Rats Saw God
Encyclopedia
Rats Saw God is a young adult novel written by Rob Thomas
Rob Thomas (writer)
Rob Thomas is an American author, producer, and screenwriter, best known as the author of the 1996 novel Rats Saw God and creator of the critically acclaimed television programs Veronica Mars and Party Down.-Education and early career:Thomas graduated from San Marcos High School in 1983 and went...

, published in 1996
1996 in literature
The year 1996 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is removed from an advanced placement English reading list in Lindale, Texas because it "conflicted with the values of the community."* In the United Kingdom, the first...

. It follows the main character Steve York, the son of an astronaut. Steve is a high school student who has had issues with marijuana and has found himself in the counselors office. The counselor tells him that he is flunking and if he wants to graduate he must write a 100 page paper about anything. Steve is reluctant to do so, at first, but eventually relents and begins the tale about the divorce of his parents, his prickly relationship with his father, and his first real relationship with a girl nicknamed Dub. Told in parallel timelines and bouncing back and forth from his senior year to his sophomore year, through writing the book Steve eventually comes to see his father as he'd never seen him before and understands that many of the things that he thought were true were completely wrong.

Characters

  • Steve York - the main character, a high school student who is brilliant, but alienated from his peers by his parents' divorce and his disastrous relationship with his father. After the divorce, Steve starts drugs and flunks school, but is given one chance to graduate by writing a one hundred page essay.
  • Alan York - Steve's father, referred to by his son as "the astronaut"
  • Sarah York - Steve's younger sister
  • Dub - Wanda Varner, Steve's girlfriend during his sophomore year of high school
  • Doug - Steve's best friend in high school
  • Jeff DeMouy - Steve's senior year guidance counselor

Structure

The story takes place over the four years of Steve is in high school. The narrative is interlaced between his senior year in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

 and flashbacks
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...

 his freshman to junior years in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

. The time described in Houston is supposedly the 100 page essay written by Steve as his extra English class necessary for graduation. To set off the different parts of the story his time in Houston is presented in Gill Sans
Gill Sans
Gill Sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill.The original design appeared in 1926 when Douglas Cleverdon opened a bookshop in his home town of Bristol, where Eric Gill painted the fascia over the window in sans-serif capitals that would later be known as Gill Sans...

 sans-serif typeface while his time in San Diego is shown in Industria
Industria (typeface)
Industria is a sans-serif font designed in 1984 by Neville Brody . It was originally designed for use in a magazine called The Face. It features elements of geometric precision. It is licensed by the Linotype type foundry....

.

Title

The novel’s title originates from a student group in the novel, the Grace Order of Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...

ists, abbreviated to GOD, which used American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

 in their yearbook photo to spell out the phrase “Dog Was Star”, which reversed creates the anagram “Rats Saw God.” Rob Thomas
Rob Thomas (writer)
Rob Thomas is an American author, producer, and screenwriter, best known as the author of the 1996 novel Rats Saw God and creator of the critically acclaimed television programs Veronica Mars and Party Down.-Education and early career:Thomas graduated from San Marcos High School in 1983 and went...

 later created the series Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is an American television series created by Rob Thomas. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW Television Network. Veronica Mars was produced by Warner Bros...

and called a season 2 episode “Rat Saw God” after the book.
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