Novel Ponders Life After High School

I picked up “The Party’s Over,” by Caroline B. Cooney in search of a simple diversion. I wasn’t disappointed.

“Party” is light reading; I even sandwiched the chapters between classes and homework. I finished the book in a couple of days. What surprised me is I later found myself mulling over the central question raised by the author: Is life after high school meaningless without a college career?

Hallie Revness, the story’s heroine, doesn’t think so. She’s the leader of her senior class and carries the Drama Club, school paper and Students Against Drunk Driving. She is, in her own words, the “queen of spirit” and can organize anyone to do anything.

Hallie feels destined to go places, but college isn’t one of them. She opts not to pursue a higher education, even though this means being left behind by all of her friends. At the end of the summer, when Hallie finds herself alone, she is suddenly faced with a frightening question: now what?

Faced for the first time with independence and responsibility, Hallie falls into a quagmire of indecision. She quickly discovers the difficulty of finding a satisfying career with only a high school diploma. Is she, as all her friends predict, destined for a bleak future in a backwater town?

Cooney offers no simple solutions to the dilemma, but as the story unfolds, she shows it’s OK to diverge from the mainstream. What’s most important is to know one’s strengths and to always be true to oneself.