I think I may have missed the deadline for this, which is crazy, b/c I was all set to blog about my beloved James Baldwin and Audre Lorde (I’ve done June Jordan enough for one month! though her words did pop into my mind when this guy hollered at me in the street: “What’s your name?” And I thought of quoting June: my name is my own, my own, my own…) Ali over at Worducopia gives you plenty of options for this month’s Diversity Roll Call, which is designed to highlight LGBTQ authors and books. And since I hadn’t read any contemporary queer YA lit, I figured I’d wait and read something by a living author writing NOW. I chose Mayra Lazara Dole’s Down to the Bone; Mayra’s part of What a Girl Wants, and I’d heard good things about her book from Black-eyed Susan…so I gave her book a whirl.
WOW! I’m still trying to understand my reaction to the book, but I have to begin
this short report by praising this author’s daring…I think it’s great that books now exist that don’t dance around teen homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender issues. Whether you’re familiar with these issues or not, you sort of have to just surrender to this story; it’s a high-energy explosion of language, laughter, love, and drama between Cuban teens in Miami. There were moments when I wanted everything to stop–I needed *someone* to sit Laura down and talk about her problem in a serious (adult?) manner. But the community created by the author is unique in many ways, including the way conflicts are addressed and resolved. Despite her best friend’s appetite for disposable boyfriends, Laura is into just one partner (Marlena), who crushes Laura’s young heart by moving to Puerto Rico and caving to her family’s pressure to marry. Laura feels betrayed and wary of a queer identity that would mark her as a “freak” or “immoral daughter.” To win back her mother’s love, she tries falling in love with a guy, but in the end realizes she cannot find happiness or acceptance from others until she accepts herself. I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a novel YA–is it writing FOR teens, or ABOUT teens? I feel like I do both, but perhaps my “home training” and family history make me more inclined towards seriousness and intolerant of frivolity. I was pretty serious even as a teen, and I did find the spastic energy of Laura and her friends a little hard to take at times; her puppy actually figures as a character in the first half of the book, but by the end, I had a better appreciation of the loving community/family Laura managed to build for herself. It’s one that is *fluid*, not fixed, which means its members respond quickly and easily to trouble or change. I now feel compelled to read more queer lit for teens so I can get a better sense of the options that are out there—and the strategies used by authors to represent queer experience and identity.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the book. Great post.
I get most of my books from readings blogs: yours, Edi’s, and Doret’s…so thanks for all the great suggested titles!
Zetta!
Thanks for your powerful review of my book. I had a teen focus group and I kept hearing from readers that teens no longer wanted to read serious LGBT books with struggles, sorrow, pain… thus I revised and deleted the serious emotions and opted for more comedic drama with a touch of romance. In the class I wrote about, and how I was raised, parents don’t sit with kids to talk about issues and find ways to resolve problems. The kids in my focus group had been kicked out of the hosue for being gay. I’m intrigued at what you said and wonder how conflicts got addressed and resolved in the way you were raised. If you can, please share!
Thanks again! Why didn’t you tell me you had reviewed my book? Shy? : D
Mayra
Hey, Mayra! I’m not shy, but I reviewed another author’s book a while ago and it *seems* she’s no longer speaking to me…plus I figure everyone does Google Alerts these days…and I guess I’m conflict averse! That’s what *I* learned from my family: keep your mouth shut, or there will be consequences. So I definitely value books that model a different kind of expressivity, and Laura did have adults in her life who were supportive. I think I wanted more access to her interior life, though, and it felt hard to reach that place sometimes b/c there was so much going on in her world. As I thought about it later, I realized I was doing what I often do: wishing for something the author didn’t want, intend, or need. I know that journal writing was key for me as a teen b/c I wasn’t permitted to talk openly about issues in my family. I had one or two supportive teachers, too, and an occasional adult who’d ask what was going on. I would *love* to have read Marlena’s diary, esp since it was later used against her. Or if Laura kept a diary, I felt it might have revealed something she withheld from her friends. Clearly, her mother wasn’t an option, and you still conveyed that split: who she felt she had to be at home, on the job, or in a club, versus who she “really was” when she was alone. I thought about having one of the nuns take a gentler approach to conversion, not being ok with Laura’s lesbian identity, but maybe sharing her own “struggle” to suppress such feelings…but my investment in “serious dialogue” is problematic in its own way, b/c maybe that’s ethnocentric and culturally specific to certain groups only. And maybe the interior/exterior split is, too…I don’t know. I’m not the best reviewer of teen lit b/c I’m no longer a teen and was reading Dickens when I was 13…what’s your next novel about? Or maybe I should just visit your blog…
Hey, Zetta! It’s too bad the author you reviewed no longer speaks to you. You are absolutely right about not having enough access into Laura’s “interior life.” As a reader, I too would have loved reading Marlena and Laura’s diary. All your points are strong and valid and I agree 100 percent. I appreciate you telling me. It shows that you’re a deep thinker and unlike what you believe, you’d make an excellent YA lit critic. I learn from all my readers when they’re open and honest. I wish I had hired you to critique my work. If I’m asked to write a sequel, I’ll take all your excellent suggestions. Thanks!
I’m not sure a public blog is a place for me to ask you this personal question, but you talked about it and it left me curioius. What did you need to keep your mouth shut about? What type of “consequences” did you have if you spoke? I imagine a diary is extra important for a child who’s asked to “shut up, or else!” Sad…
You said you’d find my blog to know what I’m writing next. My “blog” is Facebook. I recommended your work there today on a comment. My site isn’t used as a blog but I recieve blog comments from fans of my book there.
Hey, Mayra. Thanks for recommending my book! I seem to go into sensory overload whenever I visit mySpace…makes me feel like a Luddite. I love that you did a focus group for your novel; I *still* haven’t gotten any feedback from teens about my book…teachers rave about it, and I’ve gotten good reviews from adult bloggers, but maybe it won’t appeal to teens? Sometimes I think I’m unrealistic, writing dark, serious stories about difficult moments in time. Sure, *I* would have read that as a teen, but I wasn’t exactly average. There are some skeletons in my family closet, but in general, the policy was “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” About *everything*. There was no, “Good morning, have a nice day,” or “Welcome home, how was your day?” No conversation, no questions about anything, and my questions to others were met with silence and simmering resentment. If I dared to complain about something, I was treated like the problem–and that remains my “role” in the family: I’m the troublemaker b/c I refuse to stay silent when there’s trouble staring me in the face. My family has mastered the art of denial, so we talk about the weather, but not much else. Actually, my four siblings don’t even speak to me, so it’s just my mother who talks about the weather. I wasn’t exactly thrown out, but folks were glad to see me go when I packed up and moved to Brooklyn…so I definitely identified with Laura when she finally stopped trying to win her mother’s approval and instead embraced the new family she’d built out of friends and loved ones…
[...] are my links for books I’ve read recently: Marcelo in the Real World, Ball Don’t Lie, Down to the Bone, Drum, Chavi, Drum and [...]