The Kids Aren't Alright

Can college students read? Is that why they're not sad?

Apparently college students can’t read? I’m being reductive, but there’s a whole bunch of anecdotal evidence that elite college students are arriving at college without being able to identify books that they’ve read in high school. As a result, they’re having trouble making it through full books in college. And famously, to read books in college, it helps to have read books in high school. I’m not an education expert, so I don’t know what the causes of this epidemic are, but I’d blame social media and screens they appear on, the multiple avenues for cheating that the internet allows, and book banning generally.

If I sound like a grandpa yelling at kids to get off of my lawn, it’s because that’s not far from the truth. It’s been a while since I’ve been in high school, and I don’t have kids. So, I don’t even know what books the kids are reading these days. As a current nerd who started that journey in high school, I actually read the books that were assigned to me, and I mostly liked them. We tackled some cool books, like East of Eden (which might be favorite novel ever?) and The Once and Future King, some classics you’d expect like The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby, and some real flops that turned me off of maritime novels forever, even if they were allegedly allegories for homosexuality. I’m looking at you, Billy Budd. I also remember that some of the books were simply not made for my high school mind. Madame Bovary, for example, made no sense until many years later when I started dating men. Only then did I know she was right.

Are kids reading any cool books these days? Does anyone know or can point me somewhere? I’m genuinely curious!

In other news, I got my first communication from a PR agent directing me to NetGalley to read an arc of a book that comes out next year. Reader, I screamed when I got the email. And it’s a book I actually want to read. My perspective of folks teasing books months ahead has now shifted - I am solidly in favor of it. So, please know I am always happy to read those arcs!

In the meantime, here’s what’s been turning my pages lately. I’m realizing just now that it’s a lot of unusually sad or disturbed queer people. ‘Tis the season, I suppose.

THE LIBRARY IS OPEN

Anyone’s Ghost

by August Thompson (2024)

This novel falls into one of my very favorite unnamed genres: person enters another person’s life and changes everything forever. Whenever I come across these kinds of books, I’m reminded of The Accidental by Ali Smith. In that book, a woman descends upon the lives of an ordinary family and alters each member in a different way, much the way an accidental in music can make any neutral note sharper or flatter with its mere presence. We come across these people all the time - just recently, a friend group of mine met a hottish Brazilian guy that made everyone lose their minds in unique ways. For the record, I was unmoved. In any case, I think these accidentals make the strongest impression on us when we’re in our formative years, the years perfect for coming of age novels.

And so, we meet Davey, the subject of our coming of age journey, as he’s set to spend his summer in the care of his divorced father in rural New Hampshire. Already adrift in the world of gateway drugs, Davey is forced by his dad to get a job and learn some responsibility for once in his life. A nightmare. That is, until he gets to the pharmacy where he’ll be working and meets his boss for the summer. Jake is everything Davey is not: cool, mature, rebellious, strapping, and hot. Sometimes an accidental doesn’t make you sharper or flatter, but a secret third thing. Queerer.

It’s not a spoiler to tell you that the book begins by telling you that Jake has died years later, and Davey is dealing with the fallout of how you mourn a complicated relationship. The book follows the love, somewhere between platonic and romantic in a way men can never talk about, haunts them for the rest of their lives. It’s a powerful coming of age novel that doesn’t fit neatly into any box, just like the protagonist who later has a girlfriend after college. Fear not, though, there is sexual tension you could cut with a knife between Davey and Jake.

This is a great debut, and the author has a real knack for description. (At one point he perfectly calls a character’s messy morning hair “Beethoven head,” a term I shall steal for myself.) I wish there were far more stories about complicated male friendships! For now, I really enjoyed this book about this specific complicated male friendship, and I can’t wait to see what the author does next.

Read it if you like: coming of age narratives, so many drugs that you wonder how people survive, the grey areas of men loving men, books that telegraph their soundtracks, sad queers who still have a lot of fun.

Four Squares

by Bobby Finger (2024)

I’m not sure there’s a podcast more simultaneously hilarious and incisive as Who Weekly, which prides itself on being “everything you need know about the celebrities you don’t.” It’s laugh out loud funny and deeply cynical about the world of minor celebrities. So, you might not expect that one of the hosts has released his second novel with a tone that’s a departure from the podcast but very similar to his first novel, The Old Place. Seems like the novel template in the Bobby Finger groove is some whimsical version of wholesome folks, wistful about the choices they’ve made as they navigate the loneliness and sad changes that come with again.

Not a complaint! He does this very well once again with Four Squares which tells the life of Arthur Anderson, a gay writer, from his days in 1990s New York City to his current day circumstances in the same place as the people around him move and change. In the 1990s, Artie and his group of friends are engaged in activism, holding tight to one another as their circles grow smaller because of the onslaught of AIDS in its early years. Artie meets Abe, a brash and mysterious love interest who will become the love of his life, but not without some hurdles to their early beginnings. We flash forward every other chapter to Artie’s current life, as his only friends and chosen family move to Seattle leaving him alone and faced with admitting that attending a support community for elder queer folks would be helpful.

(Quick aside: I confess that when book characters who have lots of interactions have names that start with the same initial it sometimes confuses me. After years of being a fast reader, my brain sometimes settles into knowing them as their first initial. Anyone else? Anyone?)

There are emotional twists and turns throughout the book, which ends up being a lovely tribute to the elder queers who lifted up our community when no one else would acknowledge the harm being done to it. I love that this book (and this author) focuses on folks who are advanced in age and rarely get their stories told, especially in queer communities where youth is king. Sad things happen to Artie throughout, but the story is infused with enough hope about aging into the best version oneself that it never feels maudlin. I’m really glad I picked this one up.

Read it if you like: 1990s NYC, friend groups, AIDS activism, writers writing about writers, funny elders.

How to Leave the House

by Nathan Newman (2024)

It’s time for some weird fiction. Are you ready to join Natwest on a 24-hour odyssey the day before he leaves for university as he tracks down a secret, mysterious package that he doesn’t want anyone else to see? Along the way, we meet the people who cross Natwest’s path and get their perspectives, as well. Many of them, including Natwest, are unlikeable. (We are fine with this because as mature readers, we do not need all of our characters to be likable to enjoy a book!) It’s a small town full of characters, let me tell you.

This is a book that dares to ask: What if Ulysses were written by someone who knows what poppers are? We hit every part of his small town on his quest, including an art show consisting of various mouths painted by a dentist. We’ve got an imam, an English teacher, a teen who’s gotten her nudes leaked on the internet, and an angry ex-boyfriend who has taken possession of Natwest’s highly controversial Hawaiian shirt. There are wonderful asides about advertisements, art, and overachievers who did not pan out.

This book is funny. The characters are outlandish and silly. You can probably guess within the first couple of chapters what’s in the mysterious package, but it’s still fun to witness the reveal. The book is formally inventive in parts - there’s some subchapters that are reddit threads, and the ending is one I’m still wrapping my arms around. I’m glad to have picked up a strange book to knock me out of what felt like the reading doldrums. I don’t even know if I loved this book, but I was always fascinated by it. You might be too.

Read it if you like: strange books, books that take place in 24 hours, mom and son stories, places that feel vaguely British, delusional main characters.

LIGHTNING ROUND

I’ve run into a bunch of 3.5/5-star books lately that other people seem to love, and I’m happy to pass on to you as books I merely liked. Here’s one I was really looking forward to, and it’s got lovely descriptions of food.

Here’s another one that I’m glad I read, set in China and NYC over a couple of decades.

The Millions is giving us ideas for many books to read this fall.

If I do not talk to you before the election, I hope you vote for someone who is not a monster, and we all come through ok on the other side. xoxo

Until next time…happy reading!