'Walden' Highly Relatable, A Good Read

Book Review

By: Anna Blaise

Posted: 3/12/07

Ever see your life passing you by where every decision and everything you do has been made for you against your will? As if your life has been predestined due to family traditions? Well, in "Walden" by Michael T. Dolan, a young man's coming of age controlled by destiny and family traditions is told like none preceding it with a shocking ending that no one could have anticipated.

Walden, the protagonist of the novel ,grew up in a family full of traditions. In the beginning of the story, Walden tells of the startling way in which he killed his grandfather. Each year on July 4, the whole family of Waldens gather in the grandfather's mansion to perform their best patriotic songs. Walden, at the time seven years old, did not know of such tradition. All he wanted to do was play in the sand and eat hamburgers like all little kids do. When it was his turn to sing "We Are The Hawks," a family tradition song composed at the traditional university that all the Waldens have gone to, he froze and could not sing, embarrassing his dad and in turn killing his grandfather.

The book is separated into five main parts - history, biology, philosophy, recess and detention. Written as a narrative, Walden tells his life story from the day he killed his grandfather to his freshman year of college at the "University," where he killed again, in turn freeing himself from the University, the traditions of his family and the educational system.

Throughout the novel, Walden does not give specific details such as the way he looks, or how many siblings he has, or for that matter what kind of things he enjoys. Instead, Walden tells the readers his story from the past, but in the present time, hence the first year of school at the "University."

Walden tells his audience how he was named. His father, who wanted a boy to call Walden, had to keep having babies until he finally got a boy. Three girls were born before Walden XXIII. At a young age, Walden had to rehearse the Hawks song until that fatal July 4. The traditions did not end there. Of course, he had to go to the university that all the Waldens went to and live in the Walden building there.

"Why am I here?" is a question he often asked himself, for he hated the university and did not belong there. As described in the book, his roommate had no life and Walden could not bring himself to become good friends with the guy who lived life as a routine. The only friends he had were Truman Walker, a 6-foot-4 man whom Walden met in Biology class and Walden said, "did not belong at the University," and his girlfriend Brook, a brunette from Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Although Walden never said that Walker and Brook were his only friends, without them he probably wouldn't have survived the first year at the University. All three went on adventures, stealing dead birds from their biology lab and drinking together.

Then, on one fatal drunken night, after playing a joke on one of the guys he hated on his dormitory floor and after having the best time of his life with Brook, Walden's life went downhill. After being beaten half to death by Jason, described as the prick of the floor, for an apology, Walden did the one thing that would free him from all the traditions: he killed Jason by throwing his head into an emergency fire glass.

"Walden" is an easy-read and truly enjoyable book. It is comedic, although the situations aren't. The book's emotions and themes are very relatable, even for young students. It is confusing at times, however, by reading the next paragraph or next page one forgets about the confusion and enjoys the turbulent path of this young man's journey. This book is truly well-written and keeps the reader interested.