maybe tonight you're scared of falling...or how and when you're gonna land, and i gotta tell you friends that to stop thinking about the landing, because it's all about the falling.
Will Grayson Will Grayson technically falls into the YA genre of books, but anyone alive in the modern age should walk away from this book having laughed, learned something, and maybe even shed a tear or two.
"You're a pillar of fabulosity in the community".
This is what Will Grayson (the first we meet) tells his best friend, gayer than gay, and more alive than any teenager I've ever met, Tiny Cooper. And because I appreciate Tiny, I have to argue that this book is as much his story as it is the story of any Will Grayson.
The basic sitch: Two teenage boys named Will Grayson live in different Chicago suburbs. Will-1 is straight, best friends with Tiny, sort of in love with friend Jane, and living by 2 rules - Don't care too much about anything/one and 2. Shut up. Will-2 starts out emo-tastic and grows to become simply another person fighting depression, and falling in love with Tiny helps him realize the truth about a lot of things. Quite a bit of the story centers around the production of Tiny Dancer, a play about Tiny's life, and the truths that come out about our boys in the process of the play coming to life.
I was struck by the myriad of astute observations about life that Tiny and the two WGs made - truth and love are forever connected, love is way more than just sex or even romance, you don't chose your true friends, and its worth it to open the box (to see if the cat is alive/dead).
I searched for things to dislike about this book, but am still looking for them. If you are even vaguely bothered by the concept of homosexuality, or even scarier, the concept of wanting to be comfortable with who you are -- this book is not for you.
Everybody else, dive in!
If you like Will Grayson Will Grayson, you'd also like David Leviathan's Boy Meets Boy or possibly Joyce Carol Oate's Big Mouth and Ugly Girl.
Oh, you made me want to read this, and I have an irrational fear of Greene!
ReplyDeleteI like it. Good readalikes, too. :D