I tend not to read as much fiction as I used to. Anymore it seems that one or other nonfiction works seem to capture my attention at any given time. This is not to say that I never read fiction; I read a lot of fantasy novels, and I also read a lot of works that are grouped into the category of Young Adult fiction. As a librarian working with the public, it is useful to be familiar with a range of what exists in both Young Adult and Junior Fiction, but the joy of this literature goes well beyond its utility. Some of the most interesting and innovative stories are being published by young adult authors, ranging from Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan to John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.
Previously I had read only one book by David Levithan, his collaboration with John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, featuring the intertwined stories of two young gay men. That book was interesting enough that I wanted to read more by Levithan (I went on and read everything by John Green in the meantime). When I was shelving some books in the Young Adult section at work, I came across a few books by Levithan and selected Boy Meets Boy out of those available. The read was short, delightful, and at times profoundly moving.
Boy Meets Boy would be a typical book about the joys and sorrows of high school love, a storyline so well-trod as to be boring at this point. Levithan takes this and portrays it from a perspective that is too infrequently taken (though that is changing), that of a young gay high school student, experiencing the very same tortuous and winding path that high school romance takes for so many. It is a powerful rejoinder against hateful bigots who see gays and lesbians as somehow Other, alien, an enemy. The emotions the narrator, Paul, feels are no different from what anyone feels growing up, the unique feeling of joy and pain all intermingled that love can bring, the fear of rejection, the confusion that can cloud our feelings. The fact that the feelings are for another boy seems almost secondary. Were it not for the fact that a sizable number of people still stand opposed to full equality for gays, the fact that the romance is between two boys would hardly even be noteworthy.
But it is, and Levithan, along with other authors who defy bigotry and possible censorship to tell stories like this one, is doing a great service to all society in having written this book, in portraying the love between two gay high schoolers as no different, no less meaningful or worthy of respect, than the love between two heterosexual high school students. I found the book to be captivating. While the idea of a gay protagonist living in such a tolerant place as Paul does made me skeptical, facing a remarkably small amount of bigotry, I can ignore my misgivings about how realistic such a place would be because of the story itself. The book isn't about that, it is about love. Short, at less than two hundred pages, the novel deals realistically with the problems of dealing with new love, broken trust, with friends who are changing as life itself changes. If you're looking for a nice weekend read, give Levithan's work a try. You aren't likely to regret the choice.
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