Untitled
Today I finished reading "the vast fields of ordinary" by Nick Burd. it's about this kid, Dade, and his last summer before leaving his small hometown in Iowa for college.
at first he only wants it to end, to go, to move, since there's nothing for him there. he doesn't have any close friends, his only friend, sort of, is his fuck buddy Pablo with whom he has a complicated relationship. he feels distant from his parents and like many kids in small towns, he wants to move away and let his 'real life' begins.
but then,through luck and coincidence he meets two people who change his life, lucy, the neighbour's niece, and Alex, the town's pot-dealer, both of whom become close friends and allow him to be who he is and begin to turn into the person he's going to be. by the time he reaches college, he barely recognizes himself.
I enjoyed this book a lot. it was fun. it was pretty real,too. the parents weren't monsters, the protagonists weren't fucked up miserable kids. it's a tale of a ordinary summer with ordinary people.
I liked that, different from other YA novels I've read, it didn't treat drinking and doing drugs as a major event. the kids were teetotalers and they weren't alcoholics either. parents did freak out but in a credible way.
there were parties, annoying parents and neighbourhood gatherings,mean girls,trouble, but nothing out of the ordinary. it was a slice of life.
Dade's gay but it isn't a novel about him discovering that.he knows and he's known for a while. it is however about him discovering and experiencing life, making close friends,falling in love and growing up.
there are no big revelations in this novel.no big moments. no big declarations of love or anything like it.
is more of a calm appreciation of all these things. realising that you are in one of those perfect,memorable times with the right people and the perfect music. realising what it's like to be happy, that it doesn't have to be euphoric and amazing all the time, more like being content with you are and what you have. and realising that running away doesn't change anything, you can be miserable in the greatest city in the world.
It's a rather sweet novel,I think, and I liked and I definitely recommend it.
Posted via email from I'm happy and sad, and still trying to figure out how that could be.