The Sledding Hill
Encyclopedia
The Sledding Hill is a 2005
post-modern metafictional novel by young adult
writer
Chris Crutcher
. By having the novel narrated by a super-omniscient dead boy and placing himself into the novel, Crutcher has written a work that encompasses two literary fad
s.
Eddie’s mother seeks solace in the local Red Brick Church, an evangelical church run by the Reverend Tarter, who is a teacher at the local high school. Though his mother wants him to join the church, Eddie is disgusted by Tarter’s bigotry, and finds little help among his peers until his high school English class starts to read the fictional novel Warren Peece by Chris Crutcher. Tarter is horrified that high school students would be allowed to read a novel that is full of what he terms “bad language” and homosexual characters. This propels a challenge from Tarter’s church board to the school to get the novel removed from the curriculum.
Eddie begins talking again when he testifies in front of the Red Brick Church announcing he will not only not join the church, but will also speak in favor of Warren Peece at the school board meeting. A misinterpretation of his testimony compels the church members to have Eddie placed into a mental health facility supposedly because Eddie thinks he is Jesus Christ. Crutcher places himself in the novel’s climax as a speaker at the board meeting on the removal of the book.
2005 in literature
The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation....
post-modern metafictional novel by young adult
Young adult literature
Young-adult fiction or young adult literature , also juvenile fiction, is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21. The Young Adult Library Services of the American Library Association defines a young adult as "someone between the...
writer
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Chris Crutcher
Chris Crutcher
-Biography:Crutcher was born to a World War II bomber pilot and a homemaker on July 17, 1946, in Dayton, Ohio. They later moved to Cascade, Idaho, where Crutcher grew up....
. By having the novel narrated by a super-omniscient dead boy and placing himself into the novel, Crutcher has written a work that encompasses two literary fad
FAD
In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...
s.
Plot summary
The novel is narrated by Billy Bartholomew, the best friend of the protagonist, Eddie Proffit, as Eddie struggles not only with Billy’s recent death, but that of his father as well. An intelligent boy who is seemingly afflicted with ADHD, Eddie cannot stop talking until he is confronted with these two sudden deaths. The only way he can cope with these tragedies, then, is to stop talking entirely.Eddie’s mother seeks solace in the local Red Brick Church, an evangelical church run by the Reverend Tarter, who is a teacher at the local high school. Though his mother wants him to join the church, Eddie is disgusted by Tarter’s bigotry, and finds little help among his peers until his high school English class starts to read the fictional novel Warren Peece by Chris Crutcher. Tarter is horrified that high school students would be allowed to read a novel that is full of what he terms “bad language” and homosexual characters. This propels a challenge from Tarter’s church board to the school to get the novel removed from the curriculum.
Eddie begins talking again when he testifies in front of the Red Brick Church announcing he will not only not join the church, but will also speak in favor of Warren Peece at the school board meeting. A misinterpretation of his testimony compels the church members to have Eddie placed into a mental health facility supposedly because Eddie thinks he is Jesus Christ. Crutcher places himself in the novel’s climax as a speaker at the board meeting on the removal of the book.