Ordinary? More Like Extraordinary

The Jarretts were the epitome of an all American family: two sons, lucrative jobs, living in a safe community, with a stable marriage. This is the ordinary life of an ordinary family - until tragedy strikes. Judith Guest’s beloved classic novel, Ordinary People takes readers on the journey of a family torn apart by grief, yet bound together by their struggle to heal.

The story opens with main character Conrad Jarrett at age 18. He is returning home from a mental institution. His relationships at all levels are strained. He is not connecting with friends the way he used to, he cannot fathom the thought of conversing with a girl, and he is unable to even communicate with his far from accepting mother. Perhaps his most stable relationship is shared with his father. Even so, it’s walking on eggshells; one wrong word and the past is revisited and Conrad’s built up anger is boiling over.

The incident that causes this reaction is not revealed until the middle of the book. A year prior to the start of the novel, Conrad and older brother Buck were in a boating accident, leaving Buck dead. Always being the quiet, less-than-perfect brother, Conrad is convinced that he rather than Buck should have been the one to die. So consumed in his guilt, Conrad attempted to commit suicide by slashing his wrists, only failing when his father found him bleeding to death on the bathroom floor.

Even though the novel deals with an intense subject, it never relies on silly clichés to bring the reader to tears. Instead, Guest uses abrupt and simple sentences, to further add to the book’s tragic demeanor.

“It has to be his fault, because fault equals responsibility equals control equals eventual understanding. How things happened. Why they happened. So where is the fault? Is it in believing that the people you love are immortal? Untouchable? No, everyone believes that. Only no one knows it’s what he believes -until it happens. Then comes the rage, the banging about the walls, crying what if, what if. Everyone is always so damned surprised, that is the horror of it” (34).

Impacting and powerful, Judith Guest’s novel is not only one to cherish, but to live by as we realize what truly matters in life. Ordinary People is a success in capturing a tale nothing short of extraordinary.