Laban paints a picture of the world of private boarding schools, the social dynamics as nonsensical and cruel as they are anywhere. The prose is simple enough – true to the voices of its narrators, with a few teenaged ramblings, but mostly get-to-the-point action. If you start this book, prepare to finish it quickly, or else it will gnaw at you until you do.

It is when she shows signs that she could possibly return his feelings that Tim’s story becomes as alluring to Duncan as it does to the reader. All the while, the boys allude to a horrific accident, one we know of from the first few pages, and guess at for the next one hundred.

Tim is an albino and a new student in the second semester of his senior year – he is the quintessential outcast, as he describes himself “a polar bear in a grizzly maze.” He is in love before he realizes he was capable of such emotion – in love with none other than the girlfriend of the senior class’s most popular member (a predictably tall, handsome, athletic asshole). Listening to Tim’s story, Duncan creates his own – thus, Laban weaves the lives of these two boys, similar and deeply unique. Duncan arrives in his new dorm room on his first day as a senior to discover that the room’s occupant from the previous year, Tim, has left him an audio-taped tale of his own senior experience, one in which Duncan played an unfortunate role. Laban’s novel is a gripping story of first love, and of course heartbreak, written through the convincing voices of two teenaged boys. Simon (everyone’s ideal teacher, reminiscent of Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society), both Tim and Duncan learn more about themselves through the assignment than even their teachers intended. Led by the charismatic and unforgettable Mr.

An Irving School senior English requirement is the completion of a thesis deemed “the tragedy paper,” whereby each student must use his or her knowledge of literature and vocabulary to formulate a picture of tragedy and its meaning. The Tragedy Paper follows the stories of two boys – Tim Macbeth and Duncan Meade – both students at a prestigious New York boarding school, The Irving School, where their paths intersect at the precise moment of tragedy.

The tragedy paper book