So this book is The Sad, right? That’s probably the one thing
everyone hears about it. And whenever a book gets that reputation, our
cynicism pops in for a visit (oh, who are we kidding, it never left). No one
appreciates being emotionally manipulated by an author (*cough*John
Green*cough*Markus Zusak).
But in this case, it was less like, “Look at this puppy: I KICK IT AND ALSO DIP YOUR LOLLIPOP IN A MUD PUDDLE,” and more like, “Remember the ’80s and how they kind of sucked the
most for the gay community, and also how hard it was to be a teenage girl? Remember THAT? Let’s discuss.”
June Elbus is 14, and the year is 1987. She has an older
sister whom she used to be close with but is now separated from by a gaping
chasm called High School. She’s a little bit eccentric. She doesn’t have many
friends her age. Who she DOES have is her Uncle Finn. He understands her better
than anyone else in her life and lets her be just who she is. But Finn is
wasting away in the grip of a serious disease—an automatic-death-sentence sort of disease. Since the name of this particular affliction isn’t mentioned on the
book jacket, I feel obligated to warn you that this could possibly be a
spoiler? So if you haven’t already guessed what the mysteeeeeerious illness is,
read no farther.
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| Be sure to visit the snack counter on your way out. |
Everyone came back with snacks, right? Because I'm sure you all figured out that Finn is gay and has, at some point before the story
picks up, contracted AIDS. Because it’s the ’80s, no one yet knows how to
protect themselves from this virus or even exactly how it's transmitted. And
the stigma around AIDS is at its height, because with ignorance comes fear and with
fear comes people braiding ribbons into the manes of their moral high horses.
If you have AIDS, you must have done something to deserve it, or someone must
have given it to you maliciously because you fraternize with the sort of people
who would do something like that. Because AIDS only happens to Bad People.
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| Something about adding insult to injury. |
The book follows June through this pivotal time in her
life, showing how she and her family deal with the enormity of their loss and
the conflicting feelings that come with fiercely loving someone who the world
tells you is dirty and wrong and unlovable. It’s also about family dynamics at
their most basic. About siblings. About mothers and daughters. About husbands
and wives. It’s good, you guys. It’s really good.
And the writing? Not too shabby for a YA book (she says with
her hands shielding her face, and also having recently read no fewer than five
YA books in a row).
The sun kept on with its slipping away, and I thought how many small good things in the world might be resting on the shoulders of something terrible. (p. 233)
One thing I love about June is that she's kind of into the Renaissance period and visiting the woods by herself so she can pretend she is a lone maiden venturing out
in search of medicinal herbs to save the people of her village. She might be a little old for
make-believe, but time travel is an effective escape at any age.
I used to think maybe I wanted to become a falconer, and now I’m sure of it, because I need to figure out the secret. I need to work out how to keep things flying back to me instead of always flying away. (p. 350)
I identify with this character. I have an older
sibling whom I was close to and then grew impossibly far away from without ever
really understanding how. I also used to pretend that I lived in another time.
I didn’t have woods to retreat to, but I frequently ventured into the backyard
bushes to reenact scenes from Sleeping
Beauty.
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| I played the part of the horse. |
Even more than those somewhat superficial connections with
June, I also have an uncle who died of AIDS. Because my family is fairly
conservative and also lived far away from my Uncle David (he in San Francisco;
we in Texas), there has always been a lot of mystery surrounding the whole
ordeal—made worse by the fact that I was too young to be invited into ALL the
details of his illness. I knew that he preferred men. I knew that he wore a lot
of leather (and he looked gooooood, ya’ll). I knew that he was a little thinner
each time I saw him. I knew that there was a fair amount of tension around that
subject. I knew that he somehow understood me better than any of my other aunts
and uncles, even though I saw him the least. (He MADE me a leather journal for
Christmas one year because he knew I loved to write.)
And then one day he was just gone. And that was that.
So after I read this book, I decided to ask my dad more
about that time. I asked him why none of us went to Uncle Dave’s funeral. (We
just couldn’t make the journey to California on such short notice.) I asked him
if they kept their distance because they disapproved of his lifestyle. (Partly.) I asked him if he had a partner
to take care of him when he got really sick. (No, because his long-term
partner, whom he met in England [if you’ve read the book, you will realize that
this is a CRAZY parallel], also had AIDS and passed away first. But he was
surrounded by close friends.)
It was a good talk. And I’m glad this book inspired it.
So go forth, my friends. Read and cry cleansing tears of
crippling sadness.
