Orbiting Jupiter - Gary D. Schmidt

Before reading Gary D. Schmidt’s latest offering I saw reviews declaring it to be a tearjerker, which isn’t always my thing. The premise also sounded very similar to Anita Shreve’s Light on Snow, an excellent book to which I doubted anything else in the same vein could measure up. In other words I was unsure how I would feel about Orbiting Jupiter. As it turned out, I was very pleasantly surprised.

Firstly, the voice of the protagonist, twelve-year-old Jack, is strong and consistent; he is a good kid who wants to do his best but who finds himself in some tricky situations. Secondly, the setting of rural Maine in the heart of winter is vividly described and engulfs the reader in a frozen white world. Finally, the prose is so radiant it manages to blind the reader to the fact that the plot is rather ridiculous and contrived.

The plot is hard to outline without spoiling the book. I’ll just say that Jack is given a new foster brother, Joseph, who has had a hard life and the two have to learn to get along and to move forward. Joseph has a baby daughter named Jupiter and he is desperate to meet her. There are moments of comedy, a great deal of tragedy and a bittersweet yet hopeful – and yes, tear jerking – ending.

Orbiting Jupiter deals with very dark subject matter and being from the point of view of a twelve-year-old, it deals with it in a simple, childlike way. While I didn’t have a major problem with this, I can imagine readers complaining that Schmidt makes big issues appear trivial. However, the flip-side is that young readers will at least become aware of these issues and the fact that they can affect kids not much older than themselves. They may even be inspired to somehow help.

One little thing that got annoying was Jack constantly telling us the temperature – in Fahrenheit. While it isn’t hard to get the gist – it’s cold! – I wish the novel could have been a bit friendlier to non-Americans. Perhaps some things could have been changed around for publication here in the UK. I’d also have liked some more background on Jack’s family and their fostering past: we hear they’ve had other foster kids but we learn nothing about them. I also question whether the parents would really let an older boy who has been in juvenile detention share a room with their son. Joseph, however, is a fascinating character – he’s behaved badly but his reasons for doing so are clear. All of the Jupiter person/planet metaphors are slightly cheesy but lead up well to a final, heartbreaking reference.

On the whole I recommend Orbiting Jupiter with the gentle warning that there are some adult themes. I can’t put my finger on what makes the story special – I think it is a combination of the voice, setting and the recurring theme of family. I can say one thing for sure: after that ending I really hope there will be a sequel and if there is, I will certainly be reading it.


*This review was originally written for Cuckoo Review (New Writing North) and is reprinted with permission*

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