Audience: High School, 15+
Genre: LGBTQ Fiction
Topics of Focus: Friendship, Adolescence, Same-Sex Relationships, Sexuality
With John Green and David Levithan both being award-winning writers, I really expected to like this book, but I didn’t. The author’s present a funny cast of characters and an entertaining plot line, yet there was no real substance.
The story begins through the voice of Will Grayson, of Chicago, as he whines about his life and the embarrassment of his best friend, Tiny Cooper. Tiny Cooper just happens to be the “world’s largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world’s gayest person who is really, really large.” Tiny falls in and out of love in the blink of an eye, mourns loudly and dramatically, and proclaims his sexuality to the world, like any effective diva would. Will literally lives in Tiny’s shadow, overpowered by his energy, his depth of love, and his creativity. Will, who is also very heterosexual, is not able to shine on his own. He lacks the confidence to take risks with his girl-crush Jane until it’s almost too late. The book is slow to get rolling until Chapter 2 when the reader is hit with a confusing shift in the narrative voice. All of a sudden, without appropriate segue, the type is all in lower case and the reader doesn’t know who speaks and where he/she is. The new voice notes, “i am constantly torn between killing myself and killing everyone around me.” To parallel the text-speak that is used throughout the book, this reader thought WTF? Enter the second Will Grayson, a completely different character, not just a psychological fragment of the original’s mind. This Will Grayson, a financially-struggling, gay, Naperville student also struggles with taking first steps in his relationships. He chooses to maintain a cyber-relationship with Isaac. When he finally breaks through his anxiety and agrees to meet Isaac, at an unfamiliar location in Chicago (a porn shop) his love interest turns out to be his female friend, Maura, who has had a crush on Will for years. Needless to say, Will is crushed and angry. Coincidentally, Chicago Will is at the same porn shop after a snafu with a fake ID and meets Naperville Will. They talk and listen to each other. Tiny Cooper and Jane re-enter the scene and the relationships begin to merge. The authors then take you through situation after situation of teen angst, misunderstandings, and over-the-top drama ad nauseam. The drama is both palpable and literal as Tiny Cooper barrels through writing, directing, and portraying himself in an autobiographical production about love, gayness, and adolescence. The ending is far too contrived to be satisfying.
The story begins through the voice of Will Grayson, of Chicago, as he whines about his life and the embarrassment of his best friend, Tiny Cooper. Tiny Cooper just happens to be the “world’s largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world’s gayest person who is really, really large.” Tiny falls in and out of love in the blink of an eye, mourns loudly and dramatically, and proclaims his sexuality to the world, like any effective diva would. Will literally lives in Tiny’s shadow, overpowered by his energy, his depth of love, and his creativity. Will, who is also very heterosexual, is not able to shine on his own. He lacks the confidence to take risks with his girl-crush Jane until it’s almost too late. The book is slow to get rolling until Chapter 2 when the reader is hit with a confusing shift in the narrative voice. All of a sudden, without appropriate segue, the type is all in lower case and the reader doesn’t know who speaks and where he/she is. The new voice notes, “i am constantly torn between killing myself and killing everyone around me.” To parallel the text-speak that is used throughout the book, this reader thought WTF? Enter the second Will Grayson, a completely different character, not just a psychological fragment of the original’s mind. This Will Grayson, a financially-struggling, gay, Naperville student also struggles with taking first steps in his relationships. He chooses to maintain a cyber-relationship with Isaac. When he finally breaks through his anxiety and agrees to meet Isaac, at an unfamiliar location in Chicago (a porn shop) his love interest turns out to be his female friend, Maura, who has had a crush on Will for years. Needless to say, Will is crushed and angry. Coincidentally, Chicago Will is at the same porn shop after a snafu with a fake ID and meets Naperville Will. They talk and listen to each other. Tiny Cooper and Jane re-enter the scene and the relationships begin to merge. The authors then take you through situation after situation of teen angst, misunderstandings, and over-the-top drama ad nauseam. The drama is both palpable and literal as Tiny Cooper barrels through writing, directing, and portraying himself in an autobiographical production about love, gayness, and adolescence. The ending is far too contrived to be satisfying.
Maybe it is the purest English instructor in me, but the story was just too much – too flashy, too fractured, too text-speaky, too loud. Like Tiny Cooper, it took up too much space and too much energy. It didn’t have substance. The New York Times Book Review noted it was “funny, rude, and original.” I will agree with adolescent funny and most certainly with rude. But original? Not so much.
I do think a general teen reader would pick up this text and read it independently for personal enjoyment. I think it will be one that LGBTQ teens will devour because of the book’s irreverent humor and the still-current minority of gay-centered stories. Don’t expect to use it in the classroom. And, don’t expect it to be a lasting title that is passed from student to student, year after year.
Annotation by Denise Aulik
I do think a general teen reader would pick up this text and read it independently for personal enjoyment. I think it will be one that LGBTQ teens will devour because of the book’s irreverent humor and the still-current minority of gay-centered stories. Don’t expect to use it in the classroom. And, don’t expect it to be a lasting title that is passed from student to student, year after year.
Annotation by Denise Aulik
No comments:
Post a Comment