YA or STFU

Wittlinger, Ellen (2008). Love and Lies: Marisol's Story. NY: Simon and Schuster. 256 pages.

Written almost ten years after Hard Love, this latest novel by Wittlinger is a sequel to the 1999 title. Set during the summer following the fateful prom this novel's narrator, Marisol, attended with Hard Love's narrator, John, Love and Lies provides a more sympathetic portrayal of both characters.

Following her graduation from high school, seventeen-year-old Marisol Guzman decides to defer her admission to Stanford in favor of living on her own in Cambridge, Ma, where she plans to work and write a novel. Her dreams of a quiet garret in which to work are dashed when her roommate Birdie brings home a would-be boyfriend and invites him to move in with them. Birdie and Damon take over the apartment with their mess and constant bickering and Marisol finds solace in a weekend adult education writing class taught by a sexy young author named Olivia Frost. In spite of the fact that Marisol's old friend John is in the same class, Marisol falls quickly and obviously for Olivia, who readers will--as the other characters in the book do--suspect is something of a cad. In traditional romantic fashion, the character who would be Marisol's perfect girlfriend is sadly ignored, and thus, the romantic triangle is established.

I'm probably the only person in the YA world who didn't like Hard Love (What can I say? I thought the zine stuff was "poserish." Then again, I'm probably a poser for thinking so.) I did, however, enjoy Love and Lies. As I mentioned before, this novel seemed to offer a more sympathetic rendering of the characters I found somewhat one-dimensional in Hard Love. The latest novel paints Marisol--typed as the brash, over-confident, out-and-proud teen lesbian in HL--as both confident and naive; while her hubris definitely gets her into trouble with both her shoulda, coulda, woulda girlfriend, her naivete with regards to Olivia provides an appropriately tragic check. The secondary characters--including Marisol's roommate Birdie and his boyfriend Damon--are well-drawn and provide comic relief, though not in a "Will and Grace" kind of way, which is nice.

While you don't have to have read Hard Love to "get" what's going on in the sequel, it would probably help. I relied on my faulty memory and got through just fine.

Posted by Amy P. at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dole, Mayra Lazara (2008). Down to the Bone. NY: HarperTeen. 367 pages.

When seventeen-year-old Laura's mother discovers that Laura has been in a two-year relationship with a girl, she kicks her daughter out of her Miami home on the same day the girl's teachers expel Laura from her Catholic school. Fortunately, Laura's best friend Soli and her mother are only too happy to take the newly orphaned girl in, and, when Laura's girlfriend in sent to Cuba by her family, Soli and company become Laura's new family.

Set in Miami and equally devoted to describing Cuban youth and the Cuban gay scene, this first novel by Dole is way too long. In the course of the book's nearly 400 pages, Laura questions her sexuality, dates a guy, kisses a genderqueer dude, crushes on a girl, swears off love, tries to reunite with her mother, and navigates an unfamiliar gay scene. Meanwhile, practically every single day of the year this book spans is captured on the page--not diary style, that would be too easy--so that by the time Laura does end up with the hot chica she met in, like, the first 100 pages of the book, I found it hard to care.

You know me: I'm a champion for GLBTQ YA literature; however, I have to draw some literary lines because nobody else seems capable of doing so! This novel was too ambitious and suffered for it. While Dole could have crafted an intriguing story about being gay in a Cuban-American enclave with a distinct set of values--some progressive, and some not--this novel tried to tackle absolutely everything and failed. I know you're not supposed to write a review of the book you think the critiqued novel could have or should have been, but, in this case, it's nearly impossible to consider the long-ass and convoluted book for what it is.

Here's the thing: in Jenkins and Cart's The Heart Has its Reasons (a bibliography and history of GLBTQ young adult literature), the authors describe three "phases" of gay visibility in young adult literature. Each of these "phases" is characterized by a distinct way of handling the GLBTQ character and his or her situation. Older books are typically coming out stories meant to make gay characters visible, while newer books tend to situate the GLBTQ character within or at least near a queer or supportive community. Down to the Bone attempts to do it all: there's the coming out story (the first 100 pages), the assimilation piece (the second 100 pages) and the eventual recognition of community (the last 100 page). It's like Dole read Cart and Jenkins' book and thought it was an instruction manual, rather than a description of narrative flux. Dude, this was just too much to handle.

Posted by Amy P. at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Levithan, David (2008). How They Met, and other stories. NY: Knopf. 256 pages.

Oh, David Levithan, I find it so hard to stomach your writing. I think you might be too much of a romantic for cynical old me. Yes, I know, I devoted an entire scholarly essay to the discussion of the importance of your novel, Boy Meets Boy (coming soon, Spring, 2008, from Children's Literature Association Quarterly), and I agree that that novel was and is an important novel; however, I can't stand your cheesy prose. Take it down a notch, and we'll talk.

At any rate, fans of Levithan--and of BMB in particular--will welcome this collection of short stories, each of which is devoted to how various teen couples (boy/boy, girl/girl, boy/girl) met. The beginning of romance is always a hopeful topic and even I found my cold heart melting a bit with the first story, the tale of a six-year-old fix-up artist. I won't argue that the appearance of stories of this type--namely GLBTQ romance told without excuse or apology--are needed, though I'm still waiting for someone to pony up with some erotic content (I'm talking to you, Julie Anne Peters). The problem with this collection is really the cheesiness; the stories often read more like your average "advanced" high school student's literary magazine submission. You know what I'm talking about: occasional moments of naive insight hidden among pseudo-literary and awkwardly romantic musings. And yes, Levithan did include some of his own high school writings (unedited!) among the stories in this collection. I just can't get away from the feeling that this collection, along with a lot of Levithan's other writings, is just a little too self-indulgent. But, really, who am I to say? I'm blogging about young adult literature, for God's sake. You know you're going to read it anyway. Sigh.

Posted by Amy P. at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Peters, Julie Ann (2007). Grl2Grl. Boston: Little, Brown. 160 pages.

Peters' short story collection features ten character sketches of young women, each of whom claim (or are beginning to claim) sexuality in distinct and (with the exception of the story entitled "Boi") womanist ways. While the quality of the collection is uneven, Peters refuses to let the brevity of the form compromise her address of some pretty serious issues including incest and abuse. The stories I enjoyed the most were the ones that implied a woman-identified audience and which didn't introduce the concept of young lesbian life and love as much as presume a sympathetic audience.

Many of the stories emphasized community and its importance--particularly "After Alex," in which a teen girl tries to get over the dissolution of her first serious relationship, and "TIAD," comprised primarily of chat logs in a lesbian affirmative chat room. Stories in which a lack of any queer affirmative community was notable--in the case of "Ouside/In," the obligatory should-I-or-shouldn't-I-join-the-Gay-Straight-Alliance story and "Boi," about a F to M trans teen--turned out to prove a need for queer community as well and suggested social action in a subtle way.

There were two things that disappointed me a bit. The first is typical (for me, anyway): I was really hoping for a more sensual collection, in part because I had read an interview with Peters in which she articulated a need for teen lesbian "erotica" and in part because of the sort of sexy cover. Don't get me wrong, my interest isn't entirely prurient. Instead, what I was interested in was a collection of relationship stories (love stories, if you will) that, in their entirety--which would include scenes of sensuality--took full advantage of the genre while casting "against type" in a way that would encourage us to think about generic expectations and how these expectations are, in part, culturally shaped. The second concern is something that a student of mine brought up: namely, why is the issue of masculinity not addressed in "Boi" (about the F to M teen) and how does the inclusion of such a story complicate or even contradict the "Grl" focus of the stories?

Posted by Amy P. at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wittlinger, Ellen (2007). Parrotfish. NY: Simon and Schuster. 294 pages.

Grady's always has trouble figuring out who, exactly, he is. As a young high school student, Grady--then known as Angela--came out as a lesbian; however, acknowledging a love for women only seemed like part of the process. Acknowledging the uncomfortable feeling that she didn't exactly belong in a female body and would like to live as a male was not easy, but, following the Thanksgiving holiday, Angela decides to return to school as Grady and "perform" gender in the way that feels the most natural, the most right.

As a "new" kid, Grady doesn't exactly get a warm welcome. Grady's younger sister is embarrassed by her transgendered brother and Grady's former best friend shuns him in an effort to get in with the popular crowd. The only person who takes Grady's transition in stride is Sebastian, the nerdy guy who has been assigned a locker next to Grady's.

Michael Cart, writing for Booklist, called this novel "nonthreatening" and I have to agree with his assessment and his judgment of the novel as perhaps incomplete because of this treatment. That said, by not hitting us over the head with transition details and titillating information (how does Grady bind his breasts? Does Grady "stuff" his pants?), Wittlinger emphasizes the humanity of the character and, in downplaying the transgender issue (Grady faces some logistical difficulties in gym and gets bullied by some jerky popular kids), doesn't raise the central conflict from structural to political. On one hand, this works well; it becomes easier to "forget" that Grady is transgendered and, I think, that is Wittlinger's intention. However, I'm not certain (and this my political self talking here) that we can ever engage with this subject (at least in "today's society") without bringing in politics to some degree.

Posted by Amy P. at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)