Topic 2 Whistle Me Home by Barbara Wersba

Wersba, Barbara. 1997. Whistle Me Home. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN: 0805048502.

In Barbara Wersba’s WHISTLE ME HOME, sexual identity plays an important role in the relationship between Noli, a 17-year-old tomboy, and TJ, a handsome new student in her English class. Told in a long flashback, Wersba’s story chronicles a complicated relationship and how it comes to a traumatic end. The insecure Noli is flattered when the much sought after TJ asks her out. TJ encourages Noli to dress rather boyishly even when she would rather wear a dress. As the pair spend more and more time together, Noli realizes that she is falling in love with TJ, and though she thinks that he is falling in love with her, she is not quite sure how he feels. Over the course of the school year, Noli’s drinking problem becomes more and more evident, as does her suspicion that something is not quite what it seems with TJ. When finally, TJ admits that he is gay, Noli lashes out at him with a fury she has not exhibited before.

Full of complicated relationships and a thin haze of alcohol, the novel is honest and sincere. Both Noli and TJ are cut off from their parents. Noli drinks to cover her separateness and is actually half-drunk through the novel. It is obvious that TJ is using Noli to beard his homosexuality from his parents. Noli’s relationship with her girlfriends falls away as she entangles in TJ. Without any overt symbolism, Wersba shows how a person’s real emotions are hidden behind the way they portray themselves to others. TJ tells Noli that he loves her, and in his way, he does, but he never actually shows Noli who he really is and leading to that explosive scene. Noli hides insecurity by wearing what TJ wants her to wear. Wersba says this about Noli’s relationship with her parents, “But she and her parents are estranged. This estrangement comes from many things, but mostly it comes from the fact that the three of them never communicate.” (Wersba, 24.)

The novel is written in the present tense which adds a strange urgency to the story. The novel is written in such a way that the reader can see the train wreck as it is coming. According to Ilene Cooper of Booklist, the book only has a few problems. One of these is the “perfectly perfect” TJ, though Cooper softens her complaint with the rationalization that his perfect-ness is simply as a picture of “how he’s reflected in Noli’s eyes.”(Cooper, 1331.) The other glaring problem is one that I noticed as well. Noli has a recurring dream where she is lost in the city. This dream is brought up several times, but Noli never really addresses or considers it for long. Cooper called it “more irritating than illuminating.” (Cooper, 1331.) The final time that the dream is mentioned Noli says, “I need to go home” and the dream changes so that she can finally go home. (Wersba, 107.) Tying it up so neatly without allowing Noli to explain what she thinks about it makes one wonder why she didn’t say that the first time.

Reference List:
Cooper, Ilene. 1997. Review of Whistle Me Home by Barabra Wersba. Booklist (April 1):1331.
Wersba, Barbara. 1997. Whistle Me Home. New York: Henry Holt and Company.