The Death Class: A True Story about Life
By Erika Hayasaki
2014
Simon and Schuster
By BRAD WEISMANN
Dr. Norma Bowe’s death class at
Kean University in New Jersey is the ostensible subject of this new book.
However, the book quickly becomes a portrait of Bowe, as well as ones of
selected members of her class. “The Death Class” is about overcoming tragedy,
cruelty, the randomness of life, but to me it’s not that compelling,
unfortunately.
Hayasaki’s prose suffers from both
stiffness and self-importance. When she gets caught up in her parallel
narratives in the center of the book, that awkwardness fades and we get a real
flow of story, but it comes back in fits and starts towards the conclusion. At
points, staggeringly awful sentences sit next to sublime observations. The jolting
quality changes, as well as the up-close-and-personal revelations that stoke
the narrative turn “The Death Class” into a long, haphazard feature story full
of too many predictable moments.
It is very hard for a journalist
not to track into the well-worn and effective template of personal suffering
and redemption, but the cumulative impact of “The Death Class” is blunted
severely simply by not showing readers the shape and content of Bowe’s course.
It becomes the disjointed account of various field trips Bowe takes her class
on. In fact, the writer falls for Bowe and what might have been a more
effective look at an innovative teaching method turns into a mushy tribute. The
reader deserves better.