SOURCE: Cusac, Anne-Marie. Review of Various Voices, by Harold Pinter. Progressive 64, no. 1 (January 2000): 37-8.

In the following review, Cusac applauds Various Voices, observing that it provides valuable insight about Pinter and his plays.

I have a confession to make. Well, “confession” may be the wrong word, since I am proud of this trait: I love young adult novels.

Want a well-written, entertaining, spirited, perceptive critique of society? The best young adult novels are the place to go. They are clever, rebellious, playful. They question the norm.

Like Alice in Wonderland, many of these books reveal the absurdities underlying the rules, manners, and habits that govern the adult world. They can be outspoken enough to declare the whole structure a house of cards.

Louis Sachar's Holes (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998), winner of the 1999 Newbery Medal, does exactly that. But it also, like Twain's Huckleberry Finn, tackles a subject of great...