Ms. Hempel Chronicles
Teachers, take note: You鈥檝e got an articulate new advocate in novelist Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum. Bynum鈥檚 Ms. Hempel Chronicles is not only a warm-hearted novel-in-stories about a young 7th-grade teacher navigating the final passage to her own adulthood even as she ushers her students through the tricky narrows of adolescence; it is also a testament to how hard 鈥� and important 鈥� the work of teaching is.
In her first novel, 鈥淢adeleine Is Sleeping,鈥� a 2004 National Book Award finalist, Bynum uses an unorthodox sequence of short, shimmering prose poems to convey a sleeping adolescent鈥檚 at-times surreally mystical dreams and fantasies. 鈥淢s. Hempel Chronicles鈥� is more traditional in form 鈥� eight delicately linked stories about Beatrice Hempel 鈥� but no less impressive.
Bynum is fascinated and amused by outspoken, phony-resistant teenagers in the throes of self-definition. Through her title character, she demonstrates a genuine fondness 鈥� totally lacking in condescension 鈥� for adolescents.
Why? Because these kids are 鈥渁t the age when they were most purely themselves ... not yet dulled by the ordinary act of survival, not yet practiced at dissembling.鈥�
She admires much about them, including 鈥渢he efficiency with which they arrived at the truth.鈥� They can be insecure one minute and brashly confident the next, but they鈥檙e also bursting with nascent sexuality,聽 cynicism, and potential.
Bynum deftly introduces several of Ms. Hempel鈥檚 students through her musings during a school talent show. She captures, for example, the subtle dynamic between teacher and pupil by describing Ms. Hempel鈥檚 edge-of-her-seat engagement with exuberant, mischievous Harriet Reznik鈥檚 magic act.
Jonathan Hamish, 鈥渢he toughest, craziest kid in the eighth grade,鈥� wouldn鈥檛 be caught dead at the talent show, but he鈥檚 on Ms. Hempel鈥檚 mind anyway. Jonathan 鈥渢ook two different medication three times a day鈥� and acted out frequently 鈥� once throwing a blueberry bagel at another teacher 鈥� but he鈥檚 鈥渨earied by鈥� his own bad behavior.
Rather than resent this disruptive troublemaker, Ms. Hempel鈥檚 heart goes out to him 鈥� in part for the way 鈥淗is heart went out to the characters in the books they read.鈥�
Much of the charm of 鈥淢s. Hempel Chronicles鈥� lies in Bynum鈥檚 light touch. Her portrait of the appealing young woman at its center is especially graceful. Just 10 years past her own pierced, punk-aspiring adolescence, Beatrice Hempel reflects back wistfully on her lost youth, including her oddball younger brother鈥檚 pranks and her recently deceased father鈥檚 angry outbursts.
When her chronicles begin, Ms. Hempel has been teaching at an unnamed, probably private, New York City middle school for four years. She is still unsure of her abilities and feels both drained and trapped by her job.
But she is unable to make a decision about moving on from it or from her engagement to a man whose sexual preferences make her uncomfortable.
Bynum lets us know that Ms. Hempel is too hard on herself when she questions her teaching abilities. The young teacher is popular not just because she bribes her students with miniature chocolate bars and 鈥渁llowed them to use curse words in their creative writing ... [and] taught sex ed with unheard-of candor.鈥�
Ms. Hempel wins the holy trinity of effective teaching 鈥� 鈥渁ttention, labor and trust鈥� 鈥� because she shows her students she cares in numerous ways: She refuses to dumb down her vocabulary. She comes up with creative assignments designed to engage them.聽 She inserts Tobias Wolff鈥檚 鈥淭his Boy鈥檚 Life鈥� into the curriculum, a profanity-rife memoir of family dysfunction they can easily identify with.
Teaching is a tough job. Ms. Hempel spends hours and hours writing 鈥渁necdotals,鈥� progress reports on her 82 students to send home to parents. In addition to talent shows, there are parent nights, sex education, Trip Days, safety assemblies, and Affinity Days to promote pride and unity among students of color.
And that鈥檚 on top of lesson plans and grading papers. Yet she鈥檚 disappointed in herself for resorting to pop quizzes, which require less time to mark than essays.
Still, Ms. Hempel worries, 鈥淒id she really teach them anything?聽 Or was she, as she often suspected, just another line of defense in the daily eight-hour effort to contain them.鈥�
Bynum鈥檚 take on teaching is instructive. But it鈥檚 her sensitive consideration of complex emotions and situations on the road to maturity that鈥檚 truly heartening.
Heller McAlpin, a freelance critic in New York, is a frequent Monitor contributor.
