Teenage Romance:Sexuality & Self discovery

The book of discussion is entitled My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger. In terms of relativity, I believe this book encompasses many themes that various socioeconomic statuses can relate on one level or another.

Book synopsis: Best friends and unofficial brothers since they were six, ninth-graders T.C. and Augie have got the world figured out. But that all changes when both friends fall in love for the first time. Enter Ale. She's pretty, sassy, and on her way to Harvard. T.C. falls hard, but Ale is playing hard to get. Meanwhile, Augie realizes that he's got a crush on a boy. It’s not so clear to him, but to his family and friends, it’s totally obvious! Told in alternating perspectives, this is the hilarious and touching story of their most excellent year, where these three friends discover love, themselves, and how a little magic and Mary Poppins can go a long way.

Now, I know that was a lot. This book is pretty revolutionary. This is said because although love is sometimes told in the perspective of adolescents it isn’t done on the grand scheme that Kruger depicts. The heterosexual perspective often dwarfs the homosexual love stories. America is diverse and it’s good to see the diversity in literature.

Three friends T.C. Keller, Augie Hwong and Alejandra Perez are at the threshold of leaving the nest and beginning the quest of self discovery similar to many other adolescents around the world. In which questions of identity, love and the future become more forefront of daily thoughts than before. T.C. young man, with a distinct accent tries to maintain his high GPA, please his family, maintain his love for baseball, and deal with the passing of his mother. Augie, who is T.C.'s play Chinese brother, became best friends after the death of T.C.'s mother. Loves the theater, playing sports and feels as though he is a late bloomer, trying to figure himself out. Alejandra is T.C.'s dream girl and has never fit into social gathering at school nor home. Coming from a prestigious Mexican American family, her goals in life differ from her political family causing division. The story really beings when the three think of their lives, mistakes, questions and reminisces of better times. Their most excellent year back when they were freshmen and life was better.

Prompted from a English class to write in the diaries they each remember when they encountered love for the first time and when self discovery began and each try to come to terms with their lives at the beginning of adulthood.

This novel is a pretty good and easy read. I think the title is appropriate. From a literal stance, can’t say it is the best. I particularly enjoyed thinking of my own life in comparison to the three main characters. My own quest beginning my freshmen year in high school and this caused many great memories of some of my most excellent years. Before adulthood, when life was much simpler. When the worries of who I would sit by in the cafeteria, or take on a date that Saturday seemed so stressful. Yet now I look at the then mountains as merely ant hills. This book caused me to compare my own life and remember an important message. No matter the difficulty of life and the complexity of the problems, similar to when I was a freshman and thought there would be no way out, there was! This is a good book to address issues of sexuality, death and life’s journey of self identification. Excellent read.