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The Drunken Odyssey

Category Archives: Young Adult

Aesthetic Drift #23: On Finally Reading The Outsiders

02 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Aesthetic Drift, Blog Post, Young Adult

≈ 1 Comment

Aesthetic Drift #23 by Stephen McClurg

On Finally Reading The Outsiders

One way I disappointed my high school students was by not reading one of their favorites: S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. One particular student, Caroline, frequently reminded me how guilty I should feel for not reading the book she loved. 

I promised her some thoughts when I got around to it, which only took about a decade. 

Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was fifteen, and it’s quite an achievement considering the depth of characterization. Despite the characters’ flaws, I care about them. Overall, I think I would have liked the novel more when I was younger, but I was reading Stephen King or Clive Barker, and missed many of the books we’re supposed to read when we’re young, like this one, or Catcher in the Rye. Though I hazily remember the movie for The Outsiders, I was too busy watching stuff like ET or The Thing. Plus, the movie characters looked like the kids who wore cut-off jean jackets, sang John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good” on the bus, and smoked on the walk home—a walk that might or might not involve punching a nerd like me. 

Caroline says she understands what I mean, and explains who she was when The Outsiders crossed her path: “I was in seventh grade, and it was just a huge part of those formative years that bridged over into early adulthood. It was a time when reality seemed more avoidable and that my dreams could still be unrealistic and easily obtained.”

While The Outsiders reminds me of neighborhood bullies, for Caroline the book is bound with her own youthful dreams, one of the topics of the novel itself, which the reader mostly experiences through the protagonist, Ponyboy. He says, “It seems like there’s gotta be someplace without greasers or Socs, with just people. Plain ordinary people.” He’s one of the greasers, who live on the East Sideof a mid-size city in Oklahoma, a blue collar part of town. The Socs live on the West Side and are upper-middle class. 

For Ponyboy, I think the “plain ordinary people” relate to having his family back together out in a house in the country. His dreams–with the exception of wanting to bring his parents back to life—are quintessential American pastoral, with farms and horses, cakes and cattle:

“I wanted to be out of towns and away from excitement. I only wanted to lie on my back under a tree and read a book or draw a picture, and not worry about being jumped or carrying a blade or ending up married to some scatterbrained broad with no sense. The country would be like that, I thought dreamily. I would have a yellow cur dog, like I used to, and Sodapop could get Mickey Mouse back and ride in all the rodeos he wanted to, and Darry would lose that cold, hard look and be like he used to be, eight months ago, before Mom and Dad were killed. Since I was dreaming I brought Mom and Dad back to life…Mom could bake some more chocolate cakes and Dad would drive the pickup out early to feed the cattle. […] My mother was golden and beautiful” (48).

Ponyboy’s grief over the loss of his mother is central to the novel. In the previous passage, Ponyboy calls her “golden”—a descriptor in the book associated with Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and related to innocence and idealism in the novel. His mother is like Eve in an Eden that never existed, this dream garden of a farm and a family made whole again. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy attempts to shore up his adopted family of brothers and similarly troubled friends, the same way people today are likely to build a family or peer group through fandom. 

Ultimately, I find the absence of women and the feminine frustrating, but one that makes sense in the novel. 

But femininity doesn’t belong with the greasers social codes or either notion of being tough as described by Ponyboy. Tough has traditional masculine connotations: strength, courage, stoicism, etc. Tuff is something aesthetically pleasing or cool, like a Firebird Trans Am or a kickass jam. Given this, I wanted more scenes with Cherry Valance, a spirited girl and potential love interest for Ponyboy. Her appearance is all too brief, but she is more sophisticated, smarter, and quite possibly tougher than a few of the outsiders themselves. 

Caroline had a different reaction when she first read the book: “Personally, I loved the lack of female characters because I was a melodramatic teenager and couldn’t stand the possibility of even fictional characters somehow taking away from my own feelings. When I found out Hinton was female, though, and that the characters were semi-autobiographical, I related to it even more. I, too, was drawn to misunderstood rebellious guys with shit tons of issues for me to capitalize on and solve. My dad was extremely strict, and I couldn’t hang out with a lot of my friends. So naturally, I rebelled more and eventually grew into quite a bad influence myself. ”

There’s a moment with these misunderstood rebellious guys that I find revealing and tender and is an example of Ponyboy’s concealed sensitivity. Ponyboy, while looking at one of his brothers says, “Asleep, he looked a lot younger than going-on-seventeen, but I had noticed that Johnny looked younger when he was asleep, too, so I figured everyone did. Maybe people are younger when they are asleep” (104). Most parents can probably relate to Ponyboy’s idea and I think it plays into these boys having to nurture each other. Small moments like this show that the guys are more than troublemakers.

I remember holding my children until they fell asleep and then watching them in their cribs. I still look at them in bed at night and in the morning. It’s hard not to see them younger, even as babies when they sleep. The outsider kids try to nurture each other in ways acceptable to their codes, while showing how they are still children fending for themselves in difficult situations. Caroline says, “It was invigorating to vicariously experience those emotions with the characters. That’s always been my favorite thing about literature and I’m relieved that’s remained the same since having to grow up.”As different readers, Caroline and I read that vulnerability in different ways, which is one of my favorite things about literature. 

There’s another scene that shows the kids taking care of themselves like adults, but with the tastes of children. It’s funny and bittersweet. Ponyboy says, “All three of us like chocolate cake for breakfast. Mom had never allowed it with ham and eggs, but Darry let Soda and me talk him into it. We really didn’t have to twist his arm; Darry loves chocolate cake as much as we do. Sodapop always makes sure there’s some in the icebox every night and if there isn’t he cooks up one real quick. I like Darry’s cakes better; Sodapop always puts too much sugar in the icing. I don’t see how he stands jelly and eggs and chocolate cake all at once, but he seems to like it. Darry drinks black coffee, and Sodapop and I drink chocolate milk. We could have coffee if we wanted it, but we like chocolate milk. All three of us like chocolate stuff. Soda says if they ever make a chocolate cigarette I’ll have it made” (104-5). I can’t help thinking Ponyboy would have it made today with the vaping craze, but I like how it’s a scene of making breakfast and coffee, but everything gets infused with chocolate and sweets. My kids have badgered me daily for pancakes, sometimes even for dinner, knowing that we will likely have them on the weekend.       

While I was reading, I kept pondering whether or not younger readers would identify with these characters. I approached the book considering it for classroom use, the old habit of a teacher. A prejudice towards YA books I have is thinking they are for someone else, not me. (What YA means as a genre or marketing tool is for another time.) I should just be asking if I felt something while reading the book. Was I moved? Did it make me think? Did I enjoy it? Yes. Yes. Kind of.

Caroline says she was invigorated by experiencing the lives of these characters; maybe I let too much of my own baggage get in the way. She also says, “I was still an oblivious kid when I read it, and I still had a lot of dreams and plans for my life. My priorities were having friends, looking cool, putting minimal effort into class, smoking cigarettes and getting the hell out of school. Unfortunately, life finally happened and my dreams currently are not being late on rent and my car insurance, finding a new apartment/moving when my lease ends in less than a month and to eventually finish school. Meanwhile, I’m a waitress and hooked on the cigarettes that I started smoking to look cool. My American Dream is holding on to the dreams I used to have and wishing I never had to grow up.” 

What she says does sound like experiences in the book. We have dreams and goals and we would like them validated. We want family and friends, to be close to others, feel loved, feel appreciated. Ponyboy might give us a model for holding onto dreams and goals while making a life of what one has and the people around us, even if that life does not immediately—and may never—look like what we have imagined.

Maybe this ambivalent equilibrium is what Hinton achieves. If she leans too far into dreams and fantasy, the book becomes YA pulp and pap. Easy to eat, but no sustenance like the chocolate cigarettes Sodapop jokes about. If she leans too far the other way, past reality, the book becomes as monstrous as those little boys stranded on an island, who not only kill their only true, wise friend, but also kill what’s true and wise within themselves. The Outsidersis a very American novel and Ponyboy negotiates with the idea of the American Dream and the difficulties of being poor in an America full of dreaming. Ponyboy has to be tough, but he also chooses to be kind. Much like the American cognitive dissonance of dreams and disparities, he knows that nothing gold can stay, but fights to stay gold.


Stephen McClurg (Episode 24) writes and teaches in Birmingham, Alabama. He co-hosts The Outrider Podcast, writes at Eunoia Solstice, and infrequently blogs. He has contributed music as a solo artist and with the group Necronomikids to past episodes of The Drunken Odyssey.

Episode 226: Vidhu Aggarwal!

01 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry, Young Adult

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

A Witness in Exile, Adelia Johnson, It's Kind of a Funny Story, Ned Vizzini, The Trouble with Humpadori, Vidhu Aggarwal

Episode 226 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I talk to poet Vidhu Aggarwal,

vidhu-aggarwalplus Adelia Johnson writes about Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story changed her life.

adelia-johnsonTEXTS DISCUSSED

the-trouble-with-humpadoriits-kind-of-a-funny-story-by-ned-vizzini
NOTES

Here is Ned Vizzini’s obituary from The New York Times.

Check out my essay, “There, But,” in the latest issue of Animal: A Beast of a Literary Magazine.


Episode 226 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

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21st Century Brontë #17: Unwind, Part 2

28 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in 21st Century Bronte, Comic Books, Film, Young Adult

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Jessica Jones, The Hunger Games, Unwind

21st Century Brontë #17 by Brontë Bettencourt

Unwind, Part 2

So Alex asked me for clarification on why last week, I stated that I’d prefer to see the Unwind series as a TV show rather than a set of movies. Also, I learned that a movie is indeed in the works for Unwind. The script is in its final edits and casting calls are behind held as this post is being read.

I’m not stating my preference about visual format because I’m one of those people who prefer the book to the movie. To be fair to movie adaptations, I don’t believe that the source material is always better, because the separate formats call for strengths in different areas. In a book for example, the author can get away with telling the story through lengthy dialogue and exposition. But in a movie, the setting is established in a single shot, and to watch two people have a conversation does not take advantage of the visuals nor pacing.

Gamemakersala

That’s why certain series such as The Hunger Games works well in a converted format. The writing is fast-paced but straight forward, a survival tale told by a narrator that doesn’t mince words. Because Katniss had to keep her family from starving at such a young age, her independence has served as both her asset and short-coming. She does not pause to reflect on her emotions due to so much consistently happening around her, and the few times she does pause, she is quick to pick up the pieces and react in a way that makes a bold statement. In fact, The Hunger Games benefits as a movie at times due to showcasing war and the other characters, which is limited in the book since we’re confined to Katniss’s perspective. We are able to see how the Game Makers create the harrowing obstacles, as well as why Katniss receives gifts from sponsors, all situations that occur outside of the arena she is trapped within.

The Hunger Games Katniss

On the other hand, the simplicity of this story would prevent it from being a successful TV series. The complications in the story are due to the Capitol sending wave after wave of obstacles at the characters, keeping them from reconciling past actions because everyone is too damn busy trying to survive. Because of the singular point of view, there is also little development of the other characters and when there is, another character provides this outlook mostly through dialogue to Katniss, who is too goal-oriented to notice much about other people on her own. A lot of extraneous padding was added to the third movie so the final book could stand as two installments. I walked out of the theater of the third movie knowing the sequence of events, but having nothing to add to the complexity of the characters.img_1673

Meanwhile, the Unwind series began as a trilogy. But as Neal Shusterman wrote UnSouled, he realized that he was nowhere near his sufficient ending with all ends he had to tie up. The story is more than the characters responding to the plot. All the perspectives belong to fully fleshed out beings who are working for a cause that the reader may not agree with, but can at least be understood. Such interconnectedness beckons a longer running format in order to tell the entire story.

Which brings up another fear that I’m concerned about: narrowing the story to a single perspective. Unwind‘s foundation rests on the pro-life/pro-choice argument, which requires a level of suspension of disbelief to really follow along. I feel like Connor would be the safest story to tell because his story literally becomes a legend in the book. Early on he is dubbed as the “Akron AWOL” by the media because of his outlandish escape involving a highway traffic jam, a hostage, and a tranquilizer. In actuality he’s running for his life, making decisions fueled by adrenaline, not caring to make a scene but to survive. But as Unwind‘s media romanticizes the situation, a movie would find this view the easiest to cash in on.

Although I enjoyed Risa’s perspective, she could be easily omitted due to her character development not being the most obvious. And at least in the first book Lev’s point of view stands as the most controversial. And considering that just this week the University of Central Florida’s library was shut down due to the possibility of a praying Muslim woman assaulting the students, I’m afraid that key points in Lev’s story would deter objectivity.

I’m also concerned about the rating system that a movie format would garner. Because this is YA fiction, of course the target audience would be PG-13. But again, the subject involves dismantling teenagers for parts. I feel like the full psychological implications would be glossed over to keep the rating, especially as the story veers into darker topics such as “Parts Pirates” and grotesque bodily modifications.

Take the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how the stories are told as movies, versus as a Netflix Original Series. I fell in love with Jessica Jones, binge-watching all of season one in a matter of days. The story isn’t just about Jessica solving cases because these aren’t isolated incidents. Early on she comes to realize that there’s a connection between the mysteries and a man by the name of Kilgrave, who is heavily wove into Jessica’s past.

Jessica-Jones-1-1200x674

What makes this series so awesome are the psychological layers peeled back and scrutinized involving PTSD, assault, and rape. So often in stories we find characters being mind-controlled – just take a look at The Avengers movie. But while Jessica Jones goes into depth on helplessness, recovery, and the victim-blaming, Hawkeye is the only character in The Avengers to comment on his time as a victim. He summarizes his helplessness in a few sentences before the story continues because there is much more to cover before the movie’s end. I’m sure that Hawkeye still thinks about his time as Loki’s puppet, but without his own film or extra screen time in the other films, the character is on his own.

A topic as heavy-handed as rape can fully exist with all of its complexities in a television series, due to the longer run time as well as the freedom to be viewed outside of a rating. I’m not supporting the idea that younger audiences should watch mature television, but mature television is more accessible to them. Meanwhile, a movie can only allot so much time to an individual belonging to an ensemble cast, which is what the Unwind series has.

I’ll still follow the the Unwind movie updates, but considering the trend of YA series and their movie counterparts, I’m not too optimistic.

_______

21st Cen Bronté

Brontë Bettencourt (Episode 34) graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelors in English Creative Writing. When she’s not writing or working, she is a full time Dungeon Master and Youtube connoisseur.

21st Century Brontë #17: A YA Series You Should be Reading

21 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in 21st Century Bronte, Young Adult

≈ 1 Comment

21st Century Brontë #17 by Brontë Bettencourt

A YA Series You Should be Reading

Years ago, my friend Sammie recommended I read Neil Shusterman’s Unwind dystology, a science fiction series devoid of those magic or fantastical elements that I normally gravitate towards. But I’m glad I gave the Unwind books a chance, because it stands for everything I believe the Young Adult genre is capable of: being both unapologetically thought-provoking while delivering an entertaining story.

Unwind

The premise of the Unwind dystology involves a society in which advocates for both sides of the Pro-life and Pro-choice debate have reached a middle ground following the fictional Heartland War. This war resulted from an ever growing generation of teenagers and young adults rioting, fighting, causing chaos to the populace for reasons explained further on. The compromise is the act of unwinding. A parent can choose to retroactively “abort” their child between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. The child is sent to a harvest camp to which their body parts are harvested for later use. Because all appendages, organs and even parts of the brain are reused, the child is not considered dead since all portions are recycled.

This dark premise moves forward with three separate narrators: Connor Lassiter, a delinquent whose parents choose to have unwound; Risa Ward, a ward of the state sent to be unwound due to funding shortages at the orphanage; and Levi “Lev” Calder, the tenth of ten children whose parents choose to unwind for religious sacrament, or tithe. Each child come from a background distinct to the universe that Shusterman has created.

And this is why not only the cast of characters expand in the later books, but why occasionally there are chapters narrated by points of view that are never seen again.

Early on there’s a chapter where an unnamed mother engages in the act of “Storking.” Parents who do not want their newborns will leave the baby on a random household’s doorstep. If the biological parent isn’t caught in the act, and the household is caught finding the child, that child now belongs to that household. Stocking is a common occurrence within this universe explained in a chapter through this unnamed mother. The practice directly effects Connor, Risa, and Lev in the following chapters. Storking also grants the reader insight into an individual of this unique situation.

I think what I love so much about this series is how expansive this controversial reality is, and how the diverse cast of characters respond accordingly.

In the case of stories with multiple narrators, there is usually at least one dull perspective that becomes a chore to read. That doesn’t happen in Unwind, though.

Shusterman’s distinctive perspectives all contribute engagingly to this universe. For example, Lev arguably undergoes the most character development in the series, initially working against Connor and Risa. As a Tithe, Lev sees his unwinding as an honor instead of a death sentence. Because Connor was cast out of his family, much of his struggle consists of him reeling in his emotions, as well as reconciling with the abandonment. But Risa acts as a foil to them both due to having neither a home, nor family life to compromise her emotionally. Her life as a ward of the state means that her life never belonged to herself; the opportunity to escape unwinding marks her greater drive to finally gain autonomy over her own life.

Shusterman excels in juggling a series of fleshed out concepts while accounting for word economy, keeping the pacing fast, the dialogue unexpectedly witty but never insensitively so. And in a series where teenagers are running from being dismantled in a world that claims to not want them, glimmers of humor are much appreciated.

This premise begs for philosophical reasoning that never pins these concepts down as a single answer, but gets me thinking. Does an individual continue to live on although all their physical parts have been dismantled and distributed elsewhere? How does a parent choose to unwind their child? Which beckons the question of what ownership of yourself means before reaching the age of eighteen?

One concept that intrigued me–and if you want to avoid spoilers then skip this paragraph–is that the process of unwinding is never explicitly defined. There is a character later on who is unwound. From the narration there’s a psychological breakdown of the character’s consciousness. But the character is sedated, and cannot elaborate on the procedure itself in solid description. I like that this controversial procedure remains undefined, because Shusterman doesn’t bloody the larger concepts in grim detail. Instead, it’s like he’s providing a commentary on death itself. If unwinding can be considered as the death of an individual, then it’s nice to not have a specific answer of “yes, this person lives on” or “no, the unwound individual is absorbed into the new host’s consciousness.” There isn’t a simple, factual, reductive answer that Shusterman gives. There isn’t a moral that can sum up this series; instead we’re left speculating on a fucked up world that reveals insight into the individuals who are trying to survive it.

The series ends on a strong note that doesn’t go out of its way to comfort the reader. There’s also an eBook titled Unstrung, which chronicles Lev’s whereabouts when he initially parts from Conner and Risa. And just recently Unbound was released, a collection of short stories with minor characters narrating from other aspects of the world.

Although I would love to see more of such a complex universe, I don’t believe this saga would work in movie format. I’m certain all of its complexities and narrators would be constricted down to just a single point of view. If anything, this series deserves a television adaption, where there’s room to elaborate on all that Shusterman writes about. The practice of dismantling teenagers is outrageous enough to draw attention, though the controversial issue

But this is a story that I definitely recommend if you’d like to try some awesome YA fiction. And as a bonus positive, yes there are romances that flourish in the story.

What a breath of fresh air.

_______

21st Cen Bronté

Brontë Bettencourt (Episode 34) graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelors in English Creative Writing. When she’s not writing or working, she is a full time Dungeon Master and Youtube connoisseur.

Episode 118: Holly Thompson!

21 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Young Adult

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Holly Thompson, Jonathan Saffron Foer's Eating Animals, Laryssa Wirstiuk, The Language Inside, Verse Novels

Episode 118 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I interview the verse novelist Holly Thompson,

Holly Thompson

Plus Laryssa Wirstiuk writes about how Jonathan Saffron Foer’s Eating Animals changed her life.

Laryssa Wirstiuk

TEXTS DISCUSSED

The Language Inside

Eating Animals

NOTES

Check out Functionally Literate Radio, which on the latest episode features my essay, “I Heart Smokey and the Bandit.”

From the Facebook page of Bob Lamb (episode 40), in regard to his informal “Worst First Sentence of a Bad Novel Contest”:

Okay, final verdict is in. First place–John King, although one of the judges worried that it was so funny that it could be used as the first sentence of a comic masterpiece rather than a bad novel. Yet, its originality, the sudden twists and turns of inspired lunacy, and the supermarket imagery cleverly woven into a surreal scene so impressed the judges that it really was no contest. Second place went to Steve Edwards–his economy, precision, and repetition of really bad metaphors obviously made his entry a powerful one, and the final metaphor of the peach pit as a tiny wooden brain had a certain je ne sais quois that evoked a peal of delightful revulsion. Third place went to Bob Lamb–although an unoriginal mockery of standard noir detective fiction a la Hammett, the judges felt that it’s his goddamned contest and he ought to get some sort of a prize, especially given his fragile psyche and penchant for violence. The judges also awarded a distinguished parody prize to Eric Link for his brilliant satire of Hemingway writing a zombie novel. Although not technically a bad first sentence of a bad novel, and even though the judges could see this turning into a great parody of Hemingway and zombie fiction, they felt it was more appropriate for the old “Bad Hemingway” contest that used to run annually. Another entry, by Elizabeth Stuckey-French, was simply way too interesting and good to fit a bad first sentence contest. This often occurs when a real writer tries to write a bad sentence–their talent turns it into a sentence with potential. The judges found themselves wanting to read more, which is always a sign that your first sentence is not truly bad. The gutless wonder award goes to Mike Cocchiarale, who caused Bob Lamb to write concluding sentences to his bad novel, and then did not even participate. The judges felt that although Mr. Cocchiarale is an avid sports fan from Cleveland, and thus hopelessly trapped in a world of pain and confusion, he should have at least tried and failed, not unlike his beloved Browns. Lou Hickman and Tim Reynolds have been disqualified for cheating, and have received a five-year ban from participating in the contest. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Kip Robisch, for his disruptive actions on this thread, and we expect to have him in custody shortly. We are working with law enforcement and immigration to have him deported.

And here was my winning entry:

When the were-pigs, gibbering in their porcine poetry and slapping the ground with their by-now clawed hooves, overran the supermarket, heaving their fleshy forms over the aisles of Cel-Ray sodas and bread and chick-peas, Clem knew that he better put down his inventory forms and drag the crossbow out of the safe again, but an icy sliver of revulsion, fear, and longing penetrated his spine, and he stood in front of the office window, watching the sounder below careen over the black and white tiles, demolishing the glass doors of the frozen food aisles, before their leader jumped onto the conveyor belt of check out line #7, and stared directly at him with wolf-like eyes, as if the giant porker was preparing to speak.

_________

Episode 118 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Buzzed Books #13: Amy Zhang’s Falling Into Place

09 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Buzzed Books, Young Adult

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Amy Zhang, Buzzed Books, Falling into Place, leslie salas

Buzzed Books #13 by Leslie Salas

Amy Zhang’s Falling Into Place

Falling Into Place

Falling Into Place centers on the most popular junior at Meridian high school, Liz Emerson, and her choice to practice the laws of physics by driving her Mercedes off an icy road. Liz’s story unfolds in braided non-chronological storytelling, bouncing between an unlikely narrator’s take on Liz’s wild-child exploits as the popular girl and “snapshot” flashbacks of the girl Liz used to be.

This debut novel by teen writer Amy Zhang stands out as one of the most challenging Young Adult novels on the market. Zhang’s storytelling is solid and literary-quality, capturing the heart of high school life in a way makes me nostalgic for hallways lined with lockers and half-dressed boys in the backseats of cars.

The secondary characters in this novel—Liz’s best friends Julia and Kennie, Liz’s mother, and the mysterious boy that witnesses her crash on the interstate—are all as well-rounded as Liz is. Each of them are believably imperfect in a way that makes them as endearing as they are frustrating.

Falling Into Place is an engaging read, an honest reflection of contemporary high school experiences and the struggles of growing up in dysfunctional households, including depression, substance abuse, and drug addition.

First-time author Amy Zhang shows a great deal of promise. She delivers a page-turning novel well worth an evening spent curled on the couch with a bottle by your ankles.

Pair with: Vodka. Any kind will do. The protagonist wasn’t picky about it, and you shouldn’t be, either.

_______

Leslie Salas (Photo by Ashley Inguanta)

Leslie Salas (episode 75) writes fiction, nonfiction, screenplays, and comics. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida and attended the University of Denver Publishing Institute. In addition to being an Associate Course Director at Full Sail University, Leslie also serves as an assistant editor for The Florida Review, a graphic nonfiction editorial assistant for Sweet: A Literary Confection, and a regular contributing artist for SmokeLong Quarterly.

Buzzed Books #4: Why all Writers Should be Paying Attention to YA

27 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Buzzed Books, Recommendation, Young Adult

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Alise Hamilton, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Buzzed Books, Young Adult

Buzzed Books #4 by Alise Hamilton

Why all Writers Should be Paying Attention to Young Adult Literature

Ari and DanteI first took note of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe during the ALA awards last winter, when it won the Pura Belpre Award, the Stonewall Book Award and was named as a Printz Honor Book. I have been trying to inject more young adult literature into my reading—a good part due to the direction of my latest manuscript—but also because of the general excitement surrounding the genre. During my tenure as an independent bookseller, I saw YA as a continually growing genre—both in the store, and as publishers expanded, or developed, their YA imprints. With YA, I witnessed reluctant readers, both young and old, engaged with fiction, at the same time I was observing regular readers enthusiastically consuming YA titles. More so, I have been inspired by authors such as Kelly Link, Jack Gantos, Sherman Alexie, Laurie Halse Anderson, M.T. Anderson, and Chris Lynch (to only name a few) as they push the limits of genre, delve, without fear or hesitation into difficult and dark topics, and stay true (or perhaps finally return) to the cornerstone of fiction: story.

Yet, despite all this excitement, there seems to exist a general notion that young adult literature lacks substance, or merit on a prose level, and I suspect this comes from the enormous popularity (and promotion) of a handful of “blockbuster” titles: from The Hunger Games, to Twilight, to Pretty Little Liars. Books like these, big screen ready and seemingly published with pre-conceived tie-in merchandising, are not indicative of the genre as a whole. (This is not, of course, to malign the many wonderful books that find a larger audience through film or television or to suggest they are inherently inferior to other, perhaps more obscure, literary titles.)

What I mean to say it that Bejamin Alire Saenz’s award winning Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is not “just” a fantastic YA novel, it is a fantastic novel. Ari and Dante, the novel’s young protagonists, are two very different, but compatible, outsiders who find a strong friendship in one another. As characters they are undeniably likeable—two, self-proclaimed “nice guys”—a story-telling element that is deceivingly difficult to pull off. They each come from in-tact, nuclear families, and while the parents, especially Ari’s, are flawed, they are engaged and deeply loving. In this way, Saenz did not allow himself any “tricks.” Aristotle and Dante…is a straightforward love-slash-coming-of-age story, which utilizes impeccable characterization, fine pacing, and accessible (while interesting) prose that any writing student would do well to pay attention to, or enjoy, simply, as pleasure reading.

That said, I do think that setting the book in the late 1980s is something of a cheap trick to avoid addressing new communication technologies such as text messaging, emails, facebook or twitter—especially as these mediums pertain to teenagers. While it could be argued that setting the novel in the 80s raises the stakes on the topic of homosexuality, it is not beyond reason to think teens in the last twenty years have an equally difficult time coming out, as is presented in the book.

Which is to say, too, that the book is relatable—and not only for gay teens, although I do imagine a book like this can—and surely has—offer a considerable amount of comfort to a young person struggling with his sexuality.  And isn’t comfort an important aspect of literature, especially young adult literature? Stories don’t need to be comforting to be worthwhile—but is there such a thing as a book-lover who has never sought comfort in his favorite novel or poem?

What Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe delivers is what readers most often crave: beautiful sentences, characters to root for, and a story that keeps you turning the page.

Pair with: your first beer

 Find ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE now at your local independent bookseller or buy online at Powells.com.

___________

Alise Hamilton

Alise Hamilton (Episode 7, essay) earned her MFA from Lesley University and holds a BFA in creative writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College. Her short fiction appeared in the Francesca Lia Block-edited anthology Love Magick.

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