The Eternal Return of Clara Hart
by Louise Finch
Little Island, 2023. First published in the United Kingdom in 2022. 260 pages.
Review written August 7, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review
The Eternal Return of Clara Hart, no surprise, is a time loop book. And yes, it seems that every time Spence goes through that momentous day over again, it begins with Clara Hart hitting his car in the high school parking lot and ends with Clara Hart dead. But then Spence wakes up, again having spent the night in his car, and it happens all over again.
It wasn’t a day that Spence even wanted to live through once – it’s the anniversary of his mother’s death. His rugby friends don’t remember it’s a rough day for him. And he decides to get through the party they end the day with by drinking himself into oblivion. The first time, at least.
There are little changes, though. And then Spence decides to see if he can make changes himself. And get through the day without Clara dying. Surely, she must be the key. If he can save her life, maybe he can get to the next day of his own life?
To add to the fun, his philosophy class professor is talking about Nietsche’s thought experiment about eternal return: “the idea that this universe and our lives recur in an identical form an infinite number of times.”
This is not a truth, of course, but a thought experiment. If this were true, would we react with joy or despair? Would we affirm life or not? And if we had to live our lives over and over again, what implications would there be for our moral choices?
I didn’t like Spence at the start of the book. A character drinking himself into oblivion while his friends mistreat girls isn’t the way to win my heart. But by the end of the book, I liked him very much. He shows lots of character growth as the book goes on. The book has a lot in common with the film “Ground Hog Day,” but in a high school, as the character takes his repeated days to grow to care about others and examine what he took for granted.
The book warns the reader that there’s sexual assault in its pages. There’s also repeated death. But the author takes those situations and shows a high school boy learning to care about others and be a better person.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/eternal_return_of_clara_hart.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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