Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Dutton Juvenile, 2010, 304 pp, Realistic Fiction, ISBN: 0525421580

Prereq for reading this review: Start listening to Tiny Dancer by Elton John

Alternative listening choice: In an Aeroplane over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

If I had a youtube video of Tiny Cooper, I would link to that in a heartbeat. But it doesn't exist... yet.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a book in desperate need of a soundtrack.

Will Grayson is pretty confused. He has spent his whole life following two golden rules. #1 Shut up and #2 Don't care. Those rules, for the most part, have kept him safe from hurt. But they've also kept him safe from really experiencing life. Maybe he could learn something from Tiny Cooper after all...

Will Grayson is living in darkness. Depression, anger, and hopelessness consume all of his days. No one can get through to Will, until Isaac. But everyone knows that when you meet someone online, there's always a chance that they're not who they appear to be... Will the darkness return if Isaac leaves?

Tiny Cooper is a literary miracle - truly, one of my all time favorite characters. Over six feet tall, bigger than a line backer, fabulously gay, and a singer-songwriter who is currently in casting for the musical spectacular Tiny Dancer: the Tiny Cooper Story.

When the two Will Graysons meet, everyone's life will be changed forever.

Wow... this book is like nothing I've ever read before! The two Will Graysons narrated the story in alternating chapters, creating a narrative style that got particularly interesting once their stories began to overlap. John Green and David Levithan each wrote a different Will Grayson. I actually was positive that I knew which Grayson was which throughout the entire book... but I was so wrong! I am not the world's biggest John Green fan (I know, I know...) but I loooove David Levithan. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Levithan had written the angst-y, emo Grayson who I skimmed through for the first half of the book and that Green had actually created Tiny Cooper! Wow. If you're hungry for more info about the writing behind this book, check out the Will Grayson faq page. (Be warned: It does contain spoilers)

What it all comes down to is that Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a story about love. It's about how all of us, yes all us, desperately need to love and be loved, no matter how dramatically we may try to convince ourselves otherwise. Be forewarned, a whole lot of cursing is used to get this point across! But the story is still 100% about love.

I laughed out loud so many times that my husband asked if I wanted to go read in another room. In the end (not a spoiler!), I had one of those delicious weep-y cries that is just good for your soul. Tiny Cooper will forever have a place in my pantheon of fictional loves. He is a life-changer. I really don't think I can say anything else about this book except... go read it. I hope it will do for you what it did for me: widen your perspective of the people around you, and make you love everyone just a little bit more.

In closing, here are a few nuggets I want to share:
Nugget #1: Both authors were asked in an interview, "One of the Will Grayson characters is gay. How important do you think it is to have gay characters in young adult novels?" And their response...

Levithan: It's essential. And not just for gay character and gay voices. We need to be detailing all kinds of identities and experiences. And it's also important to give our characters complexity - happily, we're a long way from the "gay = misery" school of literature. It's about exploring the humanity of the characters and being gay is a part (sometimes a big part) of that.

Nugget #2: In case you didn't know, Neutral Milk Hotel is actually a real band. This is their website. In real life, the band Maybe Dead Cats is actually Schroedinger and the Maybe-Dead Cats. This is their website. But unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Annus Miribalis is not a real song.

Nugget #3: I turned down the corners of 7 different pages with all of the quotes that I wanted to record, but you really just need to read the book and find your own favorite pages to turn down, so for now I'll leave you with this one...

Tiny doesn't just sing these words - he belts them. It's like a parade coming out of his mouth. I have no doubt the words travel over Lake Michigan to most of Canada and on to the North Pole. The farmers of Saskatchewan are crying. Santa is turning to Mrs. Claus and saying, "What the fuck is that?" I am completely mortified, but then Tiny opens his eyes and looks at me with such obvious caring that I have no idea what to do. No one's tried to give me something like this in ages.

Nugget #4: John Green talking about the book and reading the first page... I think I like him a little bit more than I thought I did after all...