Tim Federle "Better Nate Than Ever"

[Ulysses]

I resisted Tim Federle's "Better Nate than Ever" just because it was so popular and has been getting such incredible press. Plus, the very out gay author goes to some length to make it clear that Nate is not sure whether he's gay or not. He does it cutely, but it sort of saddened me. But, after reading the book, it's pretty clear Nate is gay. And he knows it. But he never totally says it. He is, after all, only thirteen. Somethings don't change even forty-five years AFTER I was thirteen.

But Federle is coming to my local bookstore and I figured I should read it, and go meet him.

Good move. It's a wonderful book. Yes, as one of the lone low-score reviewers said, it might be a book for people who are into Broadway and that whole New York experience - but given that this means millions of potential people across the country, then why is that a criticism? Some people. Yeesh.

This is a Young Adult novel aimed at early teenagers - but written with a sparkling, sharp-edged humor and bracingly fast pace. The author's voice feels like a teen, but has the language skills of an adult. It works - or it worked for me. A lot. It all but careens through Nate Foster's escape from the rural outskirts of Pittsburgh to the gritty reality of what he, adorably, calls Manhattan City.

There is not a single thing about Nate that resembles me or my life at the age of thirteen. And yet I identified with him so fully as I read the book I had to stop and remind myself that I wasn't like this.

I laughed out loud throughout the book - and yet there were several moments, small, incisive bits of very smart writing, that surprised me into tears. Because where Nate and I do intersect is that place where, at thirteen, you realize you're not a "normal" boy, and that you'll never fit into that mold. Never.

And the great triumph of this book is that Nate, in the end, is fine with that. Which makes the whole adventure more than worthwhile - for me, as well.