Quick review: DEBBIE HARRY SINGS IN FRENCH
08/05/08 09:46
Meagan
Brothers has tackled a topic I've not seen in YA
before. Here's the general set-up: John's got a
complicated family situation. His dad is dead and his
mother sends him to live with his Uncle Sam. He meets
Maria, who thinks he's cool because he likes vinyl,
and those two have a relationship. No stress, right?
There's a complication: Johnny's in love with Debbie
Harry, and he decides to dress like her. Not all the
time, just sometimes. He does a drag show and wins an
audience award. He gets felt up by someone at the
drag show, and thinks "does this guy know I'm a guy?"
It's no biggie, ever--Johnny wears a dress sometimes,
and Maria has to teach him to walk in heels.
Brothers uses Blondie song titles as chapter names, which I love, and which I didn't get (I don't like Blondie) until I ran across "Youth Nabbed as Sniper," a Blondie song I *do* know. I am also a sucker for books about teens and music, since I'm a music freak myself, so the angle of falling in love with a musician makes perfect sense to me, since I'm currently in love with Elvis. There are some implications in the book about cross-dressing that I'm not sure about (I don't know much about the topic), but I think Johnny's character is well drawn, and the subject of cross-dressing is handled with ease.
My editor, Andrew, describes books like Brothers' as "gay 2.0": characters have some kind of alternate sexual or gender identity, but it's not the main complication of the book, it's just part of the book. Sounds like a good idea to me--gender and sexual identity isn't usually the sum total of a person. Why should it be that way in a YA novel?
We've all seen Eddie Izzard cross-dress, right? Big whoop--and some of his outfits are BAD. But this seems large to me, having a YA protagonist do it. Good for you, Meagan.
Brothers uses Blondie song titles as chapter names, which I love, and which I didn't get (I don't like Blondie) until I ran across "Youth Nabbed as Sniper," a Blondie song I *do* know. I am also a sucker for books about teens and music, since I'm a music freak myself, so the angle of falling in love with a musician makes perfect sense to me, since I'm currently in love with Elvis. There are some implications in the book about cross-dressing that I'm not sure about (I don't know much about the topic), but I think Johnny's character is well drawn, and the subject of cross-dressing is handled with ease.
My editor, Andrew, describes books like Brothers' as "gay 2.0": characters have some kind of alternate sexual or gender identity, but it's not the main complication of the book, it's just part of the book. Sounds like a good idea to me--gender and sexual identity isn't usually the sum total of a person. Why should it be that way in a YA novel?
We've all seen Eddie Izzard cross-dress, right? Big whoop--and some of his outfits are BAD. But this seems large to me, having a YA protagonist do it. Good for you, Meagan.