Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Paul is a pretty average teenager. He goes out with his
friends, he goes to school, he takes part in extracurricular activities.
He has problems of course, like any teenager. His – closeted
- friend Tony can only go out if his extremely religious parents think he’s
going out with a girl. Paul’s best friend Joni keeps going out with the wrong
guys and his ex-boyfriend Kyle has issues.
Then, of course, there’s Infinite Darlene, homecoming queen
and star quarterback.
And then, Paul meets Noah. The Boy. And everything changes.
I sped through Boy Meets Boy yesterday. At 185 pages it’s a
quick read, and Levithan has a nice writing style.
Paul is engaging as a character, moving through his somewhat
charmed life pretty easily, and his somewhat rocky relationship with Noah is
sweet.
I did have a couple of issues with it – Jodi’s boyfriend
Chuck through most of the book is basically a caveman, and she does a terrible
thing to Paul that I don’t think was properly dealt with, but perhaps I should
be philosophical and say something like, well, not all loose ends get tied up.
Anyway.
A few weeks ago, I read Every Day by Levithan, which I
recommend to everybody – it’s original and heartbreaking and all of the best
things.
Boy Meets Boy – as far as it goes – is a sweet, somewhat tender
coming of age love story, if a little problematic in some of the finer details.
