The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Reference: Raskin, Ellen.  The Westing Game.  New York: Sequoia-Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc, 1978. 

            The Westing Game is a mystery novel written in the 1970’s that discusses the death of a millionare who brings together a group of individuals who must work to figure out the source of his death in order to receive the prize of his inheritance.  It is a fast, easy, and entertaining read, but may be too light of a read for an academic classroom.  However, it does focus on individual characters and the relationships between character to character.  So in that sense, it may be a helpful book in looking at character identity and development over the course of the novel. 

            In addition, because this book was written in the 1970’s there are sections of it that are not what would be described as “politically correct.”  For example, one of the characters has a condition that leaves him bound in a wheelchair and while Raskin does not intend to be inappropriate in her descriptions of this character, I found there to be a couple of problematic elements in how she approached that character.  I found it more to be an issue due to the time period which it was written. This may be a reason to read the book, and call upon these issues, however, they are not prominent enough to drive or define the book as a whole.