Reading Raves: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
I knew I was going to enjoy Will Grayson, Will Grayson. John Green has yet to write anything I haven't fallen for, hook, line, worm and sinker. I've also enjoyed David Levithan's many novels. And with Let It Snow and Nick and Norah's Inifite Playlist, we know they write well with others. So yesterday afternoon I settled down to enjoy Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and I did, so much so that I laughed (even snorted once, when something funny caught me completely by surprise), and read what I could aloud to my family. This morning, when I could have slept in late, I instead woke at 7:00 and decided to get up and keep reading, while I enjoyed a cup of tea. When my husband got up at about 8:30, I had just finished the book and had tears in my eyes.
I cry over very, very few books.
The ones that do make me cry are not usually sad. Instead, they are peopled with characters I enjoy and empathize with, who then exceed themselves brilliantly.
I'm not going to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't already read this amazing novel, because you deserve the same reading experience I had. So I will only say that the ending is well-earned.
What do I mean by that? It comes out of the characters. All of them.
And what a marvelous group of characters they are. Will Grayson I lives in the shadow of his ebullient, larger-than-life, musical-writing gay friend Tiny. Will Grayson II is busy avoiding the spiky Maura, who would like to be his best friend, and maybe more. What the two Wills have in common is that each is living a closeted existence of one sort or another. A chance encounter brings the two together, but it's only Tiny's determined effort that gets each of them to open his respective closet door. Tiny is a marvelous character, one who could easily have gone completely over the top and taken over the novel, but he doesn't, and in fact, he is adroitly given his own inner conflict.
The two girls, Jane and Maura, are less well-developed, because this is at heart a novel about different kinds of male love and friendship, but Jane especially comes across as her own person and it's easy to understand why Will Grayson I is attracted to her. Maura is different, because Will Grayson II is busy avoiding her, but there are enough hints for a reader to get a sense of what might be going on inside Maura to make her act the way she does.
But the thing about this novel that stays with me is its huge heart. It makes me want to sing--but I'm going to let the Children's Musical Theatre of San Jose do it instead:
Click to view(This particular video fits amazingly well with the book.)
If you haven't read it yet, add Will Grayson, Will Grayson to your TBR pile. If it's there, what are you waiting for? If you've read it, did you need tissues?