Monday 16 January 2012

John Green & David Levithan - Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Authors: John Green and David Levithan
Pub. year: 2010
Pages: 304
Editor: Dutton books

Summary: One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.





Funny how you can't rely on our "next read" image sometimes - it's because lately, we've wanted to organize a little surprise for you. As you might (or should) now, John Green latest book called TFIOS by anyone who's desperatly expecting it has just come out. So I'm afraid we need a little time to read it before reviewing it. In the meantime, let's make this a John Green Special! Last week was Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns came already last August, and today... let's hear a bit about Will Grayson!

Who are Will Grayson? I say "are" because they are two: the one who has this crazy gay friend obsessed with musicals, who doesn't want to get involved in anything, who's kind of in love with a girl but kind of not. Then there's the gloomy one living with his mom, friendless apart from this strange girl he hangs out with, totally in love with this mysterious internet guy that he hasn't met yet. And someday, they meet, they share their wrongs and rights, and somehow try to make it better for both of them.

Sounds like a happy story, isn't it? It's a pretty strange story, first because being written by four hands doesn't make it easy, then because most of it isn't so happy (it's pretty dramatic even), and ultimately because I hate the fact that Levithan's Will writes with no capital letters at all. I know, he explains why, and he's right and it's awesome, but it drove me crazy. Especially when two guys are called "will" and "will" is also a very common word, and I had to read some sentences twice for my brain to register. Poor brain of mine.

It's bad to play favorites but we all do: Levithan's gloomy Will was definitely my favorite. I had a bit more trouble to like the other Will, who always plays so detached and sometimes selfish and other times quite a pain in the ass, while gloomy Will was just so depressed and angry and passionate—I always prefer those. Ah, and he's gay, that's always a plus for me. But still, I quite like them both; the one who really got on my nerves was Tiny Cooper.

Sometimes I wonder if this story shouldn't have been called "Tiny Cooper, Tiny Cooper". Only one of him but he's a handful, and he's there always, talking, moving, singing, obsessed with this high school musical about Tiny Cooper that comes again and again and again. I think you got my point: I don't like musicals. And though the story was great and the ending quite touching, I was bothered by this musical that was all over it.
But wether you like musicals or not, I think you should definitely try it. It's a fun, original, sweet and touching story, kind of magic sometimes, and there's definitely talent in there!


(Hear John Green talking about it, reading the beginning, and telling you why this book is also enjoyable for cats)

0 commentaires:

Post a Comment