I Is Someone Else

It is 1966, and the times, they are a-changin’. Fifteen-year-old Stephen is on his way to a summer program in France when he meets two glamorous new friends of his older brother, Rob, who has been missing for 18 months. They persuade Stephen to travel to Istanbul with them, to find his brother. And what a world opens up to him: a world of beautiful girls, drug busts, fascinating cultures, fast-moving friendships, and betrayals. As he travels further into Asia, the nature of Stephen’s journey changes: The search for his brother is replaced by an inner exploration, in which he must confront his own past, and his own dark secret.

Grade 9 Up–On his way to France as an exchange student, 15-year-old Stephen meets a young couple who seem to recognize him. As the three begin talking, he discovers that they are friends of his older brother, Rob, who disappeared 18 months earlier. When Jerry mentions that Rob was planning to travel to Istanbul and that he and Astrid are headed in that direction, Stephen decides to join them with the hope of finding his brother. A map on the frontispiece shows Stephen's trek through two continents while the novel loosely fills in the rest. Set in 1966, the story makes little of the historical setting beyond casual mentions of hippies and hashish and references to Hermann Hesse's Journey to the East and Allen Ginsberg. The writing lacks description of the changing landscape, of the various cultures, or of Stephen's fellow travelers; in fact, the most vividly related passages are those in which Stephen is plagued by dysentery. Gradually, readers learn that he is running not only toward his brother, but also away from a memory of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of a trusted teacher. Ultimately, few real conclusions are reached and, throughout the course of the novel, Stephen seems to grow very little. The author does not establish the mood of an effective quest or bring to life the chaotic setting of Europe and Asia in the mid-1960s.–Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston
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Gr. 10-12. In 1966, on his way to study abroad in France, Stephen, a 15-year-old Brit, meets a gorgeous couple that knows Stephen's older brother, Rob, who ran away from home. When Stephen learns that Rob may be in Istanbul, where the couple is headed, he accepts an offer to join them. So begins Stephen's epic journey in search of his brother, which takes him through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and India. Contrived coincidences often move Stephen along, and the purposeful story of his sexual and spiritual awakening--shadowed by his powerful shame over a (somewhat detailed) sexual encounter with a teacher--risks derailing the narrative as it moves toward its wild climax. Fractured, esoteric scenes vividly portray the chaos of a mental breakdown, but they may leave readers feeling more confused than connected with Stephen. Still, Cooper captures a young person's astonishing experiences of travel and self-discovery, and the graphically described terrors and discomforts, as well as the euphoria and thrills, may pull thoughtful, older teens into this unusual, demanding journey. Gillian Engberg
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