Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher, is a book about the following things: swimming, racism, small towns, abuse, alcoholism, high school, and outcasts. Sound overwhelming? If this was any other book it might be, but Crutcher does something magical with this book--he blends all of these elements together, so in the end it's a book with a message without being "a book with a message" (we've all read books like that, or at least watched a Lifetime movie). The main character's name is "The Tao Jones," so right off the bat you know it's going to be a good book. He's just so...cool. I don't know how else to describe it, but never have I met a more interesting protagonist. "The Tao Jones" creates puts together a swim team with the unlikeliest of candidates, and, amazingly, he succeeds in doing something the jerky football jocks never even saw coming. This book makes you want to cheer in some part, but sob quietly in others (which I admit I did). Here's a sample:
"What I like about the meets more than the swimming though, is the bus ride. When Icko pulls the door shut and fires up the engine, it feels almost cocoonlike. We talk about things we'd probably never mention in any other arena: Simon's mother drinks like a fish, Mott spent most of middle school in drug rehab, Tay-Roy lost a baby brother to SIDS, Dan Hole's father has heart trouble, Chris's aunt plays bingo, and Jackie Craig may or may not have a voice box." (117)
I was on the swim team in high school, and this book brought the memories rushing back--the camaraderie of the team after a meet when we gulped down our Subway sandwiches, the 5 am practices in the dead of winter, the never-ending relays and sets, the joy of beating your opponent by a finger length in the last leg of a race. T.J. has it right in the book--swimming is definitely not a "fun" sport, but it's worth every second in the end.
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