Tyrell and The Vast Fields of Ordinary don't have much in common on the surface. Both are about teenage boys going through struggles with family and personal relationships, but the two main characters and their families are totally different. Both books have a wide appeal, though.
I'm a 29 year old white woman from the south and I was completely hooked on Tyrell within ten pages. I read it on my day off and never put it down. Tyrell is a great character and I felt for him. Besides being a sweet boy who tries hard in a bad situation, he is believably imperfect. He gets frustrated with his mother putting too much responsibility on him, he's tempted by Jasmine, he gets high, he gets in fights. If those things hadn't been present in the book, this character might have come off as too perfect. As it is, he seems real.
Dade is going through his own struggles, but like Tyrell, he seems like a good person that deserves better. I definitely would have loved this book in high school. Like someone said in class, stories about gay men can have an appeal for straight girls, and I was one o those girls who tried to date a gay guy and took him to the prom. I'm hoping I wasn't too much like Fessica but maybe I was. Dade's story has something almost everyone could relate to: struggles with his parents, love for someone who treats him poorly, and the thrill of that first relationship that makes you happy. Not everyone can relate to what it is like to come out, but I think a lot of us can empathise.
These two books are about totally different characters and environments, but of the books we've read so far they have some of the widest appeal.
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I'm so glad you liked both of these books and were able to find the parallels that link them together. There are definitely stories of survival in both of them, along with positive values.
ReplyDeleteBTW you're a great blogger--you're very good at capturing your thoughts and putting them down online.