Double Dare Trilogy
In this Rambling I will occasionally explore other novels and authors I’ve appreciated and that I encourage you to explore.
We Contain Multitudes
One of the more adventurous (in terms of the writing) young adult (YA) gay romances is Sarah Henstra’s We Contain Multitudes. It’s about two high school students, Jonathan Hopkirk, a geeky Walt Whitman acolyte, who not only reads and studies Whitman, but dresses like him. Which makes him the target of a semi-organized gang of homophobic losers. One of whom was once actually a friend to Jonathan. The other is Adam Kurlansky, something of an introvert himself, who’s often assumed to be a bad boy, his occasional bruises and black eyes taken as evidence that he must have a propensity for fighting.
The bold tact Henstra takes as a writer is to write the entire book as an exchange of letters between the two, a class assignment from their English teacher. Yes, every chapter is a letter, either by Jonathan, who addresses his letters to ‘Kurl’ and eventually signs them as ‘Jo.’ Adam addresses Jonathan as ‘Little Jo’ and signs off as ‘JK.’ Eventually their correspondence evolves from quotes from and analysis of Whitman’s writing to more personal and then intimate topics. In time, their interactions go beyond their missives into everyday real life encounters. Which, of course, we only learn about by reading their letters. The book ranges from sweet to harrowing. The uninitiated will learn enough about Whitman to encourage further exploration. But, mostly, it’s about navigating life and love as an often powerless teenager. Some readers have been highly critical of Henstra’s total reliance on the exchange of letters in place of standard first or third person narrative. However, I salute her. There may be some validity to the ‘bit of a stretch’ complaint of Little Jo or Kurl recounting details and dialog in a letter about a scene they were both involved in, but it’s the only way in this construct for us, the reader, to participate. The story itself, as it unfolds, is well worth the telling.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
This novel by the award-winning poet Ocean Vuong, knocked me down and has stayed with me for years. It is difficult to characterize the book as any one thing. There is a love story here, two actually, one between son and mother and one between the son and another man, Trevor, who comes from a completely different world.
It is also about race, as the clearly autobiographical character, affectionately known as Little Dog, and his mother have emigrated to the US from Vietnam. But the explorations of ethnicity and race go beyond the experiences of Little Dog and Ma. Vuong covers a lot of ground, in achingly beautiful, dare I say, poetic prose. It is rare for me to reread a book, but this is one of them.
