And donation info provided I move onto the author who will be this year's Franzen (i.e. the author I will blog about at insane length and gush about the awesomeness of), John Green, and the book he co-wrote with David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson is the story of two teenaged boys both called Will Grayson (you never would have guessed that, right?). Will Grayson (always written in title case) lives in the central suburbs of Chicago. His motto is "shut up" in the sense that he doesn't talk or engage with the issues as that has caused him trouble in the past. He is largely a loner except for his best friend, "Tiny" Cooper, who to paraphrase the novel (as I'm not certain this is the exact wording and I don't have the novel with me) "is the largest person who is also gay or the gayest person who is also large". will grayson (always written in lower case) is a profoundly depressed gay teen living a ways from central Chicago. He is medicated for his depression and lives in his own very dark world. He has a few friends at school (in particular a girl called Maura who has a crush on him but also suspects that he is gay- a fact he is yet to tell anyone) and an intense internet relationship with a boy called Isaac. One night, Will tries to go with Tiny and their mutual friend Jane to a concert only to find his fake ID has been botched and says he is 20 not 21. As he is ejected and they attend the gig, Will looks for a way to entertain himself until the concert is over and decides to indulge in one of the few things in the States that you do with a fake ID that says you are 20 i.e. go to an adult shop (the age for these being 18). On the same night, will has made plans to finally meet the mysterious Isaac but is shocked to discover that Isaac has suggested that they meet in an adult shop which of course turns out to be the same central Chicago shop that Will is checking out. The lives of the two boys intersect and every changes....
I was introduced to the brilliance of John Green about six months ago by a friend who was mildly obsessed with the vlogs that he and his brother Hank upload to youtube (in defense of said friend, I will add that he was obsessed due to unemployment but in a crazy creepy "I must get home to watch me some vlogbrothers in lieu of having a functioning social life" kinda way...I hasten to add not that there is anything wrong with the latter...please don't hunt me down with pitchforks, you nerdfighter types...I even ordered me a Crash Course World History t-shirt so I'm like this close to being one of you). The vlogbrothers videos are mildly entertaining fun and even better is John Green's Crash Course World History which I will admit I am legitimately obsessed with (much better than his brother's science ones). As we watched vlogbrothers videos, the discussion of "I wonder what John Green's novels are like?" came up on occasion, and this is my first attempt to answer this query (the second Looking for Alaska will be blogged about soon- I just finished it yesterday but this is week 3 and I'm still catching up on week 1). I've not read a great number of novels that are written by multiple authors and I often get distracted as I read them by trying to figure out who wrote what section and get all crazy about figuring that out (listen well Pratchett and Gaiman...Good Omens is one of my favourite books and I will one day fight to discover which of you wrote what). Luckily having watched the amount of John Green video I have figuring who wrote what in this case felt profoundly easy as the narrative voice in the odd numbered Will Grayson chapter was so obviously him and the voice in the even numbered will grayson chapters was so obviously not...I checked on wikipedia after I finished and yep I was right.
That out of the way, what was the book like? It is frustrating and confusing! Not because it is bad, but because WHY WHY WHY are teenagers, who the book is aimed at (yes it is YA fiction and I don't mind admitting that I'm an adult who on occasion reads some YA fiction), reading tripe like Twilight or The Hunger Games when they could be reading this!?!?! About a year ago I started to think that YA fiction might always have been as bad as the Meyer and Collins factories make it look (it should be noted I don't consider Harry Potter YA fiction as it was aimed initially at a slightly younger than YA market) and that all I remember about good YA fiction from my childhood/teenage years was a nostalgia cloaked lie so I reread Tomorrow When the War Began and Looking for Alibrandi and it turns out good YA fiction definitely used to be a thing. This novel proved to me that in fact it is still a thing but that the teens are for some reason making the trash more popular than the gold. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, especially the chapters by John Green, is, hyperbole aside, some of the funniest YA fiction I've read in years and I often found myself laughing out loud. In its tackling of big issues such as self confidence, acceptance and homosexuality, it reminded me of my favourite funny YA author when I was a YA, Morris Gleitzman (if you haven't read his Two Weeks with the Queen, even if you are an adult, you should seriously check it out). Both of Will and will are perfect models of awkward teen boys struggling with their identity and the character of Tiny Cooper and his quest to produce his life story as a musical entitled Tiny Dancer is simply visionary...I adored Tiny and he may go down as one of my favourite ever fictional characters. Whilst the book is about teen boys, it is easily readable and accessible to teen girls (at a guess) and adults. I would say to anyone out there with teenagers that they should pick up this touching, hilarious gem of a novel, and give it to their teens but also maybe read it themselves and restore their faith in YA fiction.
Can I borrow the book ;-)
ReplyDeleteYep...though currently it is on loan to the friend mentioned in the post, I assume he will be done with it in the next couple of days though as it is a super fast read.
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