Testimony by Anita Shreve - 5/20 Books of Summer

In Testimony, Shreve’s (1946-2018) fifteenth novel, a night of underage drinking at a boarding school in Vermont ends in disaster, resulting in a sex scandal that destroys several lives. Rumors start quickly because there is an explicit video of the incident. Although there is probably no good way to contain the situation, the headmaster views the video and makes a bad decision. Others at the school are affected by the scandal: the fourteen year old who sought attention from varsity basketball players, the families of those involved, the nice girl who doesn't understand why her boyfriend is too ashamed to face her, the reporter who uses the story to build his career, and others. Shreve tells the story from numerous points of view

as they look back nearly two years later when a researcher from UVM contacts all the major participants for a study on the influence of alcohol on adolescent males at boarding schools. The story is suspenseful – although the reader knows what happened in the dorm room, the ripple effect of this night on these individuals over the following days is dramatic and horrifying.

Shreve’s books often feature a pivotal moment that causes pain and/or crisis for the innocent and the not-so-innocent, and this is no exception. She certainly depicts boarding school life vividly and it’s not your Enid Blyton variety. These students have no difficulty bribing locals to get them alcohol and the older ones disdain the dances and other activities meant to provide wholesome entertainment in favor of drinking (and dodging the house parents meant to prevent this). Of course, sex scandals occur at public high schools too but as the headmaster, Mike, wonders what to do, he reflects bitterly:

He doubted that such a tape would have been of any interest to the press had it surfaced at the local regional high school, for example. The tape might have circulated underground, students might have been expelled, and meetings might have been held, yet it was likely the incident would have been greeted with indifference not only by the local newspaper, the Avery Crier (its editor, Walter Myers, could be talked down from just about any story that might cause embarrassment to local kids and parents), but also by the regional and national press . . . . Was it because private schools were held to higher standards, according to which such an incident ought to be nearly unthinkable? Or was it because everyone loved to see the elite (even if that elite involved a local farmer’s son on scholarship) brought down and ridiculed? A little of both, Mike guessed, with emphasis on the latter.

As the events that led to the disastrous night are revealed, the reader finds few appealing characters. The headmaster and his wife are arrogant and selfish, the Dean of Students is still bitter he wasn’t chosen to be headmaster, several of the parents want to blame everyone in sight (except their own children), and reporters just want to boost their careers. The most sympathetic character is a senior girl in love with the nicest of the basketball players. Only the mostly anonymous townspeople are loyal to their own, or would be if they could. You can understand why parents would sending their children to an exclusive school would expect them to be safe, and they should be, but some of these teenagers had issues long before they got to Avery Academy. Without blaming the victim, per se, the observations of her peers and her own ramblings reveal an attention-seeking young woman, who is untruthful about everything that happened.

This is sort of a spoiler but the headmaster's (not an admirable character) desire to contain the scandal for the sake of the school is at odds with the welfare of the students - both of which are part of his role.  He failed in both and was asked to leave.  Other school leaders in similar circumstances consult their trustees and seek out lawyers and professional crisis managers.  It was Mike's do-it-yourself approach that was fatal and he ultimately recognizes that his actions before and after the incident are part of the inexorable path to disaster.

  

Publication: Back Bay Books, paperback, originally published in 2008
Genre: Fiction
Setting: Present-day Vermont
Source: Personal copy. This is book 5 of my 20 Books of Summer, hosted by Cathy of 746 Books.  This copy is not autographed but I met Shreve a couple times and she autographed Strange Fits of Passion for me in 1992 when I worked at Penguin and Where or When in 2010 when she did a booksigning event in Dedham.