A Review of Hawkes Harbor, by S. E. Hinton

S. E. Hinton, the legendary author of The Outsiders, has returned to the book world with her recent offing, Hawkes Harbor. It is a darkly comic, often tragic tale of a young man, orphaned at a young age - and perhaps throughout his whole life - and a centuries old man plagued by curse as old as time itself.

Normally, I spend a bit delving into the book itself, but to do so for Hawkes Harbor would leave me tripping all over spoilers, plus - and S.E. Hinton does use this well - Hawkes Harbor is told in a disjointed, vignette style very similar to that of Pulp Fiction, with flashbacks interwoven with the present and glimpses at the story's future. We start the novel with Jamie Sommers as an interesting, enigmatic patient in a mental care home, so this "jittery" narrative works well to establish the uncertain, questionable reliability of Jamie's memories and their veracity.

Hinton once again proves herself a master at creating compelling characters that engender deep feelings of empathy in the reader. I must confess, about halfway through the novel I was torn - convinced that Jamie was doomed to suffer forever at the hands of the mercurial, cruel Grenville Hawkes, likewise convinced that Hawkes - despite his best intentions - would be unable to lift the curse that's plagued him for centuries, and eventually he'd be the vehicle of Jamie's destruction.

Through her characters, Hinton asks deep questions about the matters of faith and destiny - Jamie has been excellently crafted as somewhat of a "Jonah" figure, especially given his sea-faring nature and his propensity for being "swallowed by the whale" of his own vices and addictions. As usual, it's easy to see why young adults, especially older teens, are drawn to her novels - her young adult characters are realistically faulty, imperfect - almost shockingly so at times.

Hawkes Harbor keeps you off balance for much of the tale - just when you think it's a "tramp abroad" sort of book, as Jamie recounts his memories of sailing to port after port with his scheming fellow con-man Kellen, it blends into the shadowed, accented world of dark noir fiction when Kellen and Jamie finally find their berthing in the mysterious, sheltered Hawkes Harbor. However, just as soon as you think you've got the novel's genre pegged, the characters begin to grow, change, and develop dramatically, becoming the the type of "coming of age" story that's a hallmark of Hinton's work.

For the most part, I loved this story - just when I thought Hinton had plumed Jamie to the depths of despair she takes him down even further, and then yanks him back up into the light again - but I can't, in my heart, give this story a rating of anything more than a '3', simply because I can't square the mature - sometimes explicitly so - language and plot elements of the story, with Hinton's usual target audience - the elder teen, young adult reader. Language is such a crucial issue in the crafting of a novel - don't use any swear words, even when they would be appropriate and realistic, and the story sounds flat, safe, staged. Use too much cursing, and you start to wonder - what is the author's priority here, telling a realistic story, or throwing around a little "shock value"?

Given his hard, rough and tumble, sea waif's life, cursing is a realistic part of Jamie's character - but how many times can the "F-bomb" be dropped in one book, anyway, before it gets a tad ridiculous? Also, even though it's an acceptable leap that an amorous encounter with a young lady towards the end of the novel is a key development in Jamie's long climb away from the shattered being he's become to a shadow of his former self, (even this is dicey, considering this is a Young Adult novel), I think a week long tryst with two ladies at the same time is a tad too much for the target audience of this novel, certainly "R" rated, to say the least.

In the end, Hawkes Harbor is an interesting read that gives what Hinton has become known for: the unexpected, in your face, but it would be ill-suited for anyone still in high school, because it is simply too explicit, needlessly so - even in today's already sensory-overloaded society - for the young adult crowd.

3 out of 5 stars