In which I almost get to make out with Charles Dickens

(This was written for Powell's, the Oregon-based bookseller.)

"There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one."

I first read Great Expectations back in ninth grade or so, and while I don't remember exactly, it's safe to say that the above lines went over my head — whoosh! — along with pretty much anything else that didn't have to do with boys, Rick ...