Vera Dietz Analysis

Griffin Neary

Mr. Davidson 

Period 5

12-12-19

AMDG

Vera Dietz Analysis

          The novel Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King tells the story of a high school senior struggling to get over the recent death of her best friend, Charlie Kahn. Vera works at Pagoda Pizza and has a new boyfriend James, but her problems do not go away. Throughout the novel she battles with alcohol addiction and the guilt of speaking up about what she knows concerning Charlie’s death. Through her memories, readers get a closer look into her friendship with Charlie since they were both four years old, as these memories slowly piece together what happened between the two that caused their falling out. The plot unravels Vera’s insecurities and rough family history, as she tries to become invisible to the rest of the school with her family secrets. King’s work captures the struggles of a teenage girl and her fight to overcome the death of both her best friend and a boy she deeply loved.

          The novel crafts a very relatable tale to teenagers who struggle with many of the same things that Vera struggles with. This can be seen with the relationship with her dad, where they argue through much of the book. Her dad, Ken, is very worried about her family history of alcoholism and how it could be passed down to Vera, who evidently has a problem with drinking. “I’ve warned Vera about the drinking genes, but she acts like it’s funny. She jokes about stripper genes too, but she’s too young to understand the situation Cindy Sindy was in when she was born and I was drunk” (King 127). This aside from Ken shows that Vera is also a high school student trying to show her dad her side of thinking, but like many in the same position the kids struggle to understand their parents’ reasoning and the fact that they have been through the same experiences as their kids. By looking at Ken’s thoughts, we see that despite the fights, he is trying to do what is best for Vera, which is a phenomenon that many parents experience with their kids. Also, the book describes a loss of friendship as people change over high school, which is highlighted by Charlie and Vera’s dramatic falling out. The constant secrets that each one held for each other got out to the rest of the school, and Vera experienced constant verbal abuse from classmates. This kind of behavior is seen in all schools and it illustrates how people act toward someone else in order to boost themselves up. I believe that this novel was so successful because much of the stuff Vera experiences happens to teenagers everywhere.

         Vera also brings up the issue that adults often ignore things and let them fly under the radar instead of helping. The main example King uses is through Bill Corso, the star quarterback who barely knows how to read. Vera explains that it is sad that teachers and adults allowed all of this to slide just because he was athletic, and that he would be heading off to college not knowing how to read properly. Another example is Ken Dietz ignoring the fact that Charlie’s dad constantly beats Charlie’s mom. This is exemplified as Ken remarks, “It’s just not as easy as reporting it. There’s just so little we can do. The guy’s a jerk, and if we get involved, it’ll only make him worse” (King 109). Ken believes that doing nothing is the best course of action, which enrages Vera because she knows that there is something that they can do to intervene and stop it. Vera is not the type of person to let things happen and begs her dad to take action. The novel is trying to explain that adults have a false sense of maturity and tend to stay out of issues that need to be brought to the light. The plot challenges adults and their system of keeping out of other people’s business, but that they do it to a detriment.

          A.S. King’s novel Please Ignore Vera Dietz is a work that I would definitely recommend, especially to teenagers who are fans of reading. The story is not only relatable, but it combines elements of friendship, internal struggles, and love. It also is able to expand on real life issues that young adults and people in general face, and many times these issues are kept on the inside. The novel brings these to light, and like Vera learns towards the end of the novel, her issues and herself cannot be ignored. This book has countless lessons that can be learned from it and holds a clash against morals that is examined closely. Overall, the book is extremely well written and possesses the qualities of being a must read in the eyes of many.