Today, 15/1/18 is the second instalment a series of Monday Book Reviews, expressing my personal opinions on works of fiction. Today, I will be looking upon a piece called Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan.
Boy Meets Boy was a book I read for a module I did on representation. I was to write an essay on LGBT representation in fiction, and decided that I would discuss the increase in LGBT representation in young adult fiction. Admittedly, I probably could have written a considerably better essay had I been assigned to do it this year, however, instead, I got to write about my beloved gothic literature!
Boy Meets Boy was David Levithan's earliest novel that depicted LGBT+ characters and I was personally, not the biggest fan of this book, especially when compared to some of Levithan's other works. It can be argued that the reason this story is not as well constructed in terms of character, as some of Levithan's later works could be due to the fact that this was an earlier story where Levithan was learning how to represent the LGBT+ community in the market.
Personally, I found a lot of the minor characters more interesting in this story, when compared to the characterisation of the protagonist, Paul. Albeit, I felt that having rival drag queens at school, despite the town being very LGBT friendly.
I felt that despite being the main character of the story, Paul's character appeared to be relatively one-dimensional due to his character being relatively uninteresting. If Paul was not gay, or had the romantic conflicts he did in the story, I doubt he would be held in high esteem. This is because the secondary characters appear to be considerably more well-rounded when compared.
This is demonstrated when you compare Paul's character to his friend Tony; whose sexuality is repressed due to being raised in a strict Christian household. His parents fear that he would be "damned" due to not being heterosexual, and he could "lose his soul" because of it. This idea scares them immensely and they encourage their son to ignore his feelings for people of the same sex in order to protect him.
Another secondary character that appears to have been better-thought out than Paul himself is his ex-boyfriend, Kyle. His primary arc derives from his own frustrations at his sexuality. Kyle finds himself "hating" the word "bisexual", the term most likely to describe the way that he sees other people, he is attracted to both people of the same and opposite sexes. It annoys him because it would be easier to just be one or the other in his experiences and he "wishes he could pick one" to be attracted to and just leave it there. I found that a character that was struggling to come to terms with their identity much easier to root for as there was a greater conflict present in his life.
However, it can be argued that Levithan did this on purpose; making it clear that when you compare the struggles of Paul to Tony and Kyle, that he had it "easy" when coming to terms with his sexuality. Paul's purpose in the novel was to end up in a relationship with Noah and connect these different characters with conflict within their lives to one another to establish that not every LGBT+ child will manage to have an easy life when coming to terms with who they are.
Another important point to raise about Paul and his lack of dimensions in a character, could be that his main role within the story was actually a dig at the conventional heterosexual romance noel as many leading characters do not do much more than focus on the romantic conflicts at hand.
However, despite the fact that I felt that the secondary characters were more interesting than Paul, I would recommend reading this novel, especially when you are wanting to portray characters that are a part of the LGBT community! This is a good place to start!
Boy Meets Boy was David Levithan's earliest novel that depicted LGBT+ characters and I was personally, not the biggest fan of this book, especially when compared to some of Levithan's other works. It can be argued that the reason this story is not as well constructed in terms of character, as some of Levithan's later works could be due to the fact that this was an earlier story where Levithan was learning how to represent the LGBT+ community in the market.
Personally, I found a lot of the minor characters more interesting in this story, when compared to the characterisation of the protagonist, Paul. Albeit, I felt that having rival drag queens at school, despite the town being very LGBT friendly.
I felt that despite being the main character of the story, Paul's character appeared to be relatively one-dimensional due to his character being relatively uninteresting. If Paul was not gay, or had the romantic conflicts he did in the story, I doubt he would be held in high esteem. This is because the secondary characters appear to be considerably more well-rounded when compared.
This is demonstrated when you compare Paul's character to his friend Tony; whose sexuality is repressed due to being raised in a strict Christian household. His parents fear that he would be "damned" due to not being heterosexual, and he could "lose his soul" because of it. This idea scares them immensely and they encourage their son to ignore his feelings for people of the same sex in order to protect him.
Another secondary character that appears to have been better-thought out than Paul himself is his ex-boyfriend, Kyle. His primary arc derives from his own frustrations at his sexuality. Kyle finds himself "hating" the word "bisexual", the term most likely to describe the way that he sees other people, he is attracted to both people of the same and opposite sexes. It annoys him because it would be easier to just be one or the other in his experiences and he "wishes he could pick one" to be attracted to and just leave it there. I found that a character that was struggling to come to terms with their identity much easier to root for as there was a greater conflict present in his life.
However, it can be argued that Levithan did this on purpose; making it clear that when you compare the struggles of Paul to Tony and Kyle, that he had it "easy" when coming to terms with his sexuality. Paul's purpose in the novel was to end up in a relationship with Noah and connect these different characters with conflict within their lives to one another to establish that not every LGBT+ child will manage to have an easy life when coming to terms with who they are.
Another important point to raise about Paul and his lack of dimensions in a character, could be that his main role within the story was actually a dig at the conventional heterosexual romance noel as many leading characters do not do much more than focus on the romantic conflicts at hand.
However, despite the fact that I felt that the secondary characters were more interesting than Paul, I would recommend reading this novel, especially when you are wanting to portray characters that are a part of the LGBT community! This is a good place to start!
Thank you for reading! See you in two weeks for another instalment of Monday Book Reviews! - Next time, it'll be a poetry collection! I'm so excited!
And remember:
Per Ardua Ad Astra
-Imogen. L. Smiley
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