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Will Grayson, Will Grayson - For Those Who Have Finished
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Just finished this up! Overall, I really liked it. Even though I was a little put off by the teenage angsty-ness of it all (definitely not the kind of emotions I currently have in my life) I saw how good it could be for someone a little younger. Love the pro homosexual stance and how she framed the straight Will Grayson to be more "gay" than Tiny. I definitely burst out laughing at some points.I adored Jane and her wit, Eand even though she was there a lot, I felt like she was such a key, yet quiet, character.
I thought it was brilliant that she wrote with different punctuation in order to help us keep the Will Grayson's apart. It worked very well and I never got confused.
All in all, great monthly read. I'm glad I picked it up!
Since you mention the punctuation Ashley... I actually went to a signing that David Levithan did here in San Francisco recently (his Will Grayson is the one in all lower case; John Green's Will Grayson is the one with normal capitalization) and he told us some really interesting things about why he wrote in all lowercase and with wonky punctuation. He said that while it worked well for distinguishing them, that wasn't why he did it in the first place -- he originally did it because he felt that this Will Grayson was a lot about his online persona and so much of his character related to that, so he felt it would be natural for him to think in how he would express himself online -- that's why the conversations he has with people often look like IM conversations. I thought that was a really interesting way of writing it, and it did make it easier to distinguish them too.I love love loved Tiny, he was such a great character. And the end was just perfect! :) Jane was great too, I also loved her wit. I'm definitely glad I finally got around to reading it!
Holy cow - I totally forgot that this was a collaboration novel! How cool. And I love that reason for the punctuation, it really does make sense and I think that really came through in the story.
I finished this book a couple days ago. Really enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting to laugh so much.The ending? I loved it. Tiny Cooper, I appreciate you. He is one of the most unique characters I have ever come across.
David Levithan's Will Grayson was definitely more about his online persona. The whole reason the two Will Grayson's meet (in a porn store no less) was because lowercase Will was supposedly meeting his online friend/boyfriend.
I was shocked that Issac wasn't real and was made up by Maura! That was such a horrible thing to do.
You know, I've been thinking a lot about this book and have a question to pose - clearly, this is very much about homosexuality and homosexual relationships, but I really didn't get the feeling that there was a lot of /struggle/ involved. Everyone loves Tiny in his school and his community, Tiny and friends have no problem startins a GSA, Will Grayson lowercase comes out to his mother with no problem, Will Grayson lowercase instantly finds other gay friends in his high school, etc. etc. etc.My point is, what do people think about how this book glossed over the challenges of homosexuality? Briefly you can see a struggle from Tiny about it (when he and Will are breaking up) but even that was more about Tiny being a big guy than being gay. Do you think the book should have addressed more that being gay isn't as easy as this implies?
I couldn't decide if the authors were using this almost as a form of encouragement for people to accept themselves and others who are gay (showing how great life can be) or if they didn't know how to tackle the hard parts.
Thoughts?
I think the authors were using the book as a source of encouragement for acceptance. One of the things I loved most about the book was that there were gay characters but that wasn't the only thing they were defined as. In most books, movies, tv shows today when a character is gay that seems to be their defining characteristic and that's all anyone knows about them.
That's a great question Ashley. I think I agree with Jen, that it's a sort of encouragement for acceptance. I think it's a glimpse at how it's possible for homosexuality to not be a big deal in society. I definitely agree that whenever you see a gay character in movie or TV, it does tend to be what defines them, and by making it something that is a part of the characters but not their main defining characteristic, John Green and David Levithan are kind of making the case that that's not the only thing that makes up a person. It shouldn't be their only defining feature as a human being.Boy Meets Boy (by Levithan) is kind of similar in this respect, but even more extreme in that it's set in sort of a "gay utopia" -- the head cheerleader is also a football player and drag queen, the town gets rid of the Boy Scouts and makes them Joy Scouts, and homosexuality isn't seen as abnormal.
Interesting! I think I might pick up Boy Meets Boy.I'm glad that's how people felt about it - I felt that encouragement was the intention as well. I have a pretty large community of gay/bi friends and as I was recommending they read the book, I wondered if they would see it the same way I did. I'll let you know what they think if they ever read it :-)
Some general starting questions:
Did you like or dislike the book? Did you like the ending? Favorite characters? Favorite quotes? Did you like the author's style? Were you confused by anything in the book? etc.
Feel free to post any discussion questions that are more specific to the book once you have finished. The moderators and discussion leader will try and facilitate the discussion but since everybody's reading schedule/life schedule are different, they may not be able to do so at the beginning of the month. So, any discussion questions are welcome! :)