A Review of Simon Jacobs’ “String Follow”
Teenagers Doing Terrible Things
One of my infatuations is learning as much as I can about the history of the massive tornado that afflicted real-life Xenia, Ohio, in early April 1974. I’m not sure what fuels this infatuation — it could be that it is a disaster that happened on the cusp of my birth (I was born a year later) and thus brings some sense of an event that’s peppered with the nostalgia of how things used to be for me. It could be the scope of the event: my understanding is that about two-thirds of the city was levelled by the twister. Whatever the case, I’m not the only one who was fascinated by what happened on that April day in 1974. Filmmaker Harmony Korine released a film in 1997 called Gummo, whose loose narrative follows several children and teenagers who are coping with the aftermath of the Xenia tornado (though the film was not shot in Xenia). Gummo is a poorly made film, but it can be entertaining. (The scene where a young man wrestles with and destroys a metal chair sticks out for me.)
To this end, author Simon Jacobs has entered stage left with a fictional tale set in another Ohio town that features disaffected teenagers. Though no tornado has ripped the town of Adena, Ohio, apart, it is possessed by a malevolent force that wants to infect its young inhabitants — as the story in Jacobs’ novel String Follow goes. The book is told from the point-of-view of this force and it is a loosely plotted story about a series of teenagers who largely inhabit dark desires. In the novel, it should be noted that dialogue is minimally used, and parents are barely seen or heard from. These teenagers are wrestling with internal thoughts and seem to have been abandoned by the adults in the world. These teenagers generally come from wealthy and privileged backgrounds and are almost exclusively White. A few of them are Goths or Punks and colour their hair frequently. And these teens generally do awful things. One of these teens, Tyler, takes over the sprawling basement of another young character named David’s house, then proceeds to steal David’s online identity so Tyler can post sordid things on David’s Facebook account. Nice kid, eh?
I don’t think I’ll go much farther than that in describing String Follow. Besides, there’s not much in the way of a plot that moves things forward — things happen, and then stories are told in flashbacks, and then someone does something icky to someone else and thus it goes on. There’s no linear narrative to be had here — which is not necessarily a bad thing — but parts of the novel can be confusing to read because at least one character changes names, and the novel jumps around from character to character — some of whom are relegated to “barely seen from until they are needed” status. The novel just drifts until a violent and chaotic ending, where I’m not entirely sure what happened and is by far way overlong. That said, I do want to be a nice guy and say the odd, nice thing about this book. One, Jacobs has talent. He can write sections of prose as though they are poetry, in the best tradition of current literary writers. There’s a whole swath of the book dedicated to characters seeing colours in their field of vision and what that all means. Though I was bored to tears by these descriptions, I do acknowledge the fact that these sections are well written. And, for a book that’s about teenage angst and malaise, Jacobs can perfectly capture a feeling and a sense of portending doom for some of these characters. You really feel the dark emotions that these characters are going through.
But here’s the $64,000 question: Does the world, right now, need yet another book (or film, or song, or piece of art) that is all about the anguish of the life of the modern teenager? Me, I really wish people like Jacobs would write the type of novels that would empower teenagers to change the world for the better. Why can’t we have a novel about young adults striving to start a successful small business? Or a book about kids who tackle climate change? Or solve world peace? Or generally, change the world for the better? These types of books, to me, seem to be a rarity, and all we get are books (and songs, and movies, etc.) about how the years of being a teenager — of being stuck between being a child and an adult — are horrible and confusing. You know, I consider my teen years not to be exactly great (and my 20s were probably even worse as I pursued my ego and tried to be someone famous as a journalist — which is a poor way of living one’s life), but I doubt that the narrative about teen years being a wasteland no longer really needs to be told. I get it: being a teenager totally sucks.
However, as much as this is an attitude seen through a particular lens in this novel, if the reality of the situation were really told, it might be that if you’re rich, privileged, and White, as these characters mostly are, your teen years might have its usual ups and downs. Few of these characters would, say, get carded at a traffic stop. Thus, it was hard for me to get invested in this novel — even though parts of it are darkly comedic (though the dark stuff mostly gets played as being straight) and some of it is a touch entertaining. In the end, I’m not quite sure what to think about String Follow. It’s the type of novel that nobody really needs to read with the world being currently being on metaphoric and literal fire, something that we need to do something about and not just stew in a smorgasbord of depravity and hopelessness. At the same time, there might be young people out there for whom this book may resonate — even though this is not really a book meant for young adults, per se. So, I really don’t know what my take on String Follow really is. However, my ultimate thought is along these lines: String Follows is a book about teenage trash masquerading as art. If that sounds like your bag, then dig in. It’s all yours to read, but only if you want to.
Simon Jacobs’ String Follow will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux / MCD X FSG Originals on February 1, 2022.
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Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
