Author: E. Lockhart aka Emily Jenkins
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Rating: WORTHY
E(mily) Lockhart is the writer behind The Boy Book, The Boyfriend List, Dramarama, and Fly on the Wall. It would be unfair to start this review without quoting Frankie's bizarre (until you've read the novel, that is!) letter.
December 14, 2007
To: Headmaster Richmond and the Board of Directors,
Alabaster Preparatory Academy
I, Frankie Landau-Banks, hereby confess that I was the sole mastermind behind the mal-doings of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. I take full responsibility for the disruptions caused by the Order—including the Library Lady, the Doggies in the Window, the Night of a Thousand Dogs, the Canned Beet Rebellion, and the abduction of the Guppy.
That is, I wrote the directives telling everyone what to do.
I. And I alone.
No matter what Porter Welsch told you in his statement...
Of course, the dogs of the Order are human beings with free will. They contributed their labor under no explicit compunction. I did not threaten them or coerce them in any way, and if they chose to follow my instructions, it was not because they feared retribution.
You have requested that I provide you with their names. I respectfully decline to do so. It’s not for me to pugn or impugn their characters.
I would like to point out that many of the Order’s escapades were intended as social criticism. And that many of the Order’s members were probably diverted from more self-destructive behaviors by the activities prescribed them by me. So maybe my actions contributed to a larger good, despite the inconveniences you, no doubt, suffered.
I do understand the administration’s disgruntlement over the incidents. I see that my behavior disrupted the smooth running of your patriarchal establishment. And yet I would like to suggest that you view each of the Loyal Order’s projects with the gruntlement that should attend the creative civil disobedience of students who are politically aware and artistically expressive.
I am not asking that you indulge my behavior; merely that you do not dulge it without considering its context.
Yours sincerely,
[Signature]
Frances Rose Landau-Banks,
class of 2010
This novel begins, as you saw, with a letter of confession from Frances Rose Landau-Banks regarding certain disreputable activities which take place during the first semester of her sophomore high school year. She owns up to being the ring-leader for a reputable reason. Frankie fell afoul of reputability despite advice from her best friend is Trish, who is the daughter of a psychiatrist and who does a pretty darned amazing job of psychoanalyzing people's behaviors herself. Why is it, in these novels, that all-too-often, I find myself preferring the best friend over the main character?! In this case, however, it's a tough call.
So Frankie is now a sophomore at Alabaster prep school, but none of the more senior boys even remember her from her freshman year; they think she's a new student. There seems to be a significant memory loss problem at this school. If it were a paranormal novel I’d be suspicious that some supernatural evil was at work here, but since it isn’t, I have to assume that we’re being telegraphed here that Frankie is going to shoot to super stardom before long, which will render her unforgettable.
The guy "Alpha", whom she met while at the beach just a couple of weeks before, claims he doesn’t remember her. Dean, who is annoyed that he first encountered her with the real alpha, Matthew, lies that he doesn’t know her just because of that. Matthew Livingston (I presume) denies that he knows her and is probably the only one of the three who is telling the truth. But the guys are amusing so Frankie isn’t angry with them. I agree with Frankie - the guys are amusing, but rather snotty. There are also some snotty girls hanging around, whom she meets at a depressing party on the golf links, and who don’t remember her either. Nor do they seem to have any wish for her acquaintanceship.
Frankie has learned of a society - the Basset Society - at the school, which is secret and open only to men. Matthew Livingston is apparently a member of this club. Frankie has a huge crush on him, which is a bit pathetic. It’s easy to condemn that, of course, but since Frankie is only a sophomore (~15 years old), I'm willing to allow her a bit more latitude than if she were your standard YA girl of 17, but you would think that, even at that age and especially in 2008, that she would realize that Matthew's future in his father's newspaper business is at best problematical when newspapers are going out of business at a phenomenal rate. Hasn’t Frankie heard of Internet media?!
Okay, it's confessional time. I'm hopelessly in love with Emily Lockhart/Jenkins/Whatever. Yes, I know it will do me absolutely no good whatsoever because she's having a riotous affair with the English language, which is, ironically, why I love her so much. I’d also be in love with Frankie Landau-Banks, but she's way too young for me! I do know that I want to read Lockhart/Jenkins's Dramarama ASAP. This novel, the one I'm currently reviewing The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is a tour de force. I'm recommending it right now even before I've finished it because, as I said recently about another joyous novel, I don’t care if the ending sucks stinking rotten green wieners, it’s eminently worth reading just for what it offers this far.
Frankie is a very curious person; not curious as in peculiar, but curious as in curiosity killed the cat (I wonder, was that Schrödinger's cat - and what if it’s still alive?). Frankie is also rather insecure, which is understandable, given her age. She loves being a part of Matthew's elite school group, and is constantly in some fear of losing his favor, which leads her to testing his commitment, both surreptitiously and quite often.
She's also a bit curious about Alpha, and why he so often seems to call Matthew away when the latter is supposed to be spending time with Frankie. Is he jealous of her hogging Matthew, or of Matthew hogging her? And why does Matthew always go, choosing Alpha over her? Her insecurity isn’t helped by the fact that one of the elite, Dean, dumps his girlfriend Sarah - someone whom Frankie doesn’t even like that much - and it becomes painfully apparent that no-one in the elite will even speak to Sarah after that. Frankie wonders if the same thing would happen to her - that the guys are only friendly towards her because she's with Matthew, not because they actually like her and enjoy her company in her own right.
On one of these occasions, she tails Matthew and finds that he's meeting secretly in the old arts theater, with a dozen or so guys, some of whom Frankie knows from sitting at the elite table in the cafeteria. She knows this group is the secret order of the basset hounds, because her father was a member. He would never tell Frankie a thing about it - except the one time he did reveal that there was a 'Disreputable History' diary squirreled away somewhere, which details the nefarious exploits of the order.
Frankie begins routinely spying on the order's meetings, and she discovers that they do not even know that there is such a diary. She realizes, at the same time, that the loyalty oath which they repeat at the start of each meeting is actually a riddle pointing to where the history is hidden. She turns detective and actually discovers the secret hiding place of the diary, whereupon she retrieves it and reads it shamelessly, learning all the secrets of this men's club! The secrets pretty much amount to nothing more than carrying on some college-student style pranks, although they did seem to be a bit more wild and inventive, and to have more fun than the current members do. The group started in 1951 and appears to have lost the location of the diary in the mid seventies. Things seems to have rather fizzled since then. Ultimately, though, Frankie realizes that the real value of the group is not the pranks they pull but the camaraderie engendered amongst them, and the enduring friendships which are spawned between them. She notes that this is something which is sorely lacking in her own life.
This novel makes Sloppy Firsts look like sloppy seconds. It's the novel which that one ought to have been but failed.
Having finished this now I can confirm my earlier decision to fully recommend this excellent novel. No, the ending wasn't a disaster, though I have to admit to some surprise and a bit of dismay engendered from reading it. Things don’t turn out peachy and commendably, which is fine, and Lockhart/Jenkins doesn't neatly pair off Frankie with anyone (not even Trish!). That was a warm and welcome surprise, but the dismay came from the ending being so bleak! I didn’t expect, and indeed didn’t hope for a sunny, happy, joy-joy ending, but I was a bit discomfited by Frankie being left in so stark a position, shunned and treated with suspicion in so many quarters, although in some ways I guess I do concur that this is exactly where she needed to be.
I loved Lockhart/Jenkins's pursuit of English language's 'missing inversions', such as there not being a word 'maculate' to pair with immaculate, and there not being an 'advertant' to pair with inadvertent (actually, both of these cases there is such a word!). She has this amazing section where she launches into this, inspired by PG Wodehouse (I've never read any Wodehouse. The closest I came was watching Hugh Laurie's and Stephen Fry's TV series which I recommend). Wodehouse at one point apparently uses the word 'gruntled' as opposed to disgruntled, and this really catches Frankie's imagination. She starts using these fake inverted words routinely, causing amusement and confusion amongst her fellow students. That part really caught my imagination because it’s well within the range of the kind of thing I like to do when I'm writing.
In the end, I think The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is the most feminist and rebellious novel I've ever read. The way she takes charge and dives into this so expertly and so deviously is, I'm afraid to say (because in some ways it’s so insulting) masterful! She kicks ass and doesn’t even bother taking names. Instead she takes liberties. Her story and her behavior are wonderful. In many ways, a sequel to this would be a crime, because it’s hard to imagine any sequel ever being capable of recapturing the charm and skill of the original, but I can't prevent myself from feeling that I want to see Frankie in college, or if not there, then in business after she graduates, surreptitiously taking charge and undermining the male patriarchy! She's wonderful!
