Columbine and all things school shootings seem as confounding to Walter Dean Myers as they were to the rest of us when Middle America got to feel the acts of "senseless" violence that have plagued Mr. Myers's Harlem world since Harlem Time began. Not that we look to Myers for the answers, he's more the type to provide analysis, a fictional play-by-play of something undeniably real and problematic for society. Something in "Shooter", however, and about Myers and his seeming fear of empathizing too much with the book's assailant, Leonard Gray, is distressing insofar as he refuses an honest appraisal of a teenage killer's mindset and decides instead to, at the worst moment, plunge into the glib 'types that mar our ability to heal society before the worst manifests itself in irreparable tragedy.
As a book researched during the time Myers was taking notes and doing interviews for the spell-binding drama of a kid in the wrong place, wrong time, with the wrong associates, "Monster", "Shooter" is also more experimental teen lit, this time Myers writing from the voice of multiple interviewers and those intimately involved with Len Gray. The voices he gives both Cameron Porter (Len's closest male friend and, really, accomplice to his acts) and Carla Evans (a tough, abused teen girl, down to reality and all) stand up well with his professional interviewees, some emotionally removed professional psyches, others more badgering or even less than competent. It is interesting how Porter reacts to different situations, especially as he turns unsure and inward when met with the confrontational tone of FBI analyst Victoria Lash (also the lone dissenter when the others, exposed as more going-through-the-motion detectives concede that there was nothing that could have prevented the heinous crimes of Leonard Gray, an absurdity of bureaucracy too real and well fleshed-out). You believe that Cameron and Carla are intelligent, perhaps too intelligent and made vulnerable, outsiders trying to cope with teen life and doing a predictably poor job given how quick we are to give amnesty to the adults who could've intervened and been there as bullying and other harsh actions were committed against these weary souls.
It is the voice of Leonard Gray himself, though not found until the appendix after the "report", the remnants of his diary, that move to glib and tired characterizations of a teenager hollering for help, which bog the book down. He plays with words immaturely, and screams to the page, but also writes in prose so refined it is barely believeable. At what level are we trying to represent him? Sometimes he sounds like Neal Cassady, at other times the songwriter for Good Charlotte, and maybe this battle of a mad intelligent cat and a mad cliche cat are supposed to reveal something about his mindset. I personally think there isn't enough rambling or inclusion of, just, normal shit, every word is profound, it is far too much a product of an author rather than an accurate immitation of a boy lost. Here is where Myers is exposed as losing his touch with the soul of the perpetrator, instead reducing himself to mocking teen angst, and doing so in a badgering and unprofessional (though maybe also too-professional) manner. When you first hear about Len through the mouthpiece of Cameron, Carla, or the various analysts, it would seem as though Myers would hint at a human in Len, that perhaps there was more than meets the eye, and perhaps he could hint at the soul through his journal, but it's hard to find amongst the carefully written mocking. Even when he attempts to show remorse for exposing Carla's disturbing past (being molested by her father), he only seems to mention it in a self-centered way, though Cameron and Carla seem to both agree he was genuine and deeper than that, so Myers loses touch when trying to feign teen angst. Which is understandable; he's much better at being a confused African American from Harlem caught up at the scene of a crime (as seen in "Monster"), than an angry middle-class white boy fanatical for guns and dramatic shows of helplessness. He just can't seem to identify properly with Len, and that definitely degrades what is, up to that point, a fine piece of teen lit.
"Shooter" remains an important reflection point coming from a strong voice in teen writing despite its shortcomings. If it doesn't get your brain cranking on the true disturbances and harshness of the teen psyche and the effect of bullying and displacement of teenage beings, I'd be surprised. It makes me eager to then read Todd Strasser's "Give a Boy a Gun" to see how he pulls it off (as he has a similar nose for controversial wide-spread issues and teen accessibility that few seem to be able to find). Here's hoping he can pull of a scenario just as believable with perhaps just a bit more understanding for all parties and the cycle, not just beginning and endpoints, but the circle that is created which we can't seem to break, its strengthening in our youth.
PS--Though this is a gut reaction, I do want to praise the author, Mr. Myers, for his painting of the actual horrors of the actual event through the mouths of Cameron and Carla. Their description of what happened, their emotions, their tentative voice, created magical moments in teen lit few can recreate. The images of Len cutting himself open and painting "Stop the Violence" on the school walls before eventually turning his gun on his non-compliant, therefore evil traitor friends, creates a surreal quality such events deserve. The man can write, this book is not terrible, but just just just if he could've gotten to the heart of the child who spilled his own blood and that of others, and not just to the mania, but his true heart, this book would've been a beacon for the distraught teens mangled in anxiety. Still though.
FB: Carla, what do you think of all this? If you were summing it up, what would you say? CE: I've thought about it, naturally. The thing is, everybody is looking at what happened that day, but when you think about it, what happened that day was the result of a whole lot of other stuff. I'm not saying there was a direct cause or anything. But I think the whole thing wouldn't of went down the way it did if a lot of other stuff hadn't pushed Len to where he was. Is anybody looking into the other stuff?
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