Book #85: The Rag and Bone Shop

Title: The Rag and Bone Shop
Author: Robert Cormier

I need to disabuse myself of the notion that Young Adult novels are all of the Beverly Cleary variety-- well-scrubbed kids saying and doing cute things. I know that's not true, but when a Young Adult novel is dark or doesn't have a predictable story arc, it always takes me by surprise. Robert Cormier's The Rag and Bone Shop doesn't feel much like a Young Adult novel, although one of the main characters is a young boy. It doesn't, in fact, feel much like a novel at all. Instead, it's more like an exploration of one man's character. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the play Doubt. In The Rag and Bone Shop, twelve-year-old Jason ends up the prime suspect in a murder investigation after his friend turns up dead. He's interviewed by a master interrogator, who uses every every possible tactic to get Jason to confess to a crime he didn't commit. I've read other novels by Cormier (The Chocolate War, I am the Cheese) that deal with justice and innocence, so it should come as no surprise that Trent, the interrogator, is so ruthless in his attempts to get Jason to confess, but the spareness of the story, and the terseness of Cormier's writing style made Trent come across as particularly pernicious. It's a very quick read, and an interesting exploration into the worst hours of Jason's young life.