The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Just finished this latest book from David Levithan, and I couldn't have loved it more.

The story is inspired by the two college boys who broke a world's record, kissing more than 32 hours straight. The author doesn't tell their story, but uses them as inspiration for his own 17 year old protagonists.

These two boys are just one part of a much larger cast of characters. As they prepare for this attempt to break the world's record, we are introduced to various other boys, each making their way through the world. All of this is narrated by what's described in the summary as a Greek chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.

The Greek chorus may not work for all readers, but boy, it sure did for me. Their voices bring a compassionate and bittersweet perspective to the story, and recall the horrific losses suffered at the height of the epidemic. It's a fascinating contrast of what's come before, and what possibilities lie ahead, as well as the ongoing realities of this very imperfect world.

This is one of those stories that I will find myself thinking about long after I've put it down.

Thanks Aislinn,

I have added this to my TBR. I have decided I need to read more YA. This seems like a good one.

I hope you enjoy it, Mercedes. I need to be in the mood for YA, but I have a couple of friends with connections in that world who rec. me YA books all the time. I'd read one of Levithan's before, and really liked it(Every Day - really intriguing and original concept), so when this one was recced,I had to give it a go, and was so glad I did.

I just had a bit of an experience buying this at Barnes & Noble.

Since there are still certain categories of books - like YA from mainstream publishers - that I buy in print and because I had a 20% off coupon, I went to see if there was something I could get for the same as or less than the Amazon price.

I couldn't find this book or Openly Straight in the teen section. Then I couldn't find the Gay & Lesbian books at all so I went to ask. They showed me the "section" which was actually only one shelf about 3 feet long. I could've sworn this used to be several shelves. Why is this shrinking?

Anyway....she said teen books wouldn't be there so she looked them up for me. They didn't have Bill Konigsberg's book and Two Boys Kissing was "pulled to go back to the publisher". I mentioned that it had just been released at the end of August and she said it wasn't them, it was up to the publisher. What??

She was able to find a copy in the back for me, but I said it was a shame that gay kids would have such a hard time getting their hands on these books.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. I'll have to check for these titles next time I'm in a middle school library.

That's weird because David was getting some good publicity on his book. But who knows the dealings between publishers and book stores.

Jax wrote: "I just had a bit of an experience buying this at Barnes & Noble.

Since there are still certain categories of books - like YA from mainstream publishers - that I buy in print and because I had a 2..."

Barnes and Noble is still selling it on their website, so it's a bit odd she told you it was pulled to go back to publisher. You'd think that would be true in the virtual store if it's true in the brick and mortar ones.

I know. Best selling authors, new books, and still hard to get. Part of the problem is the reduced shelf space since they put in the giant Nook store and the cafe and all the music and games, etc. I miss my old quiet, books-only Barnes & Noble.

Jax wrote: "I know. Best selling authors, new books, and still hard to get. Part of the problem is the reduced shelf space since they put in the giant Nook store and the cafe and all the music and games, etc. I miss my old quiet, books-only Barnes & Noble."

I remember the first time I wandered into a Barnes & Noble in downtown Boston back in the late 70's. I felt like I had entered a little slice of heaven, with the comfy chairs in little reading nooks, surrounded by all the lovely books.

A friend just mentioned to me that David had an arrangement to donate proceeds from the book, up to a certain point, to the Trevor Project. We were wondering if maybe they got pulled because they've reached that level, and there was some kind of label on the books that needed to be removed if it's no longer true. Pure speculation on my part of course...

I've been looking forward to buying this book, particularly because of the cover, and thinking about proudly marching it up to the cashier counter at B&N. I'll have to check out my local store to see if they are carrying it. Really, for a high profile author like Levithan, it should be in the "New Books for Teens" display at the front of the store.

I just closed the book and wow. That is one gorgeous piece of writing. Stirs up a lot of emotions. Aislinn you are so right about this being something that will stay with me.

I was wondering, though, what anyone thinks about how this will work for gay teen readers. I absolutely loved the words of wisdom from the Greek chorus, but will these lessons from the men lost to AIDS mean anything to young people?

Much of what they had to say about life applied to anyone, gay or straight, but I know there's an experience specific to gay men of that generation that I can't really understand. I am, however, of an age where I experienced it - in a very tiny, very removed way - from seeing it in the news, and then in books and movies. I have an interest in hearing their stories. Will these young kids care? Will they get it?

Not everyone will "get" David Levithan's book "Two Boys Kissing." Well, too bad for them. For me, it was astonishing, and I feel badly for anyone who won't appreciate the specialness of this story.

It is, for sure, a YA novel - but not like any I've ever heard of. It is loosely based on an actual event in New Jersey that I, like the author, witnessed on Youtube - two young men kissing for over 32 hours to break a Guinness Book world record. But the story of Craig and Harry is merely the hub - the fiery, sparkling hub - of a series of interlocking stories involving gay teenagers. All of these boys live somewhere in an imaginary New Jersey, and they don't know each other; but they all live in the same time and place - here, today. Our world.

Most surprising of all is the book's narrator. The editorial "we" who guides the reader through the story is, apparently a ghost of sorts, although that's not immediately apparent. What is clear right away is that the voice is that of my generation - those gay men who came out long ago in a world so very different from the one in which we live. How startling - how moving - to realize that this YA tale is going to be told in my voice... On the very first page the narrator says, "As we become the distant past, you become a future few of us would have imagined." Indeed. To read Levithan's words and feel them echoing my own thoughts and feelings was indescribably powerful. Because, like Levithan's narrator, today's young gay men are a legacy so surprising and precious that even they don't fully understand it.

This book is not about a happy ending. It is about a present as full of joy, anguish, love and despair as our own adolescence was decades ago. It is a story of how alike we are, but also how profoundly different our lives were 30 years ago, when AIDS was just beginning its path of devastation through our world and same-sex marriage wasn't on anybody's radar. I know that gay teens reading this will find hope and comfort in its pages, but I still can't shake the feeling that Levithan really wrote it for me.

Here, BTW, is the footage of the actual event that inspired me and this book.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDeb1c...

I have to disagree on this being a YA read. I think many teens will not understand the collective narration in the beginning, and when they finally do, it hits hard and leaves a burden because of how it was written. I lived through the AIDS epidemic, held friends hands as they died, traveled with them to the otherside, and I took offense to how he wrote the narrators. I loved the stories within, and was taken back to a time when two college guys broke the world record for longest kiss. However, if you were around to remember the 70's and 80's this book could make you angry.

Tara - This obviously is very personal, but I was very much around in the 1970s and 80s. The narrators, other than being dead, reflect my life and my perspective, which why I loved it. No one, in my experience, has ever voiced my generation's perspective on gay teens today in quite this way. I buried lots of friends, but like the teacher, Tom, in the book, I and my husband survived - and we have teenaged children (who have gay friends), so I'd love for them to understand what their lives mean to us today.

I understand that but the general feeling is one of; look what we did so your lives could be better. I deal with a lot of teen issues and I have worked a suicide prevention line. This is exactly the type of read that throws an already teetering individual over the edge. Which is why I stand firm on this being a GREAT book, but a lot to lay on some of the teens fighting out there today. We all view books differently and this is just my own opinion. I was at the harder end of the spectrum in the 70's and 80's. Weekend parties, clubs, bars, and friends who in the end were abandoned by their loved ones.