So the book, The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff, is basically about a young woman coming home to her hometown and finding her roots. But the reason that I chose this book is because the author did her research and intertwined actual happenings and real people from history into the story. The story is filled with hippies, affairs, sea monsters, witty retorts, etc. So if you are not into any of those things then I honestly have no idea why you are reading this. You should probably leave... Just sayin'. As I sit here in front of the computer with my "Snugg Life" Snuggie, my little cup of applesauce, and "Bottoms up"/Glee playing in the background, I will tell you all about it.
So the main character, "Willie" Upton, returns to her home town Templeton, because she apparently had and affair with her professor and got pregnant, and then tried to run over his wife with a plane. So at this point you think that this will be the plot of the story, Willie dealing with her baby, but that is not the case. You then find out that Willie's mother, Vivienne, is also a skank and just told Willie that her father is actually a Templetonian, but he has no idea that he had a daughter. Which is some how worse than the story that Vi has been telling her daughter up to this point, which is that there could of been three potential fathers because she slept with them all at once.
Willie uses her archeologist-ness to help find out who her father is because the only clue Vi would give her was that there was a rumor that the father was also related to Templeton's, which makes Willie research the whole family history to try and find the adulterer that led to her father's coming to be and thus, who her father is. But on the first day that she is back, the giant sea monster, Glimmey, that has lived in Lake Glimmerglass for generations, dies and is found floating on the surface of the lake which made all of the locals very sad because they feel that they all lost a part of who they were that day. And, naturally, with the discovery of Glimmey's body comes news teams, police, and crazy people camping out in front of the carcass. All this commotion disrupted the way of life for the calm and peaceful Templeton, which offsets Willies search for the answers to her question.
At this point in the story is when the author starts showing journal entries, actual events, and letters from actual people in history who happen to be Willies ancestors. Now these are really the only parts of the book that I actually enjoyed because I like to see how authors find a way to weave history into a fiction novel, which Lauren Groff did extremely well. The excerpts and stories from history that she chose fit perfectly for where the protagonist was currently in the plot, if that makes sense.
And while Willie is in the library researching her family history she runs into her Homecoming King from high school, Ezekiel Felcher, or something along those lines. Any ways, she doesn't like him at first because he is gross, but once he finds out that she is back in town, he starts losing weight and getting his shit together as much as a father who tows cars for a living can. And SHOCKINGLY, Willie starts to like him at the end of the story, but you never really know if anything came out of it, which is rather frustrating. And then Willie finds out that her pregnancy was just a hysterical pregnancy and is upset that it was taken away from her, which doesn't make sense because what is the point of her being pregnant in the first place?
But once Willie discovers that her father is Solomon, someone who already loved her and went to all of her sports games in high school and etc., she is surprised that its was someone she already knew. And when they meet up, Sol is so happy because he has had several marriages, but couldn't produce children, but now he has one that he was already so proud of.
And if you read the epilogue you find out that the reason Glimmey died, was because he/she gave birth to a new Glimmey and then all of Templeton is happy because they got their monster back. Yay, happy ending....
What I did not like is that the author glorified the disfunction between the Vi and Willie, which seems to be happening a lot lately in the movies, television shows, and other books as well. I am not saying that disfunction is bad, I just don't like how unrealistic the authors and writers make it. It just doesn't commonly exist in the way they portray it, and that bothers me. But that is probably just me. Another thing is that the story line just wasn't intriguing enough for me, I just could not really get into it. It had good symbols and metaphors, but I just didn't really like it. So I give this book three and a half Señor Donkey's out of five.
