Because I Am Furniture

by Thalia Chaltas

I recently had a coupon for Border’s and was roaming the young adult (YA) section of the store. A cover with a white silhouette of a girl with long hair against the slightly blurred backdrop of a monochromatic living room catches my eye.

The book was “Because I Am Furniture” by Thalia Chaltas.

Flipping though it, I find myself looking at poems; lines of copy that sometimes barely fill a page, and other times ebb and flow like the tide. I don’t read a lot of poetry, but this format draws me into Anke’s world. Still unsure if I want to read an entire novel written in verse, I randomly read 164:

his chair

I stare hard at Yaicha
during breakfast.

She’s good with makeup
really good
from being in plays and musicals.

I stare at the smudge
purpling black
on her jaw,
barely buried under makeup.

Okay.
She isn’t
good at it
just because of plays.

Something about those words, put together just that way, touched me. I wanted to remember them. I tucked the book under my arm and headed for the checkout line.

I found out Yaicha is Anke’s sister, who along with their brother Darren, took the physical and sexual abuse of their father. He left Anke alone, which saved her from bruises and birth control pills, but maked her feel unworthy of even his sick attention. She was as unimportant as furniture.

Joining the volleyball team changed Anke. From stumbling to striding, from weak to strong, from passive to assertive. Unable to get help from any family member, Anke finally took a stand, with violent and joyous results.

Bob Mayer says if you take the protagonist from the first chapter and put them in the climax of the novel, they would fail. Regardless of the plot, a character should grow into something more than what they were, someone who can face that climax and win over that foe.

Anke has that character arc, and it’s an amazing journey to share.

Title: Because I Am Furniture
Author: Thalia Chaltas
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 352
Genre: YA, real world
ISBN 978-0-670-06298-0

Aug 6, 2009

Tags: real life  |  thalia chaltas  |  YA

Categories: reviews