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Love and Other Perishable Items
by Laura Buzo
by Laura Buzo
I kind of loved this one!
This book reminded me of a mixture of CK Kelly Martin's contemporary reads with Lia Hills's "The Beginner's Guide to Living." This isn't a typical YA novel, in that it features a character who is 21-then-22 in the story along side the 15-then-16 year old. Both Chris and Amelia have fantastic and distinct voices.
Amelia takes a job at Coles, a local grocery store, and that's where she meets and falls for Chris, the much-older-than-her boy. They develop a relationship, but while she wants it to be more romantic, he wants it to be much more a friendship than a romance. Where Amelia struggles to understand those first feelings of love, Chris is much more experienced and wants instead to find companionship and solace because he's lost the true feelings of first love on a girl who used him. While they're struggling privately with these feelings, they share incredible conversations about life, growing up, feminism, literature, and much more. Getting these conversations from both sides -- the teen side and the not-so-teen side -- made them dynamic and thoughtful. They really provided great character development in a way that the story required.
What struck me as particularly good about this novel was that neither Amelia nor Chris are having any huge crises in their lives. Their struggles are really typical of their ages. But Buzo does a great job respecting their ages and their moments in time, which infuses their daily struggles with meaning. These aren't boring characters nor boring situations.
At times, both Chris and Amelia are irritating and selfish and needy. Using the dual perspective allows the readers to draw these conclusions, since neither character calls one another out on this. It was great that neither got to know the whole story behind the other, but the reader gets the opportunity to do that. It felt like being let in on secrets.
I really appreciated, too, how Buzo wasn't afraid to go there in this story. She pushes the envelope with drug use and with sex; these are real and honest parts of these characters' lives, and shying away from them would be a disservice to them and to the reader. (view spoiler) I also found the Penny subplot strong and important to Amelia's development and growth.
Even though the characters don't have a true "resolution" at the end, I walked away completely satisfied. This book made me happy.
Also, this song is going to be permanently attached to this book for me: http://youtu.be/mxfjSnMN88U
Full review here: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/11/l...
This book reminded me of a mixture of CK Kelly Martin's contemporary reads with Lia Hills's "The Beginner's Guide to Living." This isn't a typical YA novel, in that it features a character who is 21-then-22 in the story along side the 15-then-16 year old. Both Chris and Amelia have fantastic and distinct voices.
Amelia takes a job at Coles, a local grocery store, and that's where she meets and falls for Chris, the much-older-than-her boy. They develop a relationship, but while she wants it to be more romantic, he wants it to be much more a friendship than a romance. Where Amelia struggles to understand those first feelings of love, Chris is much more experienced and wants instead to find companionship and solace because he's lost the true feelings of first love on a girl who used him. While they're struggling privately with these feelings, they share incredible conversations about life, growing up, feminism, literature, and much more. Getting these conversations from both sides -- the teen side and the not-so-teen side -- made them dynamic and thoughtful. They really provided great character development in a way that the story required.
What struck me as particularly good about this novel was that neither Amelia nor Chris are having any huge crises in their lives. Their struggles are really typical of their ages. But Buzo does a great job respecting their ages and their moments in time, which infuses their daily struggles with meaning. These aren't boring characters nor boring situations.
At times, both Chris and Amelia are irritating and selfish and needy. Using the dual perspective allows the readers to draw these conclusions, since neither character calls one another out on this. It was great that neither got to know the whole story behind the other, but the reader gets the opportunity to do that. It felt like being let in on secrets.
I really appreciated, too, how Buzo wasn't afraid to go there in this story. She pushes the envelope with drug use and with sex; these are real and honest parts of these characters' lives, and shying away from them would be a disservice to them and to the reader. (view spoiler) I also found the Penny subplot strong and important to Amelia's development and growth.
Even though the characters don't have a true "resolution" at the end, I walked away completely satisfied. This book made me happy.
Also, this song is going to be permanently attached to this book for me: http://youtu.be/mxfjSnMN88U
Full review here: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/11/l...
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Reading Progress
| 05/03/2012 | page 55 |
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21.0% | "Any mention of the Dire Straits song Romeo and Juliet means puts the words on infinite loop in my mind." |
| 05/03/2012 | page 55 |
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21.0% | "Any mention of the Dire Straits song Romeo and Juliet puts the words on infinite loop in my mind." 2 comments |
| 05/03/2012 | page 150 |
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59.0% | "I'm liking this a lot -- it's definitely a little older than typical YA but there's no doubt it's got teen appeal. As much as Chris irritates me, I actually relate to him a whole lot because our life stages aren't that far apart (and I know people exactly where he's at right now, even)." |
| 05/04/2012 | page 212 |
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83.0% | "I think I like Chris better than Amelia. Not really what I was expecting." |
Comments (showing 1-30 of 30) (30 new)
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Catie
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rated it 4 stars
May 01, 2012 05:35pm
Have you read Good Oil? Maybe you can tell us all how they differ. I'm really curious!
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Catie wrote: "Have you read Good Oil? Maybe you can tell us all how they differ. I'm really curious!"I haven't read Good Oil, but I am going to be curious, too, how much is different. I saw a comparison of this to CK Kelly Martin, which is all I needed.
Well, I really loved Good Oil. I hope that they don't change too much about it.I just got approved for Yesterday. It will be my first C.K. Kelly Martin!
Catie wrote: "Well, I really loved Good Oil. I hope that they don't change too much about it.I just got approved for Yesterday. It will be my first C.K. Kelly Martin!"
Yesterday is way different from her contemps, but it's a great time-travel adventure. Her writing made the change up in genre work.
This is such a good book! Well GOOD OIL is. ;-) By the way Kelly if you'd like any more Australian recs - I lived in Australia for 5/6 months I am Aussie YA queen haha
Rachel wrote: "This is such a good book! Well GOOD OIL is. ;-) By the way Kelly if you'd like any more Australian recs - I lived in Australia for 5/6 months I am Aussie YA queen haha"I will be curious what anyone who has read Good Oil and reads the US version thinks of the changes. And thanks -- I've enjoyed a lot of the Aussie YA I've read and I am really glad to see more of it making its way overseas.
I am curious enough about the changes from the Aussie version (Good Oil) that I may forgive the odd title and give it a spin. I think the comparison to CK Kelly Martin (one of my fave YA contemporary writers) is pretty apt, now that I think about it.
Catie: I recommend The Lighter Side of Life & Death if you haven't read CKKM before--really realistic and compelling teen male voice. I'm incredibly excited for her self-pubbed "new adult" novel coming out this summer, too.
Sarah wrote: "I am curious enough about the changes from the Aussie version (Good Oil) that I may forgive the odd title and give it a spin. I think the comparison to CK Kelly Martin (one of my fave YA contempo..."
One of the weird things so far is that the store she's working at is called Coles, but the description of the book (both the US version and the Aussie version) call it Woolworths. I'm not sure where the change should be!
And ~50 pages in, I def see the CK Kelly Martin flavor to it.
My rec on CK Kelly Martin's contemp would be I Know It's Over. My favorite of her contemps and it made me cry some buckets of tears. And ditto on the "new adult" title. There's a 2-chapter sampler up on her website (http://theportableartist.hypermart.ne...) and I'm sold on it completely.
Wow, thanks for the recommendations you two. I've been wanting to try her out for a while.In the original, she works at Woolworths. How funny that they changed it to Coles. Is that even a real store? Or is it just a made up name? I requested this from NG but who knows if I'll get it.
Catie wrote: "Wow, thanks for the recommendations you two. I've been wanting to try her out for a while.In the original, she works at Woolworths. How funny that they changed it to Coles. Is that even a real..."
Interesting they changed that because Woolworths is a real store (or was?) in the US. Maybe since it was a grocery store in Australia they didn't want to confuse it with the former dime store? The Aussie-isms are still in here, though, as far as I can tell.
Yeah, I'm not sure if it's still around. I remember Flannery talked about that in her review - how she was picturing them in like a drug store/corner store the whole time (until it was clarified). I hope I get approved. I'd love to see if they changed anything.
Catie wrote: "Yeah, I'm not sure if it's still around. I remember Flannery talked about that in her review - how she was picturing them in like a drug store/corner store the whole time (until it was clarified)...."I hope you do too because I would definitely be interested in a comparison of the two of them. I'm scratching my head about the name of the store being changed since the book's still set in Australia and the vernacular seems unchanged (I don't know positively, but I'm guessing).
I'm tempted to read this version as well, just to see how it compares to Good Oil (which I loved). I just finished Buzo's second book, Holier Than Thou, and I think it's possibly even more Australian, if that makes sense. If it gets published in the US too, I'm extremely curious to see how much of it is changed - particularly as far as the language is concerned. (Language not just in terms of the colloquialisms, but also the swearing - which is colourful and abundant..)
Reynje wrote: "I'm tempted to read this version as well, just to see how it compares to Good Oil (which I loved). I just finished Buzo's second book, Holier Than Thou, and I think it's possibly even more Austra..."
I love colorful and abundant swearing! I am liking Buzo's writing quite a bit and definitely don't see any readability issues with it in terms of colloquialisms. Loving the alternating voices, too.
I'm really looking forward to your review. If you end up enjoying this, I'd definitely recommend Holier Than Thou - it's slightly older again but Buzo really nails the late teen/early 20s voice.
Reynje wrote: "I'm really looking forward to your review. If you end up enjoying this, I'd definitely recommend Holier Than Thou - it's slightly older again but Buzo really nails the late teen/early 20s voice."I think what I'm really liking is how...ordinary the characters are. Their problems aren't life threatening (well -- debatable with Amelia's father I suppose) but they're not boring, either. I'm totally intrigued enough to check out Holier Than Thou. Just hoping it comes to the US!
"Longer review to come, but this book will not only appeal to teen readers, but I think it'll have a nice 20-something readership, too."And also a 30-something readership... ;)
Catie wrote: ""Longer review to come, but this book will not only appeal to teen readers, but I think it'll have a nice 20-something readership, too."And also a 30-something readership... ;)"
I can't speak to that but I will take your word ;) The joy I have in my heart just finishing this is pretty awesome, though.
I know. I loved this book so much. I've heard that the ending of Holier Than Thou is sort of open and ambiguous too and that makes me so excited. She can write one hell of an ending.I really related to both characters. I was a lot like Amelia as a teenager, but Chris reminds me of how I feel now. Being an adult is hard...
Catie wrote: "I know. I loved this book so much. I've heard that the ending of Holier Than Thou is sort of open and ambiguous too and that makes me so excited. She can write one hell of an ending.I really r..."
I appreciate ambiguity in an ending because that's how life is. And I related to both characters, too. Part of it is that as a teen, Amelia thinks she knows it all (and not in a bad way, but in a teenager way!) and as a 20-something, Chris realizes he knows absolutely nothing.
Love this review Kelly. Perfect. I think what makes this book so special to a lot of people is the fact that it's just so relatable, and it's so easy to identify with both Amelia and Chris at certain points. This book and Holier Than Thou are two of the most accurate depictions of growing up in Australia that I've ever read. Well, for me, at least.
Reynje wrote: "Love this review Kelly. Perfect. I think what makes this book so special to a lot of people is the fact that it's just so relatable, and it's so easy to identify with both Amelia and Chris at certa..."It IS so relatable and I wonder if a big reason is because we actually see the difference a few years makes in growing up. And I think maybe what makes it special is that readers who aren't quite at the point Chris is in his life will relate to Amelia really hard (because she is easy to relate to!).
I never grew up in Australia, but I would say this was pretty accurate of growing up in the US, too. Maybe that's part of what makes it so special -- the challenges and the growth are universal experiences, rather than anything culturally-specific.
I think another reason is how honest Buzo is. Like you say, she isn't afraid to go to places with the story that are realistic, but possibly other books would shy away from. Yet it never feels gratuitous, or provocative. I have a lot of respect for that. You're right - thematically I think it's relevant regardless of where you happened to grow up. I think it's just the local references and the dialogue that make it particularly nostalgia-inducing for me.
Reynje wrote: "I think another reason is how honest Buzo is. Like you say, she isn't afraid to go to places with the story that are realistic, but possibly other books would shy away from. Yet it never feels grat..."I loved and appreciated the honesty too -- it only added depth to the characters. Never felt false or added to be provocative. Have you read any CK Kelly Martin? If not, you should. She toes that same line of going there without ever going over the line or being risky for the sake of being risky.
I hope someone who read Good Oil reads this one and talks about the differences (beyond the name of the store, which is a weird change). I loved the Aussie flavor to this one -- it gave it character without feeling foreign, if that makes sense (though honestly, I can't say I've read an Aussie novel that has felt particularly foreign, though sometimes they feel somewhat Americanized).
I haven't read any CK Kelly Martin yet - though I've ordered One Lonely Degree, and I have a galley of Yesterday to read. I'm looking forward to them, I've heard very good things about her writing. I might try reading this version soon. After seeing a comparison of the US and AUS version of Graffiti Moon, I'm really interested in the type of changes that are made, and why. IMO, they're not necessary, but that's just my layperson opinion :)
If I get approved for this, I'm going to do it! Reynje, if you get approved you should compare them too. It's really interesting. Although it seems like (from Kelly's review) that possibly not very much was changed, which would be awesome. There are so many of us here from America and from England, Italy, Canada...etc. that already loved Good Oil. No changes were necessary, IMO. Even Woolworth's! It only takes a few pages to realize it's a grocery store!
Catie wrote: "If I get approved for this, I'm going to do it! Reynje, if you get approved you should compare them too. It's really interesting. Although it seems like (from Kelly's review) that possibly not v..."What's weird is that Coles is a grocery chain in Australia (and it's a bookstore/was a big bookstore) chain in Canada. So why the change, I'm not sure! But from what I've seen in other reviews, I don't think a whole lot more was changed.
