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Published relatively late in E.L. Konigsburg's career—though before she won her second Newbery Medal, for The View from Saturday, in 1997—T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit still features the spirited sort of main characters Ms. Konigsburg was always known for. Twelve-year-old Chloë Pollack isn't interested in hanging around her hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey this summer. Her friends, Anjelica and Krystal, have irritated her lately with their fixation on physical appearance. Chloë's options for a summer vacation are limited, but her stepfather Nick suggests she visit his sister Bernadette in Peco, Florida. The choice is mostly an illusion, though; if Chloë wants to leave Ridgewood, staying with Bernadette is the only way. Nick thinks the two will form quite a connection once they get to know each other.
Forty-five and unmarried, Bernadette has a comfortable rhythm to her life and quietly insists Chloë not disrupt it during her time in Peco. Chloë is expected to wake up at 5:30 A.M. on weekdays and accompany Bernadette to work, where she drives a food truck for a commissary owner. Chloë assists Bernadette on the job, preparing orders for the hungry customers who buy hot dogs, sandwiches, and other simple meals from the truck. Bernadette has worked for Nick's commissary for seven years, earning assignment to the lucrative sales sector of Talleyrand, but this summer a new employee brings a problem Bernadette never had to worry about before.
Wanda has driven and sold food from one of Nick's trucks for months, but when her sister Velma joins the team, standards for employee behavior change. Velma wears a T-back on her route, an immodest swimsuit that lures red-blooded men to buy from her instead of Bernadette, who dresses conservatively and isn't as obviously attractive as Velma. Soon other employees come to work in T-backs, wanting to boost their sales, and Nick pressures Bernadette to join in as a show of "solidarity." Her sales have drastically dropped in the wake of Velma's hiring, and Nick reassigns Talleyrand to Velma. After years of exemplary work, Bernadette is relegated to one of the least profitable sales regions, a highway nearly an hour's drive from headquarters.
Chloë is indignant on her aunt's behalf, but Bernadette accepts the implicit demotion without a fuss. She's glad to still have a job, at least for now. As the T-back movement gains momentum, the local news station covers the story, and with the exposure comes public protests by a group called COAT (Citizens Opposing All T-backs). The shameful display of skin by the women wearing T-backs should be illegal, COAT says. The organization is headed by a minister and his wife concerned the swimsuits are an open invitation for men to lust. Bernadette rejects affiliation with COAT just as gently but firmly as she refused to wear a T-back, and soon she's in the middle of a legal battle. Tyler, a local thirteen-year-old who irritates Chloë but sometimes is almost a friend, has a foot in both the T-Back and COAT camps, but keeps his conflict of interest quiet so only Chloë knows about it. She has been trying to trick Tyler into believing that Bernadette's eccentric lifestyle is because she's a witch, but Chloë regrets her prolonged prank when Tyler looks to wield that information to get Bernadette in trouble with COAT and Nick, who would like a reason to terminate her employment. Can the T-back debacle possibly end well for Bernadette?
T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit is very much an E.L. Konigsburg novel, if not quite as clever as her work from the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. The themes of authoritarianism and witch-hunt culture are strong. When any group attempts to coerce everyone to think or act a certain way, accusing dissenters of immorality that must not be tolerated, freedom is under attack and must be defended or the culture decays. Even if the behavior the group opposes is bad, the only effective way to eradicate it is to change the culture from the inside out, not institute top-down tyranny. When you install the political apparatus for authoritarian intervention in the lives of private citizens, all you've done is ensure it will backfire on you as soon your ideological opposition is placed in position to use that apparatus. T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit is at its best when pointing out the flaws of authoritarianism, and I would round my two-and-a-half-star rating to three if the story were more cohesive. It's not a bad book, and most E.L. Konigsburg fans will at least like it.
Forty-five and unmarried, Bernadette has a comfortable rhythm to her life and quietly insists Chloë not disrupt it during her time in Peco. Chloë is expected to wake up at 5:30 A.M. on weekdays and accompany Bernadette to work, where she drives a food truck for a commissary owner. Chloë assists Bernadette on the job, preparing orders for the hungry customers who buy hot dogs, sandwiches, and other simple meals from the truck. Bernadette has worked for Nick's commissary for seven years, earning assignment to the lucrative sales sector of Talleyrand, but this summer a new employee brings a problem Bernadette never had to worry about before.
Wanda has driven and sold food from one of Nick's trucks for months, but when her sister Velma joins the team, standards for employee behavior change. Velma wears a T-back on her route, an immodest swimsuit that lures red-blooded men to buy from her instead of Bernadette, who dresses conservatively and isn't as obviously attractive as Velma. Soon other employees come to work in T-backs, wanting to boost their sales, and Nick pressures Bernadette to join in as a show of "solidarity." Her sales have drastically dropped in the wake of Velma's hiring, and Nick reassigns Talleyrand to Velma. After years of exemplary work, Bernadette is relegated to one of the least profitable sales regions, a highway nearly an hour's drive from headquarters.
Chloë is indignant on her aunt's behalf, but Bernadette accepts the implicit demotion without a fuss. She's glad to still have a job, at least for now. As the T-back movement gains momentum, the local news station covers the story, and with the exposure comes public protests by a group called COAT (Citizens Opposing All T-backs). The shameful display of skin by the women wearing T-backs should be illegal, COAT says. The organization is headed by a minister and his wife concerned the swimsuits are an open invitation for men to lust. Bernadette rejects affiliation with COAT just as gently but firmly as she refused to wear a T-back, and soon she's in the middle of a legal battle. Tyler, a local thirteen-year-old who irritates Chloë but sometimes is almost a friend, has a foot in both the T-Back and COAT camps, but keeps his conflict of interest quiet so only Chloë knows about it. She has been trying to trick Tyler into believing that Bernadette's eccentric lifestyle is because she's a witch, but Chloë regrets her prolonged prank when Tyler looks to wield that information to get Bernadette in trouble with COAT and Nick, who would like a reason to terminate her employment. Can the T-back debacle possibly end well for Bernadette?
T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit is very much an E.L. Konigsburg novel, if not quite as clever as her work from the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. The themes of authoritarianism and witch-hunt culture are strong. When any group attempts to coerce everyone to think or act a certain way, accusing dissenters of immorality that must not be tolerated, freedom is under attack and must be defended or the culture decays. Even if the behavior the group opposes is bad, the only effective way to eradicate it is to change the culture from the inside out, not institute top-down tyranny. When you install the political apparatus for authoritarian intervention in the lives of private citizens, all you've done is ensure it will backfire on you as soon your ideological opposition is placed in position to use that apparatus. T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit is at its best when pointing out the flaws of authoritarianism, and I would round my two-and-a-half-star rating to three if the story were more cohesive. It's not a bad book, and most E.L. Konigsburg fans will at least like it.
