rating:
those of you who know me know that i deeply love books about high school. i find them mysteriously appealing for reasons that even i don't understand, considering that my own experience in high school was mediocre on good days. so, when salon reviewed the headmaster ritual, i knew i had to read it. and luckily, i live two blocks from the greatest public library in the world, and they happened to have it. the story focuses mainly on three people: dyer, a new history teacher at a prestigious boarding school; ed wolfe, the former SDS-type radical headmaster; and james, wolfe's son. the headmaster is obsessed with north korea, and that drives most of the book, really. i like the parts about james best, as he was the only actual high schooler that got a lot of play. the rest of the book, especially all of the north korea stuff, sort of felt like it was building up to a major climactic moment that either didn't happen, or happened so subtly that it didn't satisfy me. it definitely kept my attention, and i know why the reviews of it are so good, but it felt sort of skeletal at times, especially when i really wanted more meat.
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