A novel about a father's mental illness and a daughter's desperate desire to take care of him, even as she wonders who will take care of her.
Since the day after she was born and her mother took off and left, it has always been just Fig and her dad. Fig's dad, Tim Arnold, had once been a celebrated musician/composer in New York City, but now he and Fig live on the Jersey shore. Though her dad loves Fig very much, he is subject to mood swings and erratic behavior. And attracted to the shoreline whenever there is a violent storm or hurricane, something that really scares Fig. But when he shows up at school looking for her, confused and disheveled, her teacher Miss Williams calls Child Protection and Permanency, or CP&P, and now they will be making visits to make sure Fig is safe and taken care of.
When a September hurricane rolls in, and her dad heads to the shore, Fig asks their new neighbor Mark Finzi, a construction worker, to help her find and bring him home. And it doesn't take long for Mark to become part of their lives, much to Fig's chagrin. The last thing she needs is someone knowing how things are at home.
Meanwhile, Miss Williams assigns Fig's class an art project to be displayed at the Fall Festival. Fig decides to research Vincent van Gogh, and learns that he had the same kind of erratic behavior as her dad, and soon begins to think of herself as her dad's Theo, van Gogh's brother. But it is Mark who gets him to a doctor, where he is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and Mark who keeps her dad on his medication. But when her dad shows up at a Halloween party looking for Fig, it becomes clear that adjusting the medication will take time to get it just right.
Tim and Mark have been spending more and more time together, even as Fig's dad makes good progress, but when she walks in on a more-than-just-friends moment between the two men, she has more than a difficult time accepting their new relationship - but not for the reasons you might expect. Fig feels jealous that Mark is becoming the new Theo to her dad's van Gogh, a notion that her dad clearly rejects with a resounding "I'm not van Gogh," and she feels somewhat betrayed by her dad - why would he agree to doctors and medication for Mark, but not for Fig?
Everything comes crashing down on Fig when a hurricane approaches and she decides to try to experience it the way her dad always did - but luckily, Mark is a physically strong man. This does bring things to a head, and there is a somewhat happy ending to Fig's story, but with the caveat that mental illness can't be cured but it can be controlled, and help is never far away, if one is willing to ask for it.
When I started reading, I had expected a story about surviving a hurricane and I guess on some level that is exactly what I got. And I have to admit that the thing that drew me to this novel was the cover. It did remind me of van Gogh's Starry Night because of the bold swirls in the sky and the one swirl that looks like the sun setting. While I read I noticed that all the chapter titles cleverly refer to the names of van Gogh's paintings - and yes, I knew some but not all, so I looked them up.
For a middle grade novel,
Hurricane Season has a lot going on in it. There's dad's mental illness and the difficulty of getting him into treatment and then determining what works best for him; there's his relationship with Mike, neither one of which ever had romantic feelings for men before; there's Fig's constant worry about her dad and her fear of being separated from him by CP&P; and there's Fig's own emerging sexuality. And then there are the hurricanes.
But Melleby deftly deals with everything she throws Fig's way so that the reader feels like it all unfolds organically. And she presents Tim Arnold's bipolar disorder as it is experienced by Fig in all its chaotic, scary reality - days of depression and staying in bed followed by manic days. And Fig's resentful reaction when people finally try to help - well-meaning Miss Williams, best friend Danny, the CP&P caseworker, and most of all, Mark.
But slowly, the reader sees Fig come to terms with the fact that she is just too young to deal with her father's mental illness, that the best she can do is love him and be there, that she is still a child and need to be one - to go to parties, to have crushes, to enjoy school and her friends - a gift she gets from Mark.
Hurricane Season is a difficult book to read at times but it is a book that kids will want to read if mental illness has ever touched their family, other kids will find themselves feeling empathy for Fig and all she has to deal with.
Hurricane Season is a deeply emotional story and I can't recommend it highly enough.
This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was an ARC received from the publisher,
Algonquin Young Readers
