The Confessional, by J.L. Powers
Powers, J.L. (2007). The Confessional. NY: Knopf. 304 pages.
After a brutal fight at a Jesuit boys’ school pits its students of Mexican descent against its Anglo students, the politics of border-town living creep into the lives of a group of teens. Following the May 5 suicide bombing of a bridge linking Mexico and his town of El Paso, Catholic high school student Mac Malone writes a letter to the local newspaper suggesting that the town cancel its planned Cinco de Mayo celebration to honor the one-year anniversary of the bombing. Mac’s letter generates controversy in both the town and his school and, after a bloody fistfight with a Latino classmate, Mac is found stabbed to death on his front lawn. Powers’ novel, told from the points of view of Mac and his friends, explores this violence and its repercussions as each person looks for Mac’s killer.
Powers’ first young adult novel is a mostly successful look at the racial tension that seems to be heightened in this post-9/11 era of border security. Powers draws parallels between the Iraq war and the broad American “fear” of people who appear to be of Middle-Eastern decent and notes the racial profiling that continues to plague the open borders of Mexico and the United States. That said, it almost seemed like these issues were a bit too great for a multi-voiced narrative that really spun off of an argument-turned-racially-motivated-war at a Texas Catholic high school. I’d rather have seen the micro explored further without having our attention constantly drawn to the macro, if you know what I mean. While many of the narrators’ stories were well described and distinctly voiced, by the middle of the novel I was needing the top-of-the-page tip-off to remember whose story I was reading. A lot of folks have been talking about the “frank” and “realistic” language, but, to be honest, I didn’t think the story was told in terms that were that gritty. These criticisms aside, I was surprised at how quickly I moved through this book. The pacing really is superb and influenced not by short chapters (the bad writers’ friend) but by truly suspenseful content.