Kelli Taylor

The most recent read for Book Club was Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Book Club read Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan for its October 24 meeting.

WG, WG is about two teenagers living in the suburbs of Chicago. One is depressed, antisocial and homosexual; the other is best friends with a joyfully gay teen named Tiny Cooper. Oh, and they’re both named Will Grayson. I wonder where the title came from…

This novel switches between the perspectives of the two Graysons with each chapter. This could potentially be confusing, but for the fact that depressed Grayson capitalizes nothing, and shows dialogue like so:

mom: how was chicago?

me: look, mom, I’m totally gay, and i’d appreciate it if you could get the whole freakout over with now, because, yeah, we have the rest of our lives to deal with it, but the sooner we get through the agony part, the better.

mom: the agony part?

me: you know, you praying for my soul and cursing me for not giving you grandbabies with a wifey and saying how incredibly disappointed you are.

mom: i think i want to skip that step.

rebekah: at first, this writing style really annoyed me, but i find that it fits grayson’s attitude well. maybe i’ll start writing my english papers like this. i respect the author for making this style choice.

While depressed Grayson is dealing with his identity and having a crisis concerning his friend Maura and a love interest named Isaac, the other Will Grayson is having problems of his own.

Conflict 1: Tiny Cooper is producing a musical about his life, which he is extremely excited about. This is a huge stress factor for him, especially when he has a revelation that becomes a theme for the entire novel:

I realized, in spite of my great and terrible fabulousness, the play can’t be about me. It must be about something even more fabulous: love. The polychromatic many-splendored dreamcoat of love in all its myriad glories.

Conflict 2: Will Grayson is secretly and romantically interested in his and Tiny’s mutual friend Jane, and, Conflict 3, he realizes that Tiny doesn’t have as much attention for him anymore, with the play taking up so much of his time:

I know it’s immature, but I don’t care. Sometimes you need your best friend to walk through the doors. And then, he doesn’t…I don’t even know I’m crying until this crooked sound comes out of me as I inhale.

So obviously, there’s quite a bit of teenage drama in WG WG, especially when the Will Graysons’ lives collide. I’m usually not a huge fan of Young Adult Fiction, but this novel was pretty good. It was heartwarming and happy (for the most part), and pretty true to life, if your life generally involves a musical. But hey, it’s worth reading, if you’re okay with some controversial topics and *#$$@! language. I enjoyed it, and, based on the comments made during discussion, I believe the Book Club did too.