I agree with you about the granda interpretation: I would need a lot more before I could buy that.

This has really gone down in my estimation as the year has gone on, not so much because of the voice and certainly not because of the characters, but because of the absurdity of the plot. But it’s on lots of year-end lists…

Unless I’m misreading your post, Karyn, you seem to feel that a second-person voice is primarily indicative of mental instability: ‘mental complication’ and ‘cognitive dissonance’, in your own words. While this is often how the second-person POV is used, it has a potential richness well beyond such a limitation – irony, for one (and “You followed him to school one day, which was against the rules;” “Blessed Breakfast Uniform” are definitely ironical), and far more difficult technically, something for want of a better term I’ll for the moment call a multiple narrator. No one of us is a single voice, and all POVs in fiction are devices – art is always artifice – but the second-person voice , when skilfully yielded, can create a fruitful – as opposed to disturbed – multiplicity; a layering.

Does Wynne-Jones bring this off? I don’t think so. Ed probably comes closest to W-J’s purpose (since we always have to ask before criticising any work of literature, What is the writer actually trying to do?) by his remarks on watchfulness and alienation, but an internalised Granda, while a possible reading, would need to be developed much more clearly from the outset to be effective.

As to Caution’s secret, it’s really not much of a withheld secret except in the details. Almost from her first mention of a brother, we’re pretty sure what must have happened. Does this make the withholding of information a legitimate device? I haven’t quite made up my mind.

I think the author has spent a fair amount of time speaking to folks who live on the streets and gleaning that there is this subconscious tic that has any given homeless person wondering whether his or her actions are appropriate. Doubt about your cleanliness, clothes, speech, ability to eat in public all bring about an omnipresent sense of not fitting in. And even after decades of living in a fairly secure home, I still have these moments: Are you smart enough? Do you belong? For me, Blink’s voice is absolutely on the money.

So, I think that the voice makes sense both from the perspective of Blink speaking (which is what I automatically assumed) AND as you hear the voice. Whether any of the other issues folks are bringing up force the committee to pass on this one, I don’t know. I do hope, however, that it isn’t because of the near-perfect second person voice of Blink.

When I went to Texas to speak about homelessness and libraries, I was driven to my hotel. On my way up to my room, I noticed all the room service trays. Since I was speaking about homelessness, I thought to myself that if I were homeless now, I would check into working at a hotel and I certainly would figure out a way to be in hotels regularly for all the “free” meals just waiting outside the doors. Two hours later, I was in the convention center in Austin. The good folks at Candlewick gave me a copy of a brand new book about a homeless teen–Blink & Caution! Great minds!

This book is one of the major contenders for the ESP Award this year!

I also didn’t see the ending as overly simplistic; they are living in 2 separate towns, Kitty cannot just step into her old life and Brett’s grandparents are older and he has to caretake as much as takecare. That said, I was relieved beyond the telling that their wasn’t a Magical Baby (that would have been too over the top for me) and I wondered how realistic it was that Blink & Caution “got away” from the criminals/ex boyfriend. At one point, I was afraid that there was a body in the pond by the hunting lodge and was expecting something more violent at the end.

I have to say, I am usually really distracted by 2nd person – it usually feels like a gimmick to me, and for me is usually too distracting to enjoy the book. But I accepted it and adapted well with Blink & Caution, and I think that is because I immediately assumed, without really consciously thinking about it, that the 2nd person narrator was addressing Blink as “you.” And that I found intriguing (who was it? Was it Caution? Someone else?), and it gave a nice, if mysterious, distance for Blink, which helped me not be overwhelmed given the very raw emotions that could have spilled off the pages from the combined points of view.

I also had no problem with Caution’s block on talking about her catalyst into the life she was in (trying not to be too spoilery, just in case). For me, I almost felt some of her bearing it all was bravado, to hide that she was doing quite the opposite – denying the most true things about herself, and hiding that denial under piles of false openness.

So, for me, both POVs worked well. But I can see that, if a reader perceived the 2nd person POV as Blink, speaking directly to the reader or to himself, it might create expectations that would ultimately become frustrating.

For me, one of the commendable thing about Blink & Caution are that I thought it balanced very well the actual awful things these two teens had been through, and the reality that for many teens their reactions make whatever their situation worse. I actually very much appreciated that Blink and Caution came out the other side in much better, more hopeful places, in part because they stopped running, stopped getting in their own ways “home.”

I found it to be an intense and pleasurable read, but I also very much appreciated that this is a true YA novel, because it was the adolescent imperfections and immaturities of the characters that added to their foibles and to their redemptions.