the competition. He's actually walking away from the whole "chosen one" plot and rejecting the dubious narrative he's been put into. He doesn't just change the ending, he changes the narrative. It's not something he needed unique magic (like the Force) to accomplish, it's a decision he came to because, although he's not the smartest or the most capable of the Radium Babies, he has become the most mature. A good comparison here would be with Star Wars VI, in which Luke doesn't save the day by using his magic powers but saves the day by rejecting the fight he's been manipulated into. It's a decision rather than some innate ability. There are a number of other ideas in there too. There's idea that a sense of entitlement is also an invitation to stagnation. At the start of the novel Sam thinks he's the Radium Baby and has absolutely no desire to do anything other than work at a bath-house in the middle of nowhere. It's only when he has that taken away from him that he realizes how exciting the world can be and he aspires to achieve something on his own. There's also the idea that competitiveness can be destructive and pointless if it's not moderated by humanity. Yes, you can be the number one at anything if you try hard enough, but what's the point if you're a terrible person? You mentioned literary techniques, so I don't know if you're looking for the techniques in individual scenes, but the things I mentioned above are the broad strokes of the novel. You may still disagree, and I would be curious to hear what you think.
Well having that in mind now I have a greater respect for the book. I like that this was a sort of rebellion against the typical "chosen one" story. How the same set up doesn't always have to end similarly. I'm actually similar in that regard when writing music. I'll intentionally leave out where the music is going/what the listener would expect to hear.
I feel like those sorts of decisions need to be handled with a certain grace and a certain style that needs to be sensitive of what the sensibilities of the potential listener may be. I think this translates into writing as well. I think the book had plenty of the "it" I'm talking about, but the ending, the ending fell a bit flat. It was a little too opposite of the "chosen one" thing. I really dug Sam, but I was disappointed he didn't join the hide and seek guys. And it made me wonder, "how has this experience changed Sam?" Other characters remarked on how different he became, but I didn't really see all that much of a change in him throughout the novel. I would have liked to know more about what's in store for Sam, given everything he'd gone through.
So would I! Over the course of the novel Sam becomes a worse person (cheats, endangers others, etc.), and by the end he's pulled back from the brink and gained a level of maturity. At that point he's not as insular as he used to be. He was once happy to while away his life in a town in the middle of nowhere, but now he's open to more of life's adventures. Whatever he's going to achieve in life, he's going to have to work for it. I do wonder what happens to him next. I have it in the back of my head that he and Mrs Cholmondeley team up again about 10 years later in another story. But I doubt I'll ever write it. The world has enough sequels.
Maybe the world does have enough sequels, but good characters are tough to create. I mean, I don't think Harry Potter (it was only a matter of time before he popped up in YA fiction discussion, eh?) was a particularly good character. A character in an interesting setting with an interesting back story, but as an actual character, I think that Timothy Hunter from Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic is a much better character. He's darker, he's more human and more flawed. Both characters have a certain darkness and temptations of power and fame exist for both, but Timothy Hunter is painted much more vividly. I think seeing Sam progress into . . . wherever could be fruitful, especially if as mk said, ". . . that sinister nature of Radium Baby were turned up a notch or two". There's a lot of room to play with character arcs and characterization in a world with cannibal bishops, mad, gibbering financial geniuses strapped to boards and radio contests that willfully endanger the lives of minors for advertising revenue, no? I dunno, it seems to me that if I created a universe I'd want to find out what's hiding in its fundamental fabric.
I'm curious, did you have other endings in mind and have to choose one or did this book flow out of you in the manner in which we read it? I'm always curious about what paths art could have taken. It's a reason I love to hear early mixes of music or paintings that are half finished etc. The process is cool. I'm really curious if it ever occurred to you that one of them was the Radium Baby? Did you always know while writing it that none of them would be? Also, did you ever play with the idea of someone else actually being the Radium Baby or that all three of them were (my triplet theory)? Also, and be honest here, Gloria and Sam hooked up in Egypt after Hadrian took off in the autogyro, didn't they! I knew it. edit: What I should have written is "did it occur to you while writing it that none of them would have been revealed to be"
Already writing your own slash fiction?! Hell, Sam and Hadrian shared a room, you never know… But I am almost certain Mrs Cholmondeley and Clive Chapman have shacked up or will shack up at some point. Actually this leads into a whole question of writing diversity. I try to get a balance of characters who are female, black, gay, etc. I got a good number of ladies in Radium Baby, but no black characters because it was the 20s and black people weren't really running radio stations back then. Then that leads me to wonder if any of the characters are gay. Sam is straight, but Hadrian and Gloria are up for grabs. Hadrian is portrayed as being a little bit "girly", but that doesn't mean much. For that matter Gloria can be fairly butch at times. I don't think I had any other endings in mind, but then I don't plan ahead in any great detail. A lot of spontaneous flourishes turn into key parts of the story, and I can't think up spontaneous flourishes in advance. Some people can — but as you know everyone has their own creative process. A necessary corollary to being spontaneous is you have to go back in the editing stage and rewrite a bunch of material that was crap. There is a lot of Radium Baby on the cutting room floor. How do you find it when you're writing songs and albums? How well do you know your music in advance? The only thing I know about the real Radium Baby is that it's not Sam. It could be Hadrian or Gloria, but nothing like that is ever hinted at (at least intentionally). Most likely it's someone else entirely. I think I might have imagined it be Gloria or Hadrian very early on, but nothing like that even made it to the first draft. If you want to hold on to the triplet idea, there's nothing stopping you! Nothing in the novel says it's impossible, and I like that ambiguity. You get to imagine your own ending.
Oooh, I didn't realize you were a musician. I've only just been catching up on thenewgreen's wonderful work. What kind of music do you write? And is there anywhere I can hear some samples?
I play(ed?) in a quartet called Alyssa and the Allgoods