The Scarlet Letter Review - A Book Review of "The Scarlet Letter" By Michael Chabon

In The Scarlet Letter Review we look at the beginnings of a story about a young man who moves to Dimmsdale, Oklahoma. He is in high school and very much interested in the paranormal. And he is not the only one. This is a book that talks about all the creepy crawlies that can come out of the dark. The novel is about more than just ghosts, it also deals with science, religion and even politics.

The Scarlet Letter begins as Tom Mason, a teenager living in Dimmsdale, Oklahoma is visiting his friend Sam. They are talking about how mean the new girl in town is. She has started to decorate the house in the shape of a devil's head and Tom wants to help her get into college. Unfortunately she is not alone in wanting to do this.

In the meantime two teenagers from the same area of town decide to get rid of some bad housing and also to get a brand new set of lungs. The problem they run into is a local resident's dark past involving the devil and a machine called the Scarlet Letter. The local authorities discover the machine and in the process to catch and kill two teenagers.

In The Scarlet Letter Chapter 9 we find out about the machine and how it works. It uses what are called "scaffolds" to pull the soul out of someone's body. The soul, (the victim's name is Michael) will then be placed inside the scaffold and be "bound" or imprisoned for further experimentation. The unfortunate thing about this is that Michael was one of the victims of this experiment, along with some other people. The Scarlet Letter Review explains that he was one of those experimented on and his life was spared at the very end.

Back, in the present time Michael, now eighteen, is trying to figure out what happened to the other people experimented on in his time and how his life could have been spared if only he had only talked to the professor before being experimented on. He then heads off to New York to talk to the professor, but before he can he runs into a girl in the library who is carrying a letter for him. When he stops to read it, he realizes what he's been through and decides to come back. The next few chapters take place in the present day and follow Michael as he deals with his present-day trials and tribulations.

I liked this book and liked Rog's voice. I felt that the character of the professor, who was rather British in appearance, was a good fit for the story. The novel didn't have that American feel to it that many other books do, though. In my opinion it was a good read, although it can be boring at times due to its very long chapters. For me though, I'd recommend The Scarlet Letter to anyone looking for a British prison novel that's just a bit different than what you'd usually find.