I’ve asked my students to share their MVP ( Most Valuable Part) of their Reading and Soundtrack Selection from their Fall Semester 2025. They will need to think back to the authors, short stories, and poems we have read.

Here is the cool part:  There is no right or wrong position in a student’s vote for MVP.  There is no concrete definition for “valuable.”  It can be the best part.  It can be the worst part. ( I tell my students Time Magazine once put Donald Trump on their cover under the title “Man of the Year.”) Maybe it’s a character the novel could not do without.  Maybe it’s an event that changed everything.  Maybe it’s an idea no one speaks about in class, but it may be most important to us all.  I’m most happy with the diversity of choices my students make.

This will be our Final Exam. My students will choose their MVPs from maybe six to eight short stories, essays, or poems we have read. Many choose a scene, a character, an idea from our class novel reading project – Paradise Travel by Jorge Franco. Their song selections make the writing fun. This is like a movie, I tell them. They imagine what would be the perfect song to hear in the background of their favorite scene. Taylor Swift is BIG in my classes. Hip-Hop. Musica Norteña. Heavy Metal. Disney. Everyone seems to choose a different song that adds special meaning to their reading selection.

I ask them this: “When you read, do you ever tap your foot? Does music ever spark an idea in your head? Can you come up with a song or an artist that blends music and literature? Joyce Carol Oates wrote one of her most enduring works of short fiction after hearing Bob Dylan on the radio.”

That’s Lana Del Rey on the left. On the right, the blonde you see in dark glasses and a black dress may be a character from Charles Bukowski’s short story “The Most Woman in Town.” Many of my students emphasize with the sadness of Cass, a main character in chapter one. Cass becomes their MVP. It doesn’t take them long to find a fitting song to match the mood of the story. I often send them to Lana Del Rey.

For our remaining few classes, I plan to take them step-by-step through the process of writing an extended essay. With each class we will add a paragraph or two. My students will be graded not only on their writing skills but the strength of their arguments. My goal is for my students to reflect on the coursework for the semester.  I require them to use the same strategies and writing techniques that we have covered in my lessons. Will they be able to recognize their own cognitive growth?

Below I practice with my own MVP selection. I selected an Amy Winehouse tune to represent the tragedy of the short story “The Love of My Life.”

“We only said goodbye with words I died a hundred time, you go back to her and I go back to black…” 
― Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black‘

Back to Black in “The Love of My Life”

Too Much Love Will Kill You

Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” is about the most dangerous drug of them all – Love. Not enough will make you suffer. Too much of it will kill you. Amy wrote it through her on-again, off-again marriage to Blake Civil-Fielder. From the BEGINNING, the LOVE is so clearly there. Everyone who knew Amy and Blake knew that. But this song is about the END of the relationship, and the HEARTBREAK that took over. The song is about Blake going back to his old girlfriend, and Amy going back into a deep depression. This song could have been written for China and Jeremy in “The Love of My Life.” When Amy and Jeremy lose everything they ever dreamed of, their lives go to “black.”

Good Love Gone Bad

“The Love of My Life” depicts a pure, unadulterated teen-age love affair that goes horribly bad. In the beginning, it’s real. Jeremy lives for China, China lives for Jeremy, and author T.C. Boyle writes, “They wore each other like socks.” They both are highly intelligent, compassionate, respectful high school seniors with bright futures, that is until China becomes pregnant. On a romantic camping trip, the two star-crossed lovers forgot to bring enough condoms, and nine months later, China’s pregnancy leads to a disastrous decision when in a moment of fear and desperation, she pleads Jeremy to abandon the newborn baby in a motel dumpster. This act changes everything, for upon their subsequent arrests, the two lovers are separated and turn on each other. China agrees to testify against Jeremy in a murder trial. From that point on, they would forever be strangers.  Any time Jeremy tried to picture his girlfriend in his mind, it would be “blacked-out” by what came out of her. How can they ever look at each other the same way? The only thing they shared were the electronic bracelets around their ankles. Without trust, there will never be love. It’s over.

Catharsis

At the time Amy was writing songs for Back in Black, she was suffering through a high-strung relationship with the love of her life, her boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil. Her lyrics are full of grief and heartbreak. There was a lot of cheating and drug abuse going on. At one point, when Blake went back to his old girlfriend, Amy thought her life was over. She wanted to die (Eliscu). According to Amy, what saved her was her songwriting. She said putting her feelings down on paper was CATHARTIC. Singing the songs helped her understand how much she loved him. “These songs literally wrote themselves,” she said (68).

Life is like a Pipe

My favorite Amy line is “And life is like a pipe… And I’m a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside.” This is the one I wanted to use most, but I didn’t find the best match until the last three or four sentences of the short story. The story opens with such an intense display of love and devotion. I mean, together they felt “immortal and conquerable, like floating.” They can’t resist saying how much they love each other every chance they get. But in the end, there is Jeremy sleeping with gang-bangers, thugs, and drug dealers, and there is trapped in her room with an electronic bracelet wrapped around her ankle, and her mind is going round and round. Her life will never be the same. I think about the pipe. “Stuff” goes in one direction. There is no going back.

A Losing Game

“No, no, no,” means “No, no, no…” I guess Amy Winehouse really meant it this time. In July of 2011, they carried her body out of her London apartment. But, they weren’t taking her to Rehab. Forensics revealed she died of a drug overdose. Many of the experts I’m reading say Amy lived a life in denial. From the age of 13, she was hooked on drugs and alcohol but never really grasped the severity of her addiction. She often admitted that she might be a little manic-depressive. I mean, everyone has mood swings. Right? Her friends, her family, her father, they all pleaded with her go to rehab, but she would have none of it. So here comes the line from her famous song: “They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no.” In a way, Jeremy and China are cut from the same cloth. They are smart, they are cool, they think they are different than everyone else, but they are playing a losing game.

Amy Winehouse – “Back in Black”	T.C. Boyle – “The Love of My Life”
You went back to what you knew So far removed from all that we went through And I tread a troubled track My odds are stacked I’ll go back to black	She was spoiled, he could see that now, spoiled by her parents and their standard of living and socioeconomic expectations of her class…. He loved her… But, why did she have to be so stupid? (83).
We only said goodbye with words I died a hundred times You go back to her And I go back to black	He tried to picture her – her now, China, the love of his life – and he couldn’t. What did she look like… He drew a blank (92).
I love you much It’s not enough You love blow, and I love puff And life is like a pipe And I’m a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside	She moved into his arms, and they kissed, his lips groping for hers in the dark, his fingers trembling over the thin yielding silk of her blouse. He was Jeremy. He was the love of her life. And she closed her eyes and clung to him as if that was all that mattered (94).

Before You Point Fingers…

This I Believe: Amy came from a tight Jewish family. On her arm she had tattoos that said, “Daddy’s” and “Cynthia”, the name of her grandmother. By all accounts, she was also very close to her” mum,” but her “mum” was opposed to the tattoos. Clearly, Jeremy and China were very intelligent and level-headed teen-agers. They had earned the highest grades in their class; more importantly they had earned the complete trust and respect of their parents. I mean, who knows?

Tragedy can happen to any of us. Especially teenagers. It’s a cruel world. I only wish Amy had had somewhere else to go for relief, someone else to confide in. T.C. Boyle didn’t make up the tragedy of Jeremy and China, he had first thought up the idea of “The Love of My Life,” from reading a true-to-life news story. Many of my students are very close to the age of Jeremy and China, so it makes me think, “Who do they talk to when they are desperate?” If I learned anything here, it is quite simple — a reminder to always keep my heart open and listen. We all get hurt at one point or another.

Works Cited

Bowden, Becky. Remembering Amy: The Life and Times of Amy Winehouse. Pillar Box. Print.

Castro, Lupita.  Personal Interview.   19 May 2014.

Eliscu, Jenny. “The Diva and her Demons.” Rolling Stone Magazine. 14 June 2007. Print.

Gleasaon, Paul. Understanding T.C. Boyle. Columbia, South Carolina: Univ. of South Carolina Press. 2009. Print

O’Shea, Mick. Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game. London: Plexus. 2012. Print.

This is going to be GREAT.  You will SEE!