Kyle Kerr

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

02/12/11 | Books, Reviews | 0 Comments

The premise of this book is really what drew me to it.  Authors David Levithan and John Green co-wrote the novel, each writing about a separate teenage boy who both happen to have the same name, Will Grayson.  They don’t know one another, but after a few chapters their lives converge at pivotal moments for each of them.

Will Grayson is trying to find his place within the social castes of his high school.  His best friend is Tiny Cooper, an imposingly sized, flamboyantly gay football player who falls in and out of love faster than most people can blink and always tends to steal the show.  He also befriends Jane, a member of the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) who turns out not to be a lesbian but isn’t exactly free, either, which proves to be an unfortunate complication when Will decides he likes her.  He feels unappreciated as a friend, pressured by his parents to pursue their idea of the perfect career, and doesn’t know how to navigate his life as it seems to spiral around him.

will grayson hates life.  he only has one friend, maura, who also hates life, and they only hang out because they have nothing better to do.  will lives alone with his mother, his father out of the picture.  they’re poor and he has to work to help pay the bills.  the only thing good in his life is isaac, a boy his age he met in an online chatroom, and they happen to be in love.  no one in his life knows he’s gay, but the two arrange to meet face-to-face for the first time after a year, and will heads to chicago with breathless anticipation.  but his happiness is only short-lived.*

The boys meet at a porn store in downtown Chicago, and their lives are changed forevermore.

I think you can see what I mean by an intriguing premise.  The authors agreed on the structure of writing about two boys with the same name, that they would be in high school, and that they would equally write half of the book (alternating chapters).  They went off and wrote the first couple chapters of their own Will Grayson/will grayson’s story without talking to one another about what they would write, then convened once they were done.

The resulting product is a mash-up of friendship and love, angst and depression.  You can’t depend just on yourself in life, and sometimes the people you rely on disappoint and hurt you, but sometimes the ugly precedes the good.

I didn’t know how it’d like this book, but ended it with that happy sign of satisfaction that comes from finishing a good book.  The characters have stuck with me in the couple weeks since, and it’s one of those stories you wish you could continue reading, if even for just another couple pages… but alas.

Both authors have written numerous other books, and I will delight in perusing them in future.

8/10

Until next…

*David Levithan wrote his will grayson chapters completely in lowercase.  I can’t find the interview I read about it in, but it’s supposedly because the character thinks so little of himself that he doesn’t think he deserves it (capitalization).  Very unique!

Kyle W. Kerr