海角大神

鈥淎merica should come with a manual,鈥� sighs Yuri Strelnikov. 鈥淥r is that what the Statue of聽Liberty is holding?鈥�

An insightful question from a brilliant boy. Seventeen-year-old Yuri stars in Learning to Swear in聽America, Katie Kennedy鈥檚 firecracker novel about culture shock, astrophysics, and maybe the聽end of the world.

Earth has just three weeks to stop a head-on asteroid impact. The collision won鈥檛 cause聽planetary annihilation 脿 la dinosaurs, but it鈥檚 definitely not good. The forecast includes a聽pulverized California, a giant dust cloud, and a tsunami.

The globe鈥檚 best scientists have gathered at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in聽Pasadena. They鈥檙e given one brutally simple objective: prevent it. So Russia loans astrophysics聽prodigy Yuri to the US, telling him to keep his head down and save the world.

Cultural dissonance registers immediately. As a university professor in Moscow, young Dr.聽Strelnikov is respected as an expert in antimatter. He鈥檚 accustomed to adults trusting him as an聽intelligent peer. At JPL, the American scientists see him as a punk kid who鈥檚 playing around with聽their futures. They dismiss his antimatter suggestions as outlandish, unpublished theories.

JPL plans to shoot missiles at the asteroid, blasting it into smaller pieces that will burn up in聽Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. But when Yuri requests weapons specs to do his calculations, he鈥檚 denied聽without explanation. Frustrated, he makes a terrible move: He sneaks into the director鈥檚 office to聽find the specs anyway.

Once discovered, he鈥檚 labeled a national security risk. If JPL鈥檚 plan succeeds, he won鈥檛 be聽allowed to go home. (If the plan fails, they鈥檒l all be dead anyway.) So now he鈥檚 stuck in the US as an involuntary defector, victim of what he labels a 鈥渂ureaucratic kidnapping.鈥� His phone is聽bugged, his computer activity is tracked, and his hotel room is monitored.

In the midst of the weapons imbroglio, Yuri meets someone 鈥� a reckless, self-assured, artistic聽California girl named Dovie Collum, who jolts Yuri鈥檚 world from black-and-white to every color in the rainbow.

Dovie is the exuberant daughter of hippie parents who refuse to follow the Gregorian calendar聽(鈥渢oo oppressive ... designed to instill conformity in the population and inhibit independent聽thought鈥�), instead celebrating the anniversary of the release of 鈥淭he Freewheelin鈥� Bob Dylan.鈥�

She鈥檚 also the girl who defends her tardiness to class thus: 鈥淧unctuality was imposed on an聽unwilling populace during the Industrial Revolution, as part of the move from cottage industry to聽factory production. It runs counter to our biological needs, and is evidence of the extent to which聽our industrial overlords control our lives. I鈥檓 late because I鈥檓 raging against the machine.鈥�

I loved this tiny but telling moment: Dovie introduces her brother as Lennon, like the Beatle, but聽Yuri mishears it as Lenin, like the revolutionary.

You鈥檇 be hard-pressed to find a more perfect antipode for buttoned-up Dr. Strelnikov than聽Dovie. Because Yuri鈥檚 life moved so quickly, he never had time for adolescence. Now, with his聽future poised on a mathematical knife-edge, he鈥檚 flooded with firsts: Have a friend his own age.聽Have multiple friends. Meet a girl outside of academia. Have a relationship. Attend a high school聽dance (the tone-deaf theme of which is 鈥淐atch a Falling Star鈥�).

Where Dovie traffics in emotion and poetic interpretation, Yuri鈥檚 communication is tuned聽irrevocably to 鈥渁dult/scientific.鈥� Their diametrical experiences mirror the culture clashes that聽undergird the entire book.

Consider love through the lens of a young genius, who only knows how to process things in聽math and physics:

鈥淚f you knew the position, mass, and velocity of two bodies, figuring their motion was simple.聽Add a third, and it became incredibly complex. He was fine with Lennon, but when Dovie sat聽next to him and curled her legs up on the sofa beside him, everything was suddenly聽complicated. He was sitting up, but he felt like he was falling sideways. Dovie exerted a giant聽gravitational force. She was the closest thing to Jupiter of anyone he鈥檇 ever met, but you聽probably couldn鈥檛 say that to a girl.鈥�

As the clock ticks down to the end of the world, Yuri and Dovie orbit each other in wonder.聽Dovie鈥檚 existence suddenly makes the world worth saving. Now, can Yuri pull it off?

Katie Kennedy writes with incision, fire, and euphoria. She drops Yuri in a linguistic, cultural,聽and emotional Sarlacc, but she guides the reader through each poignant moment.

On life in Los Angeles: 鈥淎 city, and yet nothing like Moscow, with an aorta of river flowing out of聽its curled, ancient heart.鈥� This hot, dry city felt wrong. The weight of speaking only English for聽days now, of signs written in the Latin alphabet, was oppressive.鈥�

On Dovie鈥檚 smile: 鈥淵uri wanted to tell her that when the light danced in her dark eyes it was both聽particle and ray.鈥�

On Bob Dylan: 鈥淏ob Dylan sang as though he were filing keys with his voice box.鈥� 鈥楬e sounds聽like goat caught in hailstorm.鈥欌��

On baffling social interactions: 鈥淥ne really didn鈥檛 talk with the other people who sat at your table聽in a cafeteria 鈥� with people who weren鈥檛 of your party. Probably this was an American thing,聽being overly friendly, the way people made eye contact on the street. It seemed cocky, but聽probably it wasn鈥檛 meant that way.鈥� So there were extra seats in the cafeteria, and people who聽needed seats. And it was rude for me to sit down, but it wasn鈥檛 rude that no one invited me to sit.聽America should come with a manual.鈥�

鈥淟earning to Swear in America鈥� is the perfect YA interpretation for those intrigued by 鈥淟ucifer鈥檚聽Hammer鈥� and 鈥淎rmageddon.鈥� Yuri and Dovie have a touching relationship that echoes Eleanor聽and Park or Leonard and Penny of 鈥淭he Big Bang Theory.鈥�

Savor this one.