Shine On

Some books beg to be read. The Sun Is Also A Star is one of those books. My intent for this week was to focus on The Steel Wheels. With their new album Over The Trees dropping a couple of weeks ago and my trek to Kansas City to see them at Knuckleheads, my post was in the bag. However, at the same time I was digesting their new music, I also happened to be reading The Sun Is Also A Star.

Calling to me from my bookcase with its’ bright colors and purple-edged pages, Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also A Star begs to be judged by its’ cover. Tricky business indeed, isn’t there a popular idiom based around the opposite of that notion? The book’s jacket design is great, can its’ content live up to that? I breathed a sigh of relief after the first couple of passages because it became immediately clear: this is the kind of book I love to read. And, believe it or not, my love for it has very little to do with the story itself – which is wonderful – but the writing style, the narrative structure and the characters pull you in and refuse to let you go.

The Sun Is Also A Star takes place over the course of one day in present day New York City. Natasha and Daniel meet cute. But Natasha is not a believer in love, fate and definitely not the meet cute. Can aspiring poet Daniel convince Natasha to throw off the bowlines? He only has one day to do it. Natasha and her family face deportation that very evening. That is all I will say here. To reveal more would be to rob you of the pure enjoyment of taking in the story as it unfolds. 

Strunk & White’s Elements of Style informs my writing and my reading. Their sixth principle, omit needless words, in particular. Yoon is a disciple, perhaps unwittingly, of Strunk & White. Yoon’s writing is precise. Her sentence structure is exquisite. Every word has a purpose and, therefore, every sentence develops and enhances the characters and the story. Yoon can accomplish in a few sentences what other authors need a paragraph to do. One of the expositional chapters ends with this passage, “Later this afternoon my life will hop on a train headed for Doctor Daniel Jae ho Bae station, but until then the day is mine. I’m going to do whatever the world tells me to. I’m going to act like I’m in a goddamn Bob Dylan song and blow in the direction of the wind. I’m going to pretend my future’s wide open, and that anything can happen.” That passage illustrates the essence of Daniel. We will get to know him even better throughout the rest of the book but those few sentences perfectly describe Daniel’s recognition of the outside forces attempting to restrain his natural romanticism.

Along with the strength of her composition Yoon shows skill with a very interesting and effective narrative structure. The book primarily alternates between Natasha and Daniel’s perspectives. We learn about them through their reaction and adaptation to the world around them. But sprinkled amongst Natasha and Daniel’s narratives are third person narratives focusing on a variety of subjects: the security guard and the USCIS, Natasha’s father, eyes and fate to name a few. In hands less adept than Yoon’s, these shifting perspectives could become jarring, chopping the book up and endangering the flow. That does not happen here. No matter the narrative perspective, each chapter completely belongs. Natasha and Daniel’s narratives remain separate until the conclusion of the story when Yoon brings them together in a shared narrative. You will have to find out on your own the reason for their coming together.

The Sun Is Also A Star features a cast of fantastic characters. At the heart of the book’s universe are Natasha and Daniel, who are different and yet similar at the same time. Both are wise beyond their years, but not in a cloying, overly precocious, 'mini-adult' way. Life, fate and chance forced them to grow up quickly. Your heart breaks for them and moments of childhood missed. On the surface, I share little in common with Natasha and Daniel (age, race, socio-economic status, geography) but Yoon fleshes out both characters simply as members of the human race, navigating the difficulties inherent in that membership in the best way they can, and they are utterly relatable because of it. I see elements of myself in both of them. 

So, intentions be damned. I sensed almost immediately that The Sun Is Also A Star needed to be shared. That said, please do not take this as permission to skip Over The Trees, it’s a fantastic album from a group that continues to grow while remaining true to their roots. While Natasha’s playlist may veer towards rock, there is no reason your soundtrack to The Sun Is Also A Star can’t be Blue Ridge Mountain folk.