Whale Talk

Whale Talk, a young adult novel by Chris Crutcher, is the story of events in the senior year of The Dao (T.J.) Jones, the adopted, multiracial son of white parents who live in the small town of Cutter, Washington. Narrated from a first-person perspective, the novel explores the impact of family, athletics, violence, and bullying on the lives of modern teens.

The inciting incident of the novel occurs when T.J., a skilled swimmer who refuses to participate in organized high school sports, agrees to help his English teacher, John Simet, recruit a swim team. T.J., who has been the target of racial taunts from football players Rich Marshall and Mike Barbour since he tried to stop Rich from killing a baby deer several years before, agrees to be the anchor and primary recruiter for the team after he witnesses these players bullying Chris Coughlin, a developmentally-challenged classmate, for wearing his deceased brother’s athletic letter jacket.

Convinced that the creation of the swim team, which he names the Mermen, is the perfect chance to undercut the favoritism shown to athletes at Cutter High, T.J. recruits Chris (a strong swimmer), a one-legged swimmer, a drug-free bodybuilder, a genius, a swimmer who is overweight, and a swimmer who refuses to talk. He convinces Simet to set beating one’s personal best time at each competition as the requirement for lettering, a standard that sounds difficult to people who are unfamiliar with swimming but that is easily achieved by inexperienced swimmers. While only T.J. is competitive on a state level, the members of the team develop a bond that allows this group of loners to thrive socially and emotionally.As they travel to their swim meets, each athlete gains a sense of belonging.

The team begins to receive some support from the school, but when the members of the Athletic Council, which provides guidance on matters like athletic letters, discover that the swim team’s letter requirements are easier to achieve than they thought, the head football coach and Mike Barbour begin a campaign to prevent the swim team from lettering. When Simet and T.J. block their move by asking for research on the Council’s authority to intervene in a coach’s letter requirements, the decision is postponed.

Meanwhile, the positive developments in T.J.’s life are undercut by trouble at home and escalating tension between T.J. and Rich Marshall. John Paul, T.J.’s adoptive father, has been atoning for accidentally killing a little boy in a trucking accident thirty years before.T.J. discovers a depressed John Paul listening to recordings of whales on the anniversary of the accident one day. Although he is depressed, John Paul assures T.J. that he will make it through the anniversary of the accident without hurting himself.

The other source of tension is the involvement of T.J. and his parentsin the lives of Rich’s estranged wife, Alicia, and Rich’s stepdaughter, Heidi, a little girl whose African-American heritage makes her a target for Rich’s racism and abuse. After Alicia, Heidi, and Heidi’s half-brothers move in with the Jones family under the advice of Georgia, the former child therapist of T.J. and Heidi’s current therapist, Rich begins stalking Alicia and making threats against the Jones family.

Near the end of the swim season, the swim team accumulates enough competitive points to put Cutter High in contention for the all-state contest for athletics. Enough wins by T.J.at his last events will ensure that the school will win for the first time. During a break in the competition, T.J. discovers that the Athletic Council metin his absence and voted down the team’s letter requirements. Angered by the underhandedness of their decision, T.J. intentionally loses his last event, causing Cutter High to lose the all-state points contest. Although T.J.’s intentional loss ensures that he will be ineligible for a letter jacket, Chris’ victory in a swim-off against Mike leads to the reversal of the Council’s decision and allows every member of the team to letter except for T.J.

Back at the Jones home, Alicia gives in to her worst impulses by meeting with Rich, a decision that exposes her daughter to more abuse and that convinces the Jones family to take legal action. When John Paul physically confronts Rich in front of his friends, Rich vows to get even with the family. 

When the swim season winds down, the swim team reorganizes itself as a Hoopfest three-man basketball team and entourage to maintain their connections. In early summer, Rich and Mike face off against the swim team’s Hoopfest crew with their own team, the Bushwhackers. When the Mermen beat the Bushwhackers, Rich leaves the court and then returns with a gun that he fires at Heidi. John Paul takes the bullet for Heidi. Just before he dies, he makes T.J. promise not to seek revenge.

The summer after graduation, T.J. goes back to the town where John Paul killed the little boy during the trucking accident. He discovers that the mother of the little boy has moved away, but that her son, conceived during a one-time encounter with John Paul, is living in the town. Kyle, the son, offers T.J., who is at loose ends, a job in his whitewater rafting company. The novel closes with a scene of T.J. listening to John Paul’s whale tapes with his mother and wondering how to deal with his grief. 

The tension-filled plot, the author’s confrontation of issues like gun violence and bullying, and the compelling voice of the protagonist make this novel a work with relevance to the many challenges young people are facing today.