December 1975
Books In Review
by Marc Lewis
One of the more enlightened moves being made in high schools in recent years has been the replacement of many old hardbound textbooks with high interest paperbacks in English and social studies classes. And in some schools the use of these paperbacks is giving high school students a more intensive and often more accurate picture of life, including a small but steadily growing number of gay-related reading experiences.
Most obvious in English classes is the inclusion of a number of paperback novels written for and about the adolescent that deal either directly or indirectly with the topic of homosexuality or the homosexual experience. And from the gay point of view, the subject is being handled fairly well.
Intended for junior high readers, I'll Get There, It Better Be Worth the Trip (Dell, 1969) by John Donovan, Director of the national Children's Book Council, is a first person narrative of a thirteen year-old boy's growing pains. One of them, briefly and subtly mentioned late in the novel, finds the narrator and his boy friend together on the floor in front of a roaring fire. Playful jostling ends in an abrupt but sincere kiss.
Though the boys are momentarily puzzled by the direction their emotions took them, they see nothing inherently wrong in what they did. The novel goes no further with this particular issue. But it is decidedly author.
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Donovan's intention to bring to the attention of the young readers that demonstrated affection for a friend of the same sex is neither to be fear or avoided, regardless of the hang-ups of some adults.
Most direct in approach, Lynn Hall's Sticks and Stones (Dell, 1972) deals with the relationship between a high school student and a recent army veteran. The novel's main character finds the new town he's moved to with his family and his own love of classical music two factors that make his life more lonely than most adolescents could take.
When a recently discharged soldier comes to town to find a quiet place to write, the town finds another "queer" to contend with. The two lonely people meet and a meaningful relationship develops. But rumors start going around the high school that the two are homosexuals.
The novel climaxes when the boy discovers that his older friend was actually discharged from the army for his homosexuality. His immediate reactions are of fear and horror that he too may be gay. Dealing with this dilemma in a novel for young readers without advocating a particular stereotyped predisposition gives the high school student openness and objectivity about homosexuality not seen before in schools.
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One of the most tender and sensitive treatments of the homosexuality in adolescents is Isabelle Holland's The Man Without a Face (Bantam, 1973). Probably best understood by senior high students, Holland's
HIGH GEAR
novel relates the moving story of a trapped adolescent
trapped
by a preoccupied mother and an obnoxious older sister and a need to be independent. The only way out of this trap for Charles is to pass the entrance exams to a boarding school.
When Charles needs some tutoring he stumbles upon the town's human mystery, a disfigured, bitter and secretive ex-teacher. At first passing the examination is Charles' only motivation in seeing "the man without a face." But soon his love for his tutor takes over. Though Charles is happy with the blossoming of their relationship, the possible homosexual implications produce a tender, and for Charles, a potentially traumatic climax. The ending of the novel, with the subtle revelation of some of the details surrounding the ex-teacher's secretive past, electrifies the reader and makes this an excellent novel for the understanding and the acceptance of homosexuality as a free-choice life style.
Older students will also soon be coming into contact with a recently published novel by Sandra Scoppettone. Though not yet available in paperback, Trying Hard to Hear You (Harper and Row, 1974) is receiving extremely positive reviews in the educational journals and all indications are that it will be the of most popular the homosexual-motif novels used in high schools.
In this provocative novel, the gay experience novel comes full circle: from the subtle references in "I'll Get There, It Better Be Worth the Trip, to the youthadult relationships of Sticks and Stones and The Man Without a Face, to a frank and boldly told
novel of young lovers. A tragic accident that kills young Phil and Penny triggers a chain of events that reveal Phil's homosexuality and sets the stage for the effect of events that reveal Phil's homosexuality and sets the stage for the effect of this tragedy on his lover and those who were his family and friends. The beauty of this novel is. that it presents the high school students a tragedy that is not homosexuality. but rather society's reaction to it. Interweaving current medical and psychological positions on homosexuality, the author's intention should go unquestioned in the light of both her treatment of the characters as well as her uncontrived ending that sees the surviving lover away at college with "someone he likes a lot." No deus ex machina ending to satisfy the straight world's view of things!
Another novel that has some use in high schools is James Kirkwood's Good Times / Bad Times (Fawcett Crest, 1968). This novel sophisticated
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features Peter Kilbane and Jordon Legier, two prep school buddies, and their deranged headmaster Mr. Hoyt. Love, sex and murder are at issue in the novel and Kirkwood's estaolished mastery of storytelling makes this book profoundly rewarding reading experience. (This novel and two of Kirkwood's more recent publications will be reviewed in a future column.)
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Though the schools of the nation haven't even begun to adequately deal with the subject of homosexuality, thankfully the writers of novels for young people have. And thanks, too, to professional organizations like of the National Council Teachers of English and the American Library Association, these novels are receiving professional endorsements for use in the classroom. All that's needed now are more dedicated and open-minded teachers who will provide their students with the opportunity to become aware of both some good contemporary writing as well as an objective view of the homosexual.
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