Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Mariner Books (2009), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 208 pages
Description
Ms. Beatrice Hempel, teacher of seventh grade, is new--new to teaching, new to the school, newly engaged, and newly bereft of her idiosyncratic father. Grappling awkwardly with her newness, she struggles to figure out what is expected of her in life and at work. Is it acceptable to introduce swear words into the English curriculum, enlist students to write their own report cards, or bring up personal experiences while teaching a sex-education class? Sarah Shun-lien Bynum finds characters at their most vulnerable, then explores those precarious moments in sharp, graceful prose. From this most innovative of young writers comes another journey down the rabbit hole to the wonderland of middle school, memory, daydreaming, and the extraordinary business of growing up.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member frisbeesage
The Ms. Hempel Chronicles follows Ms. Hempel from her first days in the classroom to her last meeting with a past student. Its the story of how Ms. Hempel grows and develops as a teacher, and a person, until she fnally leaves it behind.
I absolutely loved the parts about Ms. Hempel in the classroom.
I absolutely loved the parts about Ms. Hempel in the classroom.
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Her sometimes shockingly straight forward, often hilarious approach with the students charmed me. I felt like some of these stories could have right from my husband, a middle school math teacher, they were so realistically told. I didn't enjoy the parts about Ms. Hempel's personal life as much, perhaps because the had a more serious tone. In the end I wished I could meet Ms. Hempel, you would never know what she was going to say next! Show Less
LibraryThing member monzrocks
This short novel is about a young middle school teacher, Ms. Hempel. The novel goes back and fourth between Ms. Hempel's own growing-up and her present day as a teacher. There's a lot of reflection on the unlimited potential that you have when you're in middle school and how it seems to slowly
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evaporate as you grow older. You find out about the things that happen to Ms. Hempel almost by accident after the fact, and the book focuses a lot more on exploring the intricacies of Ms. Hempel's character as well as her relationship with her young students. Recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
This is a book of interconnecting short stories chronically the professional life of a middle school teacher. Ms Hempel worries about the effect she has on both her students and her co-workers. At times she loves teaching and sees her 7th graders as the essence of human beings. But she hates the
This is an enjoyable read that I think would appeal to teachers and their students, or to those of us who worry how much effect we have on the world.
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routine, she worries about whether she is supportive of her students or does she pander to them. She has a crush on another teacher, but it's polite and removed (unlike the other teacher who is voted as the school's sexiest). When you read about the ways she gets her lessons across to her students, she seems both brilliant and effective, then when you read how she reacts in her real life, she's more like a teenager herself.This is an enjoyable read that I think would appeal to teachers and their students, or to those of us who worry how much effect we have on the world.
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LibraryThing member bobbieharv
She's a very good writer, but she should stick to short stories in the New Yorker, where one of these chapters appeared. The book seemed too episodic and didn't really go anywhere.
LibraryThing member coolmama
Beautifully told story in interconnecting chapters of the life of Bernice Hempel, a seventh grade teacher in the New York Area.
LibraryThing member bookwormygirl
Firstly, I want to start by saying that this was not what I thought it would be. I was expecting the memoir of an English teacher. The book has great reviews and therefore I thought "why not?" Sadly, it wasn’t something that caught my attention. I did read the whole book because it really pains
On a high note, the writing is beautiful and I can see where this would be a good read for a teacher.
But it just never hit a crescendo for me. I thought the plot meandered and was just too drawn out for me.
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me to actually stop reading something I’ve started - but there was just no point to this. Ms. Hempel is a seventh grade middle school teacher and with a refreshingly real voice gives several insightful thoughts about how teenagers and teachers think mixed in with some tangents about her personal life. She is at that verge where she is questioning everything she's doing with her life and how she is affecting the lives of the children she teaches. This was her quest to find herself - through these short, loosely-linked stories.On a high note, the writing is beautiful and I can see where this would be a good read for a teacher.
But it just never hit a crescendo for me. I thought the plot meandered and was just too drawn out for me.
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LibraryThing member subbobmail
Here we have a collection of linked short stories about a self-consciously unspecial (but sensitive) teacher of 7th-graders. No melodrama here, just well-observed character sketches and a memorable protagonist who cares about her students in ways she would never have expected. Ms. Hempel is like
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that slightly cool teacher you had in junior high, the one who doesn't seem too "other," the one with whom certain girls powerfully indentify. She's a little perplexed by life. It makes her approachable and unforbidding. She has a fiancee and goes dancing with other teachers at a dive bar on late Friday afternoons. She's worth getting to know. Show Less
LibraryThing member labfs39
I didn't realize until I had finished the book and was reading the acknowledgements that six of the eight chapters in the book had been published separately as short stories. That explained quite a bit. All the stories are about Ms. Hempel, a seventh grade teacher who is looking for more from life,
Despite these drawbacks, I enjoyed the story and the character of Ms. Hempel, especially in the first two chapters: Talent and Accomplice. The language in these two stories, both of which were published independently, is beautiful with some phrases that I had to reread several times, just to savor the words.
"That is what is marvelous about school, she realized: when you are in school, your talents are without number, and your promise is boundless. You ace a math test: you will one day work for NASA. The choir director asks you to sing a solo at the holiday concert: you are the next Mariah Carey. You score a goal, you win a poetry contest, you act in a play. And you are everything at once: actor, astronomer, gymnast, star. But at a certain point, you begin to feel your talents dropping away, like feathers from a molting bird."--From Talent
"Uncomplimentary words, however, seemed to overshadow the complimentary ones. That wasn't it, exactly. But whereas an ancient compliment would suddenly, unexpectedly, descend upon her, spinning down from the sky like a solitary cherry blossom, words of criticism were familiar and unmovable fixtures in the landscape: fire hydrants, chained trash cans, bulky public scuptures."--from Accomplice
Recommended
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at the same time that she loves her students. However, the stories (or chapters) switch between her present life and her childhood, sometimes jarringly. In addition, as the stories were published, and presumable written, over a number of years, the writing style varies.Despite these drawbacks, I enjoyed the story and the character of Ms. Hempel, especially in the first two chapters: Talent and Accomplice. The language in these two stories, both of which were published independently, is beautiful with some phrases that I had to reread several times, just to savor the words.
"That is what is marvelous about school, she realized: when you are in school, your talents are without number, and your promise is boundless. You ace a math test: you will one day work for NASA. The choir director asks you to sing a solo at the holiday concert: you are the next Mariah Carey. You score a goal, you win a poetry contest, you act in a play. And you are everything at once: actor, astronomer, gymnast, star. But at a certain point, you begin to feel your talents dropping away, like feathers from a molting bird."--From Talent
"Uncomplimentary words, however, seemed to overshadow the complimentary ones. That wasn't it, exactly. But whereas an ancient compliment would suddenly, unexpectedly, descend upon her, spinning down from the sky like a solitary cherry blossom, words of criticism were familiar and unmovable fixtures in the landscape: fire hydrants, chained trash cans, bulky public scuptures."--from Accomplice
Recommended
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LibraryThing member Dorritt
This so-called novel is more properly a collection of short stories (not unexpected, given the author's other works are short story collections), each relating to the life of Ms. Hempel, a 20-something middle school teacher. As such, there is no real plot and even a unifying theme is hard to find.
However, a prevelant theme seems to be the idea of middle/high school being the last time that you feel "extraordinary." You get a solo in chorus ... maybe you're going to be a great singer! You're dad thinks you're the smartest kid in the state ... maybe you are a genius! And because you believe in your own potential, it's often a time in your life when you do amazing things. Some of the kids in these tales are indeed extraordinary, and Ms. Bynum shares their stories with rare grace and insight.
And then college comes along, and adulthood, and you lose your sense of being extraordinary; and, because you no longer feel extraordinary, you give up believing you can do extraordinary things. This seems to be the fate of Ms. Hempel, whose life - as depicted in these vignettes - seems to be a quest to be recognized as extraordinary by someone for something - whether for being a rebel, a goth, an ethnic minority, or a fiance. The irony is that, since she is always measuring herself against the standards of society and/or the perceived potential of the children she teaches, she never does come to understand that the one thing that *does* make her extraordinary is the way she teaches.
She rails against the complications of life, longing to return to a simpler place/time, even though she is wise enough to understand that the "simpler times" she imagines never actually existed. Again, ironically, she never seems to learn that, like any book worth reading, life needs to be full of complications, because without complications you don't change, learn, or grow.
And that's my biggest frustration with the book. Ms. Hempel doesn't learn, and she doesn't grow. So, even though I appreciated the skill and craft that went into each one of these deftly-told tales, couldn't help feeling disatisfied in the end. Call me ageist, but Ms. Bynum, like Ms. Hempel, is in her mid-20s, and I can't help wonder if the reason her character doesn't grow is because Ms. Bynum hasn't yet grown. This feels like the juvenile effort of a writer who knows a great deal about literature but not a whole lot about life. Can't help but wonder what Ms. Bynum may one day be capable of, once she attains the sort of self-knowledge and wisdom that comes not from talent, but from time. The things Ms. Hempel might accomplish then ...!
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However, a prevelant theme seems to be the idea of middle/high school being the last time that you feel "extraordinary." You get a solo in chorus ... maybe you're going to be a great singer! You're dad thinks you're the smartest kid in the state ... maybe you are a genius! And because you believe in your own potential, it's often a time in your life when you do amazing things. Some of the kids in these tales are indeed extraordinary, and Ms. Bynum shares their stories with rare grace and insight.
And then college comes along, and adulthood, and you lose your sense of being extraordinary; and, because you no longer feel extraordinary, you give up believing you can do extraordinary things. This seems to be the fate of Ms. Hempel, whose life - as depicted in these vignettes - seems to be a quest to be recognized as extraordinary by someone for something - whether for being a rebel, a goth, an ethnic minority, or a fiance. The irony is that, since she is always measuring herself against the standards of society and/or the perceived potential of the children she teaches, she never does come to understand that the one thing that *does* make her extraordinary is the way she teaches.
She rails against the complications of life, longing to return to a simpler place/time, even though she is wise enough to understand that the "simpler times" she imagines never actually existed. Again, ironically, she never seems to learn that, like any book worth reading, life needs to be full of complications, because without complications you don't change, learn, or grow.
And that's my biggest frustration with the book. Ms. Hempel doesn't learn, and she doesn't grow. So, even though I appreciated the skill and craft that went into each one of these deftly-told tales, couldn't help feeling disatisfied in the end. Call me ageist, but Ms. Bynum, like Ms. Hempel, is in her mid-20s, and I can't help wonder if the reason her character doesn't grow is because Ms. Bynum hasn't yet grown. This feels like the juvenile effort of a writer who knows a great deal about literature but not a whole lot about life. Can't help but wonder what Ms. Bynum may one day be capable of, once she attains the sort of self-knowledge and wisdom that comes not from talent, but from time. The things Ms. Hempel might accomplish then ...!
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LibraryThing member ccayne
Ms. Hempel chronicles is just that; a compilation of the fictional Ms. Hempel's ruminations about teaching 7th grade English. She wonders what she likes about teaching, what she doesn't like and how she can do her job and avoid spending her evenings reading students' papers. She muses about her
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students' lives, figures out how to read a book with questionable language and not incur the ire of parents or the administration. It is a charming, quiet book. Show Less
LibraryThing member lisapeet
Lovely book -- linked short stories about a very young woman teaching in New York. There's a lot of beautiful writing here, notably some transcendent and loving description of seventh-graders, if you can imagine that.
I like to figure out connections between each book I read and its predecessor, and
I like to figure out connections between each book I read and its predecessor, and
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one thing she has in common with Tobias Wolff is that they love their characters, even the unlovable ones, and have a way of divulging their secrets kindly at the same time -- often within a couple of sentences -- as showing what they wish to keep hidden (and they're often completely unrelated things). Another good coincidence: Ms. Hempel teaches Wolff's This Boy's Life to her kids. Show Less
LibraryThing member santom01
Couldn't finish it. It jumped back and forth through time too much. Nor could I bring myself to care about Ms. Hempel or her introspection.
LibraryThing member elmoelle
Although I purchased this book several years ago, I hesitated to read this book, which offers short glimpses into the life of Beatrice Hempel, a seventh grade teacher, because of my own experiences teaching. Right after college I spent two years teaching in New York City and I was miserable at it.
However, once I got over my worries, I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of feeling, the detail and the unique insights which were offered in this book.
Each of the stories offer glimpses into Ms. Hempel's life, so in one chapter she is attending her wedding shower and in another she is telling a colleague not to worry, that she has gotten over breaking up with her fiance. Although such an approach could lead to a fractured whole, it does not and instead it makes it seem that Ms. Hempel is in fact a real person and we are just checking in with her, at various parts of her life.
Although the majority of these stories address Ms.Hempel's life as a teacher, there are also elements which address her aspirations towards punk rock as a teenager and her conflicted identity growing up with a Chinese mother and a white father.
Although I enjoyed all of these other views Ms. Hempel's character, the former teacher in me definitely enjoyed those portions of the book the best. The following paragraph had me laughing out loud on the bus in recognition: "Ms. Hempel was sometimes astonished by the thoughts she'd have while walking to work: one morning she looked longingly at a patch of ice on the pavement and realized that if she were to fall and fracture her leg in several places, then she wouldn't have to go to school. And maybe, if the doctors put her in traction, a substitute would be hired for the rest of the year".
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has worked as a teacher for any part of their life, but I also think it will spark a feeling of recognition in anyone who has struggled with finding their path in life.
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Even now, if I am feeling particularly stressed, I will have teaching nightmares.However, once I got over my worries, I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of feeling, the detail and the unique insights which were offered in this book.
Each of the stories offer glimpses into Ms. Hempel's life, so in one chapter she is attending her wedding shower and in another she is telling a colleague not to worry, that she has gotten over breaking up with her fiance. Although such an approach could lead to a fractured whole, it does not and instead it makes it seem that Ms. Hempel is in fact a real person and we are just checking in with her, at various parts of her life.
Although the majority of these stories address Ms.Hempel's life as a teacher, there are also elements which address her aspirations towards punk rock as a teenager and her conflicted identity growing up with a Chinese mother and a white father.
Although I enjoyed all of these other views Ms. Hempel's character, the former teacher in me definitely enjoyed those portions of the book the best. The following paragraph had me laughing out loud on the bus in recognition: "Ms. Hempel was sometimes astonished by the thoughts she'd have while walking to work: one morning she looked longingly at a patch of ice on the pavement and realized that if she were to fall and fracture her leg in several places, then she wouldn't have to go to school. And maybe, if the doctors put her in traction, a substitute would be hired for the rest of the year".
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has worked as a teacher for any part of their life, but I also think it will spark a feeling of recognition in anyone who has struggled with finding their path in life.
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LibraryThing member echo2
Stunningly beautiful language, unlikable and unlikely characters, minimal plot.
LibraryThing member stillatim
Another victim of misguided marketing, although nobody will be crying for SLB, since the misguided marketing led to award nominations and many goodreads reviews. The problem can be easily summed up: Franzen's blurb describes this book--about, among other things, the uncomfortably erotic nature of
But it's entirely possible that it happened indirectly: that this book got assimilated to the canon of American Liberal Literature, to which great purgatory moderately well written, lightly entertaining books about Democrat party approved themes like education and gender go when they die. And since this book is not only about a woman, but by one, that's its obvious resting place.
Except this is more intellectually challenging and rewarding than anything Franzen or the other GWAMAs of ALL has ever written. The episodic structure mimics the life of a teacher (one year at a time, each year succeeding the other in a weird change-but-no-change kind of way, until you realize that something incredibly strange has happened). Unlike most art about education, we see the teacher develop, rather than the students--indeed, (spoiler) she develops right out of being a teacher. The tediousness, hopelessness and outright fear of being an educator come through clearly: what right do we have to teach others? is this weirdly public life anything other than a performance? how does one balance the yearning to be loved with the need to be, often enough, hated? and how does anyone ever get to be an adult when the adults themselves are borderline failures?
Add to all that the lightly written ruminations on history and authenticity (i.e., both constructed, but not for all that meaningless), and it becomes clear that the right comparison is that other apparently charming, but deeply disturbing novel of education and social history, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
*: see Heather Lelache in Ursula Le Guin's 'Lathe of Heaven'
**: Great White American Male Autho
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teaching, divorce, the horrors of history and the difficulties of teaching it, the awfulness of puberty, the inhumane but unavoidable way we categorise each other, and the French diseases of the soul*--he describes *this* book as 'pure pleasure.' There are roughly two possible explanations for this. One is that Franzen, as a good GWAMA**, thinks anything written by a woman that is less than 600 pages long must, eo ipso, be entertainment rather than art. That seems unlikely. But it's entirely possible that it happened indirectly: that this book got assimilated to the canon of American Liberal Literature, to which great purgatory moderately well written, lightly entertaining books about Democrat party approved themes like education and gender go when they die. And since this book is not only about a woman, but by one, that's its obvious resting place.
Except this is more intellectually challenging and rewarding than anything Franzen or the other GWAMAs of ALL has ever written. The episodic structure mimics the life of a teacher (one year at a time, each year succeeding the other in a weird change-but-no-change kind of way, until you realize that something incredibly strange has happened). Unlike most art about education, we see the teacher develop, rather than the students--indeed, (spoiler) she develops right out of being a teacher. The tediousness, hopelessness and outright fear of being an educator come through clearly: what right do we have to teach others? is this weirdly public life anything other than a performance? how does one balance the yearning to be loved with the need to be, often enough, hated? and how does anyone ever get to be an adult when the adults themselves are borderline failures?
Add to all that the lightly written ruminations on history and authenticity (i.e., both constructed, but not for all that meaningless), and it becomes clear that the right comparison is that other apparently charming, but deeply disturbing novel of education and social history, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
*: see Heather Lelache in Ursula Le Guin's 'Lathe of Heaven'
**: Great White American Male Autho
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LibraryThing member emblue
Blah. Read one chapter -- didn't interest me.
LibraryThing member sriemann
this book started out as a collection of vignettes about the same teacher, Ms. Hempel - the stories were published in dif. magazines. The vignettes themselves are very good - some are really powerful. However, the cohesion between the vignettes could be stronger, and it doesn't read like a novel so
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much as a short story collection, and I was expecting a novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member micahmom2002
got 3/4 of the way through the book before i realized the story never really "started" and I still had no idea what it was about.
Subjects
Awards
PEN/Faulkner Award (Finalist — 2009)
Original publication date
2008
Physical description
208 p.; 7.84 inches
ISBN
0547247753 / 9780547247755
Local notes
Fiction