All Over Albany

The Country of Ice Cream Star at Northshire Saratoga

Could be interesting: The author of the new novel The Country of Ice Cream Star, Sandra Newman, will be at Northshire Saratoga Friday evening.

The book has been getting a lot of attention recently because it pushes the boundaries of the dystopian YA genre (some sort of disease kills off people once the reach their late teens or early 20s) and it's written almost entirely in the evolved teenage English dialect of its protagonist.

From a WSJ article about Newman and the book:

Author Sandra Newman thinks Katniss Everdeen, of the 'Hunger Games' trilogy, is kind of a wuss. The 15-year-old heroine of Ms. Newman's coming dystopian novel, "The Country of Ice Cream Star," has "certain crucial differences," Ms. Newman says. "Instead of agonizing over kissing a boy, she just has sex. Instead of killing people with her archery skills, she has an assault rifle. I also think she's a lot smarter and funnier than Katniss Everdeen, but clearly I'm biased."

From a Washington Post review:

But what makes the novel so fascinating -- and, yes, so challenging -- is the language Newman has created for Ice Cream and the way we see this disease-ravaged world through her eyes:

"Days that come been clean bonesse. We keep to 495, a highway broad as any field. Got a twin highway the same, these two companion faithful. Together, they go stretch and snake across all unkept distance, till they find our new Connecticut. All this way be forest. Ain't scarcely notice when the Massa woods be left, and yonder start. A hummock seem familiar in your eye; then it come queery that the individual trees be strangers."

Here's an AV Club review that's a bit more reserved in its praise.

The event at Nortshire starts at 7 pm Friday, February 27. It's free.