The Marbury Lens

The Marbury Lens

by Andrew Smith
The Marbury Lens

The Marbury Lens

by Andrew Smith

Paperback(Reprint)

$21.99 
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Overview

A 16-year-old boy who escapes a kidnapper thinks he can forget his trauma, but instead, he loses his grip on reality and believes he's part of an alternate world called Marbury.

Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.

There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he's trying to kill them.

Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he's losing his mind.

Andrew Smith has written his most beautiful and personal novel yet, as he explores the nightmarish outer limits of what trauma can do to our bodies and our minds.

“An engrossing horror/fantasy hybrid…Nightmarish imagery is chillingly effective, and the pacing superbly builds suspense.” — Kirkus Reviews


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781250010278
Publisher: Square Fish
Publication date: 10/02/2012
Series: Marbury , #1
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 384
Sales rank: 492,727
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range: 14 - 17 Years

About the Author

About The Author
Andrew Smith is the author of Ghost Medicine, named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, and In the Path of Falling Objects. In addition to writing, he teaches high school advanced placement classes and coaches rugby. He lives in Southern California with his family, in a rural location in the mountains.

Read an Excerpt

Part One

I am going to build something big for you.

It’s like one of those Russian dolls that you open up, and open up again. And each layer becomes something else.

On the outside is the universe, painted dark purple, decorated with planets and comets, stars. Then you open it, and you see the Earth, and when that comes apart, there’s Marbury, a place that’s kind of like here, except none of the horrible things in Marbury are invisible. They’re painted right there on the surface where you can plainly see them.

The next layer is Henry Hewitt, the man with the glasses, and when you twist him in half, there’s my best friend, Conner Kirk, painted to look like some kind of Hindu god, arms like snakes, shirtless, radiant.

When you open him up, you’ll find Nickie Stromberg, the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and maybe the only person in this world, besides Conner, who ever really loved me.

Now it’s getting smaller, and inside is Freddie Horvath. That’s the man who kidnapped me.

Next, there’s the pale form of the boy, Seth, a ghost from Marbury who found me, and helped me. I guess he was looking for me for a long time. And the last thing on the inside is me. John Wynn Whitmore.

They call me Jack.

But then I open up, too, and what you’ll find there is something small and black and shriveled.

The center of the universe.

Fun game, wasn’t it?

I don’t know if the things I see and what I do in Marbury are in the future or from the past. Maybe everything’s really happening at the same time. But I do know that once I started going to Marbury, I couldn’t stop myself. I know it sounds crazy, but Marbury began to feel safer, at least more predictable, than the here and now.

I need to explain.

THE MARBURY LENS Copyright © 2010 by Andrew Smith

Reading Group Guide

Questions for Discussion:
1. Violence is a major, recurring theme in the book. Jack's story begins with brutality; and the cruelty inflicted on innocents by others resurfaces again and again — in Seth's story, and in what happens to everyone in Marbury. What are Jack's feelings about the brutal nature of his universe? What does Conner think about it?
2. One of the ideas Smith explores in The Marbury Lens is the dynamic found in relationships between males. We see this in the way Jack interacts with Ben and Griffin in Marbury, how he and
Conner get along throughout the book, and even to some extent through Seth's relationship with
Davey and Pa. Compare and contrast Jack, Conner, Ben, Griffin, and Seth. When Jack's in Marbury with the boys, who's in charge? Who's in charge when Jack's with Conner in England or at home in
California?
3. Jack, Seth, and Henry all have one terrible thing in common. What is it? How is this similar/
different between the three of them?
4. Jack keeps coming back to his idea of being at the center of the universe. Discuss the importance of this image as it relates to the entire book.
5. Along with that image mentioned in question 4 (above), Smith once wrote that The Marbury Lens
reveals layer upon layer: There are worlds within worlds, stories inside of stories, the past trapped in the present, and monsters inside of people. How many examples of these layers can you find?
6. In The Marbury Lens, there is enough room for readers to make their own decisions about what is real. What do you think? Is Marbury real? Is Henry real? What clues are you given that Henry really exists?
7. There are many turns in the book that deal with being or feeling trapped, and then escaping. Is
Marbury a trap for Jack, or does he escape something when he goes there?
8. So much of what we learn about Marbury comes only in bits and pieces throughout the story.
Discuss the boys' finding the train, the passengers, the soldiers. What might have happened there?
9. Based on the clues provided in the novel, what explanation could you give for what's going on in
Marbury?
10. Jack endures so many profoundly powerful events through the course of the novel. How does he change by the novel's end? How does Jack mature over the course of his story?
11. Everything in Marbury seems to be without color. There are no stars at night, and the sky never gets completely dark, but contrasts are sharp there. Why all the "colorless" imagery?
12. Discuss the role of setting in the narrative (California, London, Blackpool, and the locations in
Marbury).
13. What do you find out about what happens to the boys after they arrive at the walled city of
Grove in Marbury? How has Ben changed by the end of the book?
14. How would you describe the "voice" of the novel? Is Jack an empathetic character, despite his obvious anger and frustration? Give examples of Jack's tone in his narration.
15. In the beginning, Jack seems uncomfortable and inept at telling lies. He fumbles over explaining his injured ankle to Stella. But the Marbury lens has some major effect on Jack in this regard. Discuss the lies Jack tells later in the book.
16. Discuss the wooden horse Nickie shows Jack and Conner at the airport. Where did it come from? What is its significance? Do you think Seth may have intended it as a message to Jack? How do the boys play off Nickie's finding the horse, and what does it tell you about Conner and how he may have changed?
17. In the beginning of the book, Jack mentions that the things that happen turn him into a monster.
In fact, the only people Jack finds in Marbury that he knows from this world are monsters. Do you think
Jack becomes a monster by the end of the story?
18. In the final lines of the book, Jack makes a decision to do something. What does he do? Is it theact of "a monster"? Is he doing the right thing? Can Jack help himself?
19. AND THE FINAL QUESTION: Would you go there? Even for "just a peek"?

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