There is a book I have been reading in the past week, a perfectly good teen novel with a coming-of-age spin that while not stellar seemed like it might be a nice diversionary tale that would certainly be enjoyable to readers and well worth a review. I was quite pleased with the premise and the first few chapters but as I've continued to read, the protagonist (female) has gone from being confused and endearing to brushing up against maddeningly stupid. I expected her to get her crap together, or at least figure out what her crap is, at some point and that has not happened. So while I've continued to read I've been thinking that maybe this book just isn't good enough for the column meaning it will be one of those unusual novels that I do read pretty much all the way through but end up not formally reviewing. I thought I would mention it here, say what I liked and disliked about it and then let it go.
But then something appeared on the page that stopped me in my tracks - really gave me serious pause - and I thought no way, this isn't really here, this is just not seriously in a book for teenagers in 2009. It's just not.
I should preface this by saying I'm not giving the book's title because I am reading an ARC and it's not fair to provide a quote here that might very well not appear in the final copy. (If it does I will give the book's title in a post at that time.) However, the writer still put it in there and the publisher has left it in there and so when I read it I knew it was what they all thought was funny and that bothers me, it bothers me a lot.
Here's the set-up: the protag and her brother are throwing a party at his college campus apartment. He's just come out of the bathroom after getting ready. He walks out and she thinks "someone came out of the bathroom who sort of looked like my brother only a lot gayer." The author then describes how he is wearing a nice button-down shirt and some cologne. The protag thinks this is hysterical and tells him he is "pretty". He laughs it off and the party ensues.
I couldn't get past that phrase though: "only a lot gayer". WTF? I know gay jokes still happen in high school, just like sexist jokes and racist jokes. I get that it's the great wild world out there where unkind things happen. I understand the mean girl persona. But in a beach blanket book about going off to college? In a cute and fuzzy book for ages 14 and up we make a joke like this? It's just so 1980s, so one million years ago, so damn dated and not in a good way.
It's the bad old days and it falls like a thud in the center of a story that clearly is working very hard to be about something and instead settles for.....this.
Am I wrong here? Are we really saying things like this for fun still? Does it belong in a light novel, in any novel that doesn't use it as an example of hurtful speech? Are we supposed to think it's funny?
The book was hanging on the precipice for me and this slid it over the side. And maybe that's my fault - maybe I'm too sensitive, maybe I remember how much these words hurt some of the kids I grew up with. But it just doesn't seem like a throwaway comment to me and it most certainly doesn't seem like something that we should still be writing - and saying - in the 21st century.
The author made a bad (and lazy) choice here and for letting it go this far, the editor didn't do her any favors.
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June 1
2009
07:31 AM
I guess the author was just trying to do "teenspeak" because some people still use that type of slang. Like you, I'm not a fan of that phrase but I wouldn't say it's gone by any means.