A review of one of the books shortlisted in the GLBTQ category of the Indie Lit Awards.
'Will Grayson, Will Grayson' – John Green & David Levithan
In two different cities live two different teenage boys called Will Grayson. The first Will Grayson the reader meets is straight and has a really good best friend. The second Will Grayson the reader meets is gay and has a best friend he isn’t really on friendly terms with. They are a study in contrasts, no? Superficially yes, but this is a Green, Levithan collaboration and if I know anything from my limited reading of both authors it’s that one of the big threads that connects them as writers is an interest in human connection. So, readers are first introduced to the differences between the two characters, then to things that show they’re not so different. Then the two Will Graysons go back and forth between being within touching distance of both positions, which sounds kind of impossible - am I creating a false third category? I guess the closest I can get to explaining is that 'Will Grayson, Will Grayson' shows how you can be different while being similar and similar while being different, but also both at the same time and the sum of your differences and similarities are not what ultimately determine your ability to make a human connection with someone else.
And that’s all I’m going to tell you, because this is one of those books where I merrily ignored the spoiler warnings on peoples reviews, thinking ‘oh it is only romantic spoilers, I am never bothered by knowing how the romance unwinds’. Then, when it came to some of the big plot points (readers of ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ I am sure you know what I am thinking of particularly) I didn’t feel the gut punch a lot of people have described feeling. I’ll never really know now whether that’s because the book doesn’t deliver that emotional bang for me in those moments, or because I already knew what was going to happen. So, I’m going to leave you to discover the rest of the plot for yourselves.
One thing I liked
The humour. ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ is a really funny book, but one which doesn’t take funny, embarrasing situations into humiliatingly cruel territory for the characters. It retains a sympathetic niceness towards the characters, even as it shows how funny their bad situation is and it never laughs at the real emotional pain of a character.
One thing I didn’t like
Although I love what Gideon’s (a character who comes into second Will Grayson’s life later in the book) inclusion in the book seems to promise for the future of second Will Grayson, I didn’t think he was a filled out character by the end of the book. He has good things to say and do, but essentially his personality is ‘Will’s friend who helps him out’.
Extra note: I’m now planning to read all of John Green’s and David Levithan’s books (including collaborations) and attempt to write some kind of epic post about collaborations involving these authors and recurring elements, using ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ as the grounding link, at some point in the future. Watching what I already know about Green and Levithan’s writerly preoccupations surface in this book evolve, or not change at all and then join with the preoccupations of their collaboration partner was just fascinating. I feel almost like ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ is a symbol for their own collaboration project, like they are exploring their own writing relationship by creating this book and filling it with related themes. Theories, I have them and I have started taking notes! So that’s two Green books to go and many Levithan books and collaborations.
Any opinion mentioned here is my opinion and not the opinion of the whole panel, or the organisers of the Indie Lit Awards.
And that's the last book from the shortlist. Decisions will now be made and all the categories should be announcing their winners on 3rd February.
10 comments:
Hmm. You know as a re-reader I'm very skeptical about the whole idea of "spoilers." Perhaps I should reread this one and see if the emotional punch is lessened, although I'll probably still have the memory of it and might not be able to judge.
Great review - and such a hard book to review I found. You are right on the humour - hilarious! Your extra sounds fascinating too.
I am SO looking forward to that epic post. The awesome, it makes my head explode! You know I mean it :P
Jeanne typically I'm the same. I tend to avoid knowing much about fantasy series, because often there's that surprise death that hits me over the head with emotion, but otherwise it doesn't usually affect me. I felt the same way with Looking for Alaska though. I knew what the Before and After chapter headings were related to and when the shocking event came I didn't really feel that stunned, or sad. Maybe it's a John Green disconnect, not spoilers, but I don't know yet. I went back and read your review again and I like the quotes you picked out - so quotable that book.
Amy it is hard to review isn't it, because I keep wanting to talk about the 'side' characters like Tiny, Jane and Maura who are actually a huge part of the book.
Nymeth the thoughts are chasing themselves around my head so I have to write them down somewhere - also I can't imagine any two authors quite a fun to follow with a project like this. Next up is Paper Towns, maybe in March.
I do wonder how collaborations work. I mean, do the writers take on alternate chapters? Or does one do plot and the other dialogue? It must be nice to have someone to work with, though, and not be stuck alone with the keyboard. This sounds a very intriguing book. The dual-person premise is so unusual and yet I can see it would have all sorts of possibilities.
I love love love that you are going to read both Green and Levithan's backlog and compare their themes/techniques! Such book geekery, and something I am sure will be well tended in your hands. So excited to read all about it!
Everyone's raving about this, I better read it soon, before my expectations get too high!
litlove yes I wonder that too - glad to know I am not the only one nosey about this issue :) I've read some articles about husband and wife teams and they seem to usually write alternate chapters, but here I felt like even if the authors might have taken one Will Grayson to write as their own, there was a lot of collaborative read through and ammending work going on between them. I dunno I just thought I could hear both Green and Leviathan in first Will Grayson sometimes.
Cass huge bookgeekery may abound :)It's exciting because I get to reread Boy Meets Boy which is a book that makes me ridiculously happy.
joanna I left it until really late to read this because I was concerned my hopes would be dashed, but in the end I liked it a whole lot.
Thank you for all of your work in the awards! Love that you took the time to mention these books on your blog and let people know about them and the awards in general!
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