Tribes by Arthur SladePercy, our narrator, is a student in Grade Twelve at Groverly High, in Sasketchewan. Percy's mother is a psychic. His father, says Percy, was killed by a tse-tse fly. Percy's father used to be an anthropologist, and Percy wants to be like him. Percy studies Darwin and all theories of evolution and writes journals about the habits of the "tribes" around him- the highschool cliques.
Percy's best friend committed suicide sometime before the book begins, by jumping out of a school window. He had earlier confided in Percy that he had a crush on a girl who already had a boyfriend. Percy's remaining friend Elissa is getting impatient with Percy's poor social skills. She is no longer happy to play along wiht Percy's way of Observing high school life; she only saw it as a game.
Because Percy's unusual narative is told in such a matter-of-fact way, this book is strongly reminiscent of
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time, by Mark Haddon. The ending, which I don't want to give away, is also a lot like The Curious Incident.
Happy reading.
