The Year of the Gopher

Hello, Ms. Naylor. I am about three decades overdue in thanking you for saving my life.

When I was 12, my life felt like one big punishment for all the bad behavior that I felt incapable of controlling, all the subpar report cards I brought home, all the parental lectures I couldn’t get through without rolling my eyes. Then one day a teacher pulled me aside for what I was sure was going to be yet another punishment or lecture about what a huge disappointment I was, and instead she gave me a book and said, “I think you should read this. You’d like it.” I was about 99% sure I was going to stuff the book in my locker, leave it there for a while, then give it back to her unread. But for some reason I brought it home with me and read it cover-to-cover that weekend.

The book was “The Year of the Gopher,” and it was this incredible revelation to me, both that I was reading a story about a young man who wasn’t exactly what his parents wanted him to be but wasn’t a bad person, and that a teacher at my school actually got me well enough to know I would connect with the main character. Your book taught me that I could live my life on my terms and succeed.

And I have. I’m 43 with a wonderful career and a great marriage, and I view reading “The Year of the Gopher” as a real turning point in becoming who I am. Thank you.

Incidentally, I’m sorry to see that “The Year of the Gopher” appears to be out of print. Tell your publisher that if they do another print run, I’ll buy 100 copies and donate them to schools and libraries.

I’ll forward this email to my editor and see what happens.  I doubt they will oblige, because it came out in 1987, but I’m so glad the book meant that much to you.  Especially because I still remember giving a talk in a junior high school during a book fair, and a student had purchased this book.  I was standing on one side of the gym talking with the principal when a woman marched up to me, so angry there were tears in her eyes, followed by her 13 year-old son whose face was beet red.  The mother said that her son had just purchased this book called “Year of the Gopher,” and when she scanned through it, there was the word, “Condom.”  “My son doesn’t know what a condom is, and I don’t want him to know,” she raged, and wanted the book removed from the school.  The principal replied that she could choose another book for her embarrassed son, but she said she was going to take it to the principal, the  school board and the  newspapers to show what was being taught in schools.   You’ll be glad to know  that the book stayed in  that school.  But I felt so sad for her son.   I really  appreciated your email.