Remembering Konigsburg’s ‘Mixed-Up Files’

MANILA, Philippines – The term “young adult literature” has a bad rap. It brings to mind melodramatic, hormonal outbursts, unrealistic notions of love, and an inflated sense of self-importance.

Actually, that’s pretty accurate, if you’re looking for a realistic characterization of what our pre-teen and teenage years were like. An understanding of those painfully awkward years and how young adults want to talk about them is at the core of good YA lit, and this is what so few authors have mastered.

Despite the relative difficulty of the genre, many skeptics of young adult literature are exasperated by its very existence, saying, “Those kids need to GROW UP and learn what real problems are like!” The thing is, you can’t force people to grow up — it’s not just a state of mind, it’s a biological and a social process.

You can’t help the hormones, and you can’t always help how people around you act, either. After all, a young person, no matter how smart or insightful, is still a young person until they have some proof — a license, a degree, something concrete — that certifies that they’ve moved on.

Defying one’s age and maturity level

During your teen years, your age feels like a cage, and you might try anything to get out. This need to escape one’s age, background, and identity and go in search of something more exciting is precisely what E.L. Konigsburg’s “The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” is about.

Upon hearing the news that she had passed away at the age of 83, I felt prompted to pick up that strange book with the awkward, kilometric title again, and say goodbye.

“The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” stars Claudia Kincaid, a suburban 12-year-old who runs away from home to teach her family a lesson in “Claudia appreciation.” This is no hormonal walkout; instead, Claudia has planned her departure carefully, with a budget, transportation routes, maps, her thrifty younger brother Jamie, and an ambitious choice of lodging — the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The plan has to be ambitious, because it isn’t just about getting out of the house. Claudia is trying to break out of her life as a boring pre-teen in the suburbs, and sneaking into an important historical and cultural institution just might do that.

The fact that these children have run away in secret tells us that it’s not really about being famous, or even being missed. Instead, Claudia is out to prove something to herself — that she can get to and live in the Met, and that she is special despite her boring origins.

The book’s runaway plot turns into a Dan Brown-esque mystery surrounding one of the artworks in the museum, in which the children make an important discovery surrounding a sculpture’s artistic origin. Aside from giving the story a foreseeable ending (seeing how much fun Claudia and Jamie are having at the Met, why would they ever want to leave?), this new subplot gives Claudia exactly what she wanted — a sense of achievement that’s all hers. It also brings together the children and the novel’s mysterious, stuffy-voiced narrator, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Not your average YA novel

Watch E.L. Konigsburg address the Tulsa City County Library here:

To be honest, this book wasn’t an immediate favorite of mine, perhaps because of how oddly the book is written. It took a couple of re-readings to get over how mixed up it was — who was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and why was she writing a letter? Why did she know Claudia and Jamie’s grandfather? And why wouldn’t she explain who Claudia and Jamie were first?

After more than 10 years since I’d last read it, I finally understand that techniques demonstrated how E.L. Konigsburg wrote more elegantly and obliquely than anyone should write for young adults. Perhaps that’s why she has been such a pillar in the genre — she wrote for young adults, but never wrote patronizingly, or dumbed her style down. After all, no one wants to be treated like a kid, least of all kids themselves.

If there’s a tween in your life who’s looking for a summer adventure, or if you’re just a mixed up person looking for some fun, pick up a copy of “The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,” and join Claudia and Jamie on their jaunt through art, history, brother-sister bonding and, most of all, their search for themselves. – Rappler.com

Florianne L. Jimenez teaches Literature and College Writing at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She is a Palanca award-winning non-fiction writer, with a creative interest in the self, places, and consciousness. She has a massive to-be-read pile dating back to 2008, which includes such titles as ‘The Collected Stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez,’ ‘Book 5 of Y: The Last Man,’ and ‘The Collected Works of TS Spivet: A Novel.’