"To reject the word is to reject the human search" Max Lerner

Before I go into the Banned Book review o' the day, random news. Career Fair was a BUST! There were very few companies there, a majority of them were schools looking to recruit students, and head-hunters. I left my resume with a few of the agencies, and like 2 regular employers, but it's not looking good. I officially get to file for unemployment on Friday, and it's looking like I will have to in order to pay off all my grad school stuff. Plus, my mom may have to have surgery soon (for fibroids, nothing too crazy) but she won't be able to work for a month, so I will have to tack on some of those expenses to help out. It's raining like crazy down here, and it's still sooooo hot, though thankfully nothing compared to the 110+ degrees my buddies in Cali are feeling. I am sick AGAIN and have been pretty miserable today. I did manage to find a good website with tips for personal statement writing, so I may possibly get started on one today. Or at least an outline.



Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez

While sex descriptions were inescapable in Blume's Forever, you'd probably get to the end of Rainbow Boys and wonder if you missed out the sex scenes. As many can probably glean from the title, this is the story of three high school boys dealing with issues of homosexuality, love and life. Although this book was published in 2001, it was under HUGE fire for even the mere implication of two teenaged boys having sex. What I enjoyed so much about RB, is how simple it is. It is so easy to forget the "taboo" nature of two boys being together, and just see Jason and Kyle as two young kids falling in love for the first time and traversing the murky waters that relationship brings. Of course they deal with being taunted and made fun of at school and at home, though they eventually come to be proud of their identities. I mean, I know at 17 I was nowhere near the sense of self-actualization I have now (and I'm STILL working on that), that these kids had.

The great part of Rainbow Boys for me was how the jocks (like Jason)and the more obviously gay teens (like Kyle and his extremely flamboyant best friend and self-proclaimed "queen" Nelson) found enough common ground to try and be friends. The reality is that very often there is a division between the "normal" and the "stereotypical," the "straight-acting" and the "queens," which is all just internalized homophobia anyway. The shifting point of view, chronicling a different stage of the coming out process, are so easily relateable and well-written. It feels shaky at the beginning and eventually Sanchez catches his stride, but a large part of me believes Sanchez recognized this and perhaps it is another parallel to the journeys these 3 boys take.

Rainbow Boys is actually the first in a trilogy that ends with the boys right before they go their separate ways for college. I haven't read the other two books (though I actually already know how they end thanks to a friend that cannot keep her mouth shut when it comes to book endings haha), but they are on my ever-expanding book list!

Up tomorrow is The House of the Spirits