Star Struck

I just finished reading Stargirl, which is ostensibly a junior high girls book. Brilliant! Magic! Inspiring! Heartwarming! I can't really think of a one word superlative to express the lingering impression this short novel made on my being. All I know is that Stargirl is a never-put-down kind of book which can be easily digested while waiting in airport for your next flight. Your emotions will be tugged at with each passing section. Brace yourself for the crisis its and denouement.

I loved this book. As a matter of fact I love Stargirl. There is something about the drama which made my angioplastied heart and soul very much resonate with the story line. Perhaps it is because each of us at some point knew of a Stargirl. More to the point, it is because some of us deep down are Stargirls or would very much like to be.

Of course Stargirl is a mythical person. She's Peter Pan. She's Forrest Gump. She's Linus. She's a hundred other characters from the Who's Who of Idealists, who in due time meet the real cruel world and are inevitably injured by it.

Though the book's spirituality is cast at times in a Buddhist light, Stargirl is for me a type of Christ: with one large difference. Jesus is a real person and a true idealist who conquered sin and evil and as such, has enabled us all to be Stargirls.