The Miseducation of Cameron Post
by Emily Danforth
Finished reading Emily Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post. It is the coming of age story of
Cam Post, a 12-year-old who begins to identify her feelings with actions
towards other young girls. Her first
experimentation occurs and she later learns her parents have been killed in a
car accident. There are a number of
girls who come into and leave her life during this age of experimentation. The problem Cam faces, growing up in an
ultra-conservative Montana town, is that she and her good female friend, Coley, get caught in a moment of passion. Unfortunately for Cam, Coley
lies and tells her mother that Cam seduced her.
Coley’s mother brings her to the local Protestant minister to confess
‘her sins’, which leads him to inform Cam’s grandmother and aunt, her new
guardians. Cam is subsequently sent away
to “God’s Promise”, a full-time school that ‘treats’ young people to no longer
have homosexual tendencies. The rest of the story focuses on the school and the
various issues among the students, one who later seduces Cam. In the end, Cam and two of her peers go on a
hiking trip to the site of where Cam’s parents were killed. She makes peace with herself and her parents' death. OK. I’d say the story is important, but I have to
say, it didn’t flow well for me. It
seemed somewhat “over the top” and I never really connected with the disjointed
aspects of the story. Kind of like a
story about ‘shock’ therapy but didn’t allow for the reader – me in this case –
to really connect with the pain and despair of the main character. A choppy story that didn’t bring in the
characters very well. Not the best
‘coming of age’ story that I have read.
There are better, though I’m not sure many from a female perspective.
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