Exposure (novel)
Encyclopedia
Exposure is a sports novel for young adults by Mal Peet
, published on 6 October 2008 by Walker Books Ltd
. Inspired by William Shakespeare
's Othello
, the plot of the story follows Otello, a black football player and his high-profile relationship with Desmerelda, a white celebrity. It also has a parallel plot about three street kids trying to live life in abject poverty.
s, Felicia tells him that his sister, Bianca, is missing. He soon finds her watching the night entertainment at an alley. Meanwhile, Otello becomes contracted to the Rialto football team. He is taken to a party at Brabanta's house and he meets Desmerelda there. After the party, Desmerelda asks him to marry her. Despite Brabanta's disapproval of their relationship, Otello and Desmeralda live a life under the scrutiny of the media. In an attempt to stop "wolf men" from looking at Bianca, Bush makes her wear an oversized sweatshirt. After a failed hold up targeted at Desmerelda, Brabanta pulls some strings to prevent his and his daughter's name from newspaper articles mentioning the hold up. Otello assigns Michael to look after Desmerelda. However, when Michael is involved in a nightclub brawl, Desmerelda gets Otello to take Michael back. Meanwhile, Felicia and Bush discuss how to look after Bianca. Felicia forces her breasts against him and goes away just immediately, leaving Bush in a state of emotional confusion. At the same time, Desmerelda discovers that she is pregnant. In response to other racist and defaming sport articles about Otello's first season in Rialto, Paul lists Otello's achievements in the first season of his Rialto career. To promote Otello's product range, the "Paff!" label was developed. Targeted at teenagers, the main theme of the label was rebellion so they used slum kids. Bianca was the most photogenic child at the photoshoot, with the all the advertisements of the "Paff!" label featuring her. With Bianca missing for three days, Bush and Felicia go to Paul for help. They find her dead with new clothes on her body and 100 dollars in her bra. Bush and Felicia are overwhelmed by her death. Meanwhile, Otello is accused of looking at child pornography
. In the aftermath, Desmeralda leaves Otello and employs Felicia to look after her son and Bush to learn from her gardener.
.
Otello
He is a black football star who is married to Desmerelda. He is often the victim of racist comments when he is on the field. He completely trusts Desmerelda and Michael.
Desmerelda
She is a famed pop singer who is married to Otello. Later, she gives birth to her son, Raúl. At the end of the novel, she gives Felicia and Bush a place to sleep in return for Felicia looking after her son and Bush washing the cars and learning from her gardener.
Diego Mendosa
He is Otello's agent and attempts to ruin Otello's life throughout the novel.
Nestor "Senator" Brabanta
He is one of the board of directors for the Rialto football team. However, he has enough influence to make decisions at board meetings without needing to be there. Being Desmerelda's father, he disapproves of her relationship with Otello.
Emilia
She is Diego's pet chameleon.
Michael Cass
He is Otello's bodyguard and driver. He was a former alcoholic. In the first half of the book, he is tasked with protecting Desmerelda. He was fired from his job after he was involved in a brawl at a nightclub.
Bush
He is an orphaned street kid who tries to make an earning washing the cars to feed his sister and his friend.
Bianca
She is Bush's sister and an orphaned street kid. She has a tendency to steal but will never admit that she did. She owns only one shirt. She likes to wear clothes in a provocative way due to her beauty. She is murdered after a photo shoot to promote the "Paff" clothing label.
Felicia
She is Bush's friend and an orphaned street kid. She tries to keep Bianca inside the shed whenever possible. She has romantic feelings for Bush. She owns two shirts. She washes one and tries on the roof of the shed, the other she wears. Although both shirts have gotten smaller, she occasionally alternates between them. Unlike Bianca, she tries to cover her breasts from boys.
Paul Faustino:
He is a journalist who writes articles for La Nación which commends Otello's football games. He also becomes friendly with Bush, who works on the street below his office.
Jaco Roderigo:
Football player for Rialto
from The Guardian
compares Exposure to Shakespeare's play Othello
with "the novel is divided into five acts. Peet prefaces the action with a cast list. He often uses dialogue and "stage directions" rather than ordinary prose. Even the minor characters draw their names from the original". Amanda Craig from The Times
comments that "the ending is not quite like that of the play, and some will find it weaker in its avoidance of total tragedy. The loss of a sporting career can't be as harrowing as the noble Othello's destruction". Caroline Sams from TeenToday comments that the novel "reveals the cold, harsh reality of fame, the sensationalist hype of the media and the inevitable jealousy that comes from lambasting such perfection".
Mal Peet
Mal Peet is an English author who writes mainly for young adults. His novels have won several awards, including the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.- Biography :...
, published on 6 October 2008 by Walker Books Ltd
Walker Books
Walker Books is an independent British publisher of children's books, founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker.The success of their Where's Wally? series enabled them to expand into the American market, starting a sister company called Candlewick Press in 1991.Amelia Edwards, co-founder of Walker Books,...
. Inspired by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, the plot of the story follows Otello, a black football player and his high-profile relationship with Desmerelda, a white celebrity. It also has a parallel plot about three street kids trying to live life in abject poverty.
Plot summary
Set in South America, Bush, a car-cleaning boy, greets Paul Faustino when he sees him. When he goes to his shed in the slumSlum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
s, Felicia tells him that his sister, Bianca, is missing. He soon finds her watching the night entertainment at an alley. Meanwhile, Otello becomes contracted to the Rialto football team. He is taken to a party at Brabanta's house and he meets Desmerelda there. After the party, Desmerelda asks him to marry her. Despite Brabanta's disapproval of their relationship, Otello and Desmeralda live a life under the scrutiny of the media. In an attempt to stop "wolf men" from looking at Bianca, Bush makes her wear an oversized sweatshirt. After a failed hold up targeted at Desmerelda, Brabanta pulls some strings to prevent his and his daughter's name from newspaper articles mentioning the hold up. Otello assigns Michael to look after Desmerelda. However, when Michael is involved in a nightclub brawl, Desmerelda gets Otello to take Michael back. Meanwhile, Felicia and Bush discuss how to look after Bianca. Felicia forces her breasts against him and goes away just immediately, leaving Bush in a state of emotional confusion. At the same time, Desmerelda discovers that she is pregnant. In response to other racist and defaming sport articles about Otello's first season in Rialto, Paul lists Otello's achievements in the first season of his Rialto career. To promote Otello's product range, the "Paff!" label was developed. Targeted at teenagers, the main theme of the label was rebellion so they used slum kids. Bianca was the most photogenic child at the photoshoot, with the all the advertisements of the "Paff!" label featuring her. With Bianca missing for three days, Bush and Felicia go to Paul for help. They find her dead with new clothes on her body and 100 dollars in her bra. Bush and Felicia are overwhelmed by her death. Meanwhile, Otello is accused of looking at child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
. In the aftermath, Desmeralda leaves Otello and employs Felicia to look after her son and Bush to learn from her gardener.
Characters
Most of the characters have a similar version of themselves in Shakespeare's play, OthelloOthello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
.
Otello
Othello (character)
Othello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's origin is traced to the tale, "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor....
He is a black football star who is married to Desmerelda. He is often the victim of racist comments when he is on the field. He completely trusts Desmerelda and Michael.
Desmerelda
Desdemona (Othello)
Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello . Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a man several years her senior. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the...
She is a famed pop singer who is married to Otello. Later, she gives birth to her son, Raúl. At the end of the novel, she gives Felicia and Bush a place to sleep in return for Felicia looking after her son and Bush washing the cars and learning from her gardener.
Diego Mendosa
Iago
Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's source is traced to Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi . There, the character is simply "the ensign". Iago is a soldier and Othello's ancient . He is the husband of Emilia,...
He is Otello's agent and attempts to ruin Otello's life throughout the novel.
Nestor "Senator" Brabanta
Brabantio
Brabantio is a character in William Shakespeare's Othello . He is a Venetian senator and the father of Desdemona. He has entertained Othello is his home countless times before the play opens, thus giving Othello and Desdemona opportunity to fall in love...
He is one of the board of directors for the Rialto football team. However, he has enough influence to make decisions at board meetings without needing to be there. Being Desmerelda's father, he disapproves of her relationship with Otello.
Emilia
Emilia (Othello)
Emilia is a character in the tragedy Othello by William Shakespeare. The character's origin is traced to the 1565 tale, "Un capitano Moro" from Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi. There, the character is described as young and virtuous, is referred to simply as the ensign's wife,...
She is Diego's pet chameleon.
Michael Cass
Michael Cassio
Michael Cassio, or simply Cassio, is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Othello. The source of the character is the 1565 tale "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio; Cassio is unnamed in Cinthio but referred to as "the squadron leader." In the play, Cassio is a young and handsome lieutenant...
He is Otello's bodyguard and driver. He was a former alcoholic. In the first half of the book, he is tasked with protecting Desmerelda. He was fired from his job after he was involved in a brawl at a nightclub.
Bush
He is an orphaned street kid who tries to make an earning washing the cars to feed his sister and his friend.
Bianca
She is Bush's sister and an orphaned street kid. She has a tendency to steal but will never admit that she did. She owns only one shirt. She likes to wear clothes in a provocative way due to her beauty. She is murdered after a photo shoot to promote the "Paff" clothing label.
Felicia
She is Bush's friend and an orphaned street kid. She tries to keep Bianca inside the shed whenever possible. She has romantic feelings for Bush. She owns two shirts. She washes one and tries on the roof of the shed, the other she wears. Although both shirts have gotten smaller, she occasionally alternates between them. Unlike Bianca, she tries to cover her breasts from boys.
Paul Faustino:
He is a journalist who writes articles for La Nación which commends Otello's football games. He also becomes friendly with Bush, who works on the street below his office.
Jaco Roderigo:
Football player for Rialto
Production
Peet was inspired to write a story based on Shakespeare's Othello because he "had noticed that the names of some of Shakespeare’s characters sounded like football players". Peet thought of Paul Faustino's name from "the name on a bottle of Spanish wine", which meant “little Faust” or, sort of “minor league Faust”."A few years ago BeckhamDavid BeckhamDavid Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
got into a bit of hot water. He’d been scoring from outside the penalty area, so to speak, and there was a huge media attack on them as a family. I happen to like Beckham. I was really taken aback by the frenzy of this media invasion, not just of him, but of his wife and his kids: the exposures in the paper and the paparazzi in the lavatory, and the kids smuggled in darkened cars, and all that kind of stuff". - Mal PeetMal PeetMal Peet is an English author who writes mainly for young adults. His novels have won several awards, including the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.- Biography :...
Reception
Josh LaceyJosh Lacey
Josh Lacey is a British writer. He has written several children’s books and one book for adults, God is Brazilian, a biography of Charles Miller, the man who introduced football to Brazil...
from The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
compares Exposure to Shakespeare's play Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
with "the novel is divided into five acts. Peet prefaces the action with a cast list. He often uses dialogue and "stage directions" rather than ordinary prose. Even the minor characters draw their names from the original". Amanda Craig from The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
comments that "the ending is not quite like that of the play, and some will find it weaker in its avoidance of total tragedy. The loss of a sporting career can't be as harrowing as the noble Othello's destruction". Caroline Sams from TeenToday comments that the novel "reveals the cold, harsh reality of fame, the sensationalist hype of the media and the inevitable jealousy that comes from lambasting such perfection".