March 31, 2005
YA44: Hard Love
Finished another good one (on tape) in the car on the way to phone banking tonight.
Hard Love
Ellen Wittlinger
Simon & Schuster, New York: 1999
240 pages
Unabridged Audio, narrated by Mark Webber, 4 hours, 58 minutes (3 tapes)
Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Lambda Literary Award
A YALSA Quick Pick for Young Adults, 2000
A YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, 2000
John Galardi is "a witty misanthrope", a high school junior who has just published the first issue of his zine "Bananafish" under the name of Giovanni. In the years following his parent's divorce, he's closed himself off to most emotions (though there is some serious anger hiding under the surface). Marisol is a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee Cambridge, Massachusetts, rich spoiled lesbian private-school gifted-and-talented writer virgin looking for love." Her zine, Escape Velocity, inspires John to stake out the lobby of Tower Records until she shows up with the next issue. A strange friendship develops, and John finds himself falling in love for the first time (despite frequent reminders from Marisol that she is in fact a lesbian). After a disasterous sidetrip to the prom, the two end up at a weekend zine conference in Cape Cod. The book is named after a song by Bob Franke which nicely sums up their relationship and helps them to realize what they have come to mean to one another.
PW called it a "somewhat overdramatized account of unrequited love explor[ing] the complexity of relationships in the 1990s." But they go on to say that "This self-consciously up-to-date novel scratches the surface of perhaps too many issues, but John's intelligent, literate yet raw entries betray more to readers than he knows of himself. The awkwardness of awakening sexuality, a growing preoccupation with identity, and crossing the line from friendship to more are all themes here with which teens will readily identify."
Ages 12-up, Grade 8 Up
this quote really struck me, so I checked out the book so I could capture the lines (I'm glad I did get the book, because the layout mimics the zine style and is quite interesting)
"I always wanted to paint, didn't you?"
"No. I was never any good at art."
"I'm not either; I just want to do everything. Why can't we all do everything we want to? I'd be a writer and a singer and a painter and a politician and... maybe an Olympic track star."
"In one lifetime?"
"Why not? Sleep less."