Sometimes the universe puts the book into your hand that you are supposed to read. The Nine is probably not a book I would have picked up to read, but with its themes of parenting, letting go, letting a child turn into an adult, and then begin a life of their own, as well as the ever-changing status of all of our relationships if we don’t nurture them appropriately, this started to hit very close to home. As a parent of a senior in high school who will soon be facing similar circumstances to Hannah Webber in The Nine, I can honestly say I felt this book in my soul.
Our main character is Sam, and this story covers his life roughly from age 14 to age 18 as he has started high school at an elite boarding school in New England. Our primary narrative is what Sam experiences at school, but we also follow his mother Hannah (described as a “helicopter mom”) as she deals with her son’s absence and her crumbling marriage. As readers, we don’t often get the “helicopter mom’s” point of view. She is often talked about, rather than being the one telling us her thoughts and feelings, so this was a terrific change from what we so often see. It is a testament to the writer’s skill how easy it is switching back and forth between the parallel stories being told.
Stark contrasts are drawn throughout the book between different types of groups. There are the legacies versus other students – those students whose family members attended before them, as opposed to those new to Dunning Academy. There is tension between how the athletes are treated versus how the academic students are treated. Year One students (Freshmen) are treated differently than Year Four (Seniors), as described by Sam as he goes through each year. There is even conflict between those adults whose paychecks are wrapped up in school politics versus those who work at the school simply because they live nearby.
All of this conflict leads to a constant feeling of distrust that may, or may not, be partly by the design of the administration. Even as the reader, those feelings of not knowing who to trust keep you tuned in to how each character responds to the others. As a student, Sam deals with not knowing who he can really trust, his mother Hannah also deals with it, as does new teacher Shawn Willis. We follow all these characters, rooting for them to make the right decisions, but not even knowing ourselves whether or not these are the “good guys.”
The Nine is one of those novels that different people can read and get something totally different out of. My feelings about my own child going away to school soon gave me one perspective, but someone reading it who is closer to Sam’s age would likely have a completely different emotional response to the book. A new teacher might see everything in yet another way.
There was a moment near the end where I started to worry about how things were going to turn out. I am not someone who wants an unearned happy ending, but I don’t want an unhappy (or unfair) ending just for the sake of being melancholy. I believe the ending works. For everything we go through with these characters, their ups and their downs, the ending feels just.
I have seen suggestions of this book for fans of Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and A Separate Peace by John Knowles, and I have to agree. This book feels very much from the same vein as those classics. It both tells the story of Sam and how his life has changed as he has grown, as well as one of the best descriptions in literature of a mother’s changing relationship with her husband, her son, and herself.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Hannah Webber fears she will never be a mother, but her prayers are finally answered when she gives birth to a son. In an era of high-stakes parenting, nurturing Sam’s intellect becomes Hannah’s life purpose. She invests body and soul into his development, much to the detriment of her marriage. She convinces herself, however, that Sam’s acceptance at age fourteen to the most prestigious of New England boarding schools overseen by an illustrious headmaster, justifies her choices.
When he arrives at Dunning, Sam is glad to be out from under his mother’s close watch. And he enjoys his newfound freedom―until, late one night, he stumbles upon evidence of sexual misconduct at the school and is unable to shake the discovery.
Both a coming-of-age novel and a portrait of an evolving mother-son relationship, The Nine is the story of a young man who chooses to expose a corrupt world operating under its own set of rules―even if it means jeopardizing his mother’s hopes and dreams.
