Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

[Heather Olson]

A collaborative project between David Levithan & John Green (yes, of "Looking for Alaska"), "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" is the story of two young men named Will Grayson who meet under extraordinary circumstances. Will Grayson of Evanston, IL is best friends with Tiny. Tiny is anything but what his nickname suggests, the star football player for his school, a drama king and gay. Will feels as though he tolerates Tiny and Tiny feels as though he is under appreciated. Will Grayson of Naperville, IL is a depressed loner of sorts who finds his happiness in his on-line boyfriend. As Evanston Will is in Chicago with his friends and Naperville Will is in Chicago to meet his boyfriend in person for the first time, their paths cross. As their lives collide, the Will Graysons' lives turn in new and surprising directions. The novel is hilarious and insightful, overflowing with heart and humor!

The story is told entirely in alternating chapters from both Wills' perspectives. Through their eyes, we see Tiny, Jane and other characters in the story. The parents play a larger-than-usual role in YA lit terms, but still each Will is able to take credit for their own accomplishments, as they make difficult and serious decisions on their own with only a little support from their parents. The novel was extremely fast-paced in plot and reading time. There is a perfect balance between the telling of details and the action and the humor passes time quickly in the novel. This book naturally lends itself to the variety of genres and subjects criteria. The amount of literature available for gay adolescents is lacking and this novel is a good choice for them. In that way, it also lends itself to meet the criteria for different lifestyle groups, although the ethnicity and cultures of the characters is not directly related in the novel. While at times it seems some of the characters will not be successful in their individual endeavors, there is an amount of optimism that exists and, in the end, the novel wraps up nicely with important accomplishments being made. The young adult characters each have different emotions throughout the book that are relevant to real young adults as they struggle with being in high school, facing college, coming from different economic households, and struggles with or about sexuality.

I would recommend future and present educators be aware of the literature that IS available for their GLBTQ students, as I believe we will be asked for reading suggestions by our students. In that case, I would refer back to the following websites:
http://www.alexsanchez.com/gay_teen_books.htm is a list of various literature and http://www.glbtq.com/literature/young_adult_lit.html is a resource on the history of and currently available literature for gay teens.

I personally loved this novel completely. I laughed out loud non-stop while reading it, cried several times and I cannot stop thinking about it and have recommended it to several others already (as I recommend it to all of you, as well!). The ways in which it meets the YA Lit criteria is great, especially considering that instead of specifically dealing with different ethnic/cultural groups, it is engaging as a novel with varying lifestyles. However, while I would recommend it to students as independent reads, I am not sure I could justify using it in the classroom. Although it is a great coming-of-age novel in a lot of ways, the over-use of vulgar language and references to young adult male masturbation may create an argument for using it in the classroom. I would recommend it to my students in late 10th-12th grades. While it may not be an appropriate classroom read, I think students, gay and not, could benefit from reading it as a coming-of-age novel and a wonderful piece of literature with amazing characters and the benefit of local setting familiarity