Simon Kitchener

Amos, In Three Acts Simon Kitchener

This book contains three short novels. Aimed at perhaps the most reluctant reader group, the middle teenager, the book introduces Amos, a fifteen-year-old boy dealing with events surrounding school-life in the closing weeks of the summer term. Amos is a bright, popular, well-adjusted boy who struggles with the pressure placed upon him to conform. This pressure comes from school, his peers and to a lesser degree, his father. As the title suggests, Amos is painting us a picture, both literally and figuratively. All of the action is given to us through two means: Amos' thoughts and the dialogue of the characters. Consequently, there is no description of setting and the characters are developed solely through what Amos tells us, or we hear them say. The plot is what Amos and his friends do over the course of a few weeks, culminating in a party where a boy is tragically killed. The language is as close to real as the writer has heard, though some might baulk at the liberal use of the f-word and how fifteen-year-olds speak. Some may also take issue with admitting these boys take drugs, use racist language, have sex and get into fights. These subjects are dealt with matter-of-factly, by the teenagers, yet the conclusions derived are quite grown-up. Throughout, Amos and his friends smoke marijuana. This brings them together and breaks them apart. He attends an all-boys grammar school where this indulgence is regarded as errant and dangerous. It proves quite harmless when compared to the more 'acceptable' practice of drinking alcohol-it is alcohol that finally 'does' for the antagonist. But this is not why Amos finds himself in trouble. His biggest problem is he is a non-conformist. Teachers and peers struggle with his non-conformity; it is seen as deviant and especially threatening because Amos, should he choose to conform, could present himself as the model boy. He is athletic, artist, intelligent, tall, good-looking and acceptable as one of the 'cool' people so much admired by others. But his individualistic bent demands he thinks for himself and adopts his own values. This gives us the theme and the conflict. His refusal to accept other's values finds him at odds over bigotry, school recognition, and the pressure placed on him to choose new friends. As an artist, Amos sees more than others do. Throughout, his assessment of the antagonist (whom we would clinically diagnose as psychopathic) is more perspicacious than his peers, putting him further at odds with them. It is after the antagonist's death that Amos' refusal to conform is most starkly highlighted.