As a punishment, if you had a choice of digging a five foot hole in radius and depth every day for 18 months, or go to jail, which one would you choose? The juveniles in Camp Green Lake opted to dig the holes, day in, day out, in order to escape juvey. Once you’re done digging, your day’s done. Plus, it was advertised as a “camp” as opposed to something dire, like a detention centre. There are no wire fences here, nobody will chase you if you run away, you will be fed food and water as required, though you’d be constantly thirsty. If you find something interesting in the hole you’re digging, you’ll get the rest of the day off and a fresh shower. God knows you’d need both.
Stanley Yelnats was convicted by the state for stealing shoes that fell on his lap. His false accusation led him to Camp Green Lake for 18 months. He’s a big boy, but rather clumsy. He’s got no friends and finds it difficult to make them. Not that he wanted any. Stanley is taciturn, a bit of a mommy’s boy but he’s loyal to heart. He doesn’t have much in the way of talent, at least not from the events in this book, but he is a likeable sorta kid. Somehow he needs to squeeze his way in with the other juveniles digging holes in Camp Green Lake.
The world of Holes is isolated. It can exist as a dystopian science-fiction where the punishment is to dig these five feet holes the length of a shovel. It is also a world where the past intertwines directly to affect the present. The story of the Yelnats family goes back 110 years, with a curse to the “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather” which apparently, still passed down to his offsprings. His migrant great-great-grandfather (I lose track of how many greats tbh) was robbed by the infamous Kissing Kate Barlow, somehow survived, but left the family broke for generations. Not that you can’t remake your fortune, but there’s always something holding back the Yelnats — some form of bad luck, a birthright of misfortune.
At times, we venture back into the past to the time when Camp Green Lake was still an aquatic haven some century ago. We’re introduced to Miss Katherine, the local teacher, and Sam the black onion seller. The romance that buds between the two is genuinely touching and heartbreaking. Interracial relationships were more of a stigma then than it is now, though it is still something that throws off many people. And by people I mean cunts. The relationship between Katherine and Sam is the best part of the book. From this epoch, and from the consequences of this relationship, we find out why Camp Green Lake is dry — a curse in the land.
Holes also explores the link between the land with its people. Digging holes is not only a physically labouring task, but for the inmates, an act to manage the land and prove their physical prowess. Whether there is any purpose to this save for punishment’s sake is irrelevant. The holes on the ground is an opportunity to find treasure — some sort of return for your effort. It is also the proprietor’s exploitation of their subjects, a master and slave relationship. The subjects are rewarded with nothing more than rest, the proprietor with the loot of the land.
For a young adult book, Holes is a surprise. There’s not much cheese like you’d find in other YA books, even in The Hunger Games. The friendship between Stanley and Zero is a testament to this, where other books can reek of sentimentality, Sachar kept it tight. There is brutality and violence, the way the boys would break out in resentment to each other and reshuffling the pecking order. You can mistake this for an adult book if you don’t know any better. Sachar made brave choices with the main character, such as making him a large but physically weak kid, and yet still making him likeable. But the events that connect the past and present may be too coincidental, albeit vital to plot. It made the ending too neat for me. It is a minor complaint in what is a solidly written book.
