charlie the second
Yay! Two of you sent me books off my wishlist! First, I got two books I'd been looking forward to reading from Chris. Thanks Chris! The first is I'll be Sober in the Morning, which is filled with hilarious zingers (much better than "Say it ain't so, Joe!") from politicians. I've actually been reading it in the car mostly, since each little page is the perfect length to read at a stoplight.
The second book I got from Chris is The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second, by Drew Ferguson. It was reviewed in The Advocate this month, so if you don't believe what I'm about to say, ask them. But this book was seriously great. It was fast-paced, had great characters, and was funny. I'm not the type to laugh out loud very often at movies, and certainly not while reading books; I understand when things are meant to be funny, but they're
very rarely funny enough that I spontaneously laugh. But every few pages through this book, I laughed out loud. Drew gave Charlie such a wit, and a ruthless eye for observing people. I started reading it the night I got it, and stayed up until 2:30am the next three nights because I didn't want to put it down. I finished it in less than a week, and I'm kinda sad it's over.
This is weird, but one thing I really admired about it was Drew's discipline in creating Charlie's character. Maybe it's just me, but if I were writing a novel about a gay boy in high school, I wouldn't be able to resist making him confident, well-liked, big-dicked and generally awesome. I don't know, I guess I'd just want to be associated with the really cool guy I'd created. Even though I don't fictionalize, in selecting what to tell you on this blog versus what I leave out, I suppose I'm "creating" the character of Matt. I'm not really sure how you perceive me, and I think I'm pretty honest about my imperfections, but I suppose I probably err on the side of wanting you to think I'm cooler than I am and avoiding embarrassing myself. But Drew made Charlie very real, very raw, and very honest about his faults. This blog is kinda like that, and I appreciate the honesty.
I think different people will get different things from it, but the best part about the book for me was that it gave me a glimpse into a high school experience I never had. Charlie is unashamedly out of the closet, and it's fascinating to go through a couple months of his life with him. I have no personal experience to compare it against, but I have a feeling it's very realistic. I hurt with him when people were mean, I understood how he could loathe the asshole jocks but still ogle them, I sympathized with his struggles about just how in-your-face gay to be. And it had a surprisingly large number of explicitly described cumshots! haha! Basically, it was a fun book, and I highly recommend it. Thanks again for sending it, Chris!
And Drew can tell me if I'm wrong, but I came across these pictures and realized this is how I picture Rob who, until late in the story, was my favorite character:
The next time I opened a package from one of you it was sorta surreal. Inside was Gore Vidal's 1876, which is the third book in a series I'm loving, and it's what I'm reading now. What was crazy is that it was a gift from Drew Ferguson. Yes, the same Drew Ferguson who wrote The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second, which I was in the middle of reading at the time. I had to do a double take, like, "huh!? The author of the book I'm reading just sent me another book to read? Cool!" So, thanks Drew! That was really exciting, and I appreciate it very much. I hope your move went smoothly!
The second book I got from Chris is The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second, by Drew Ferguson. It was reviewed in The Advocate this month, so if you don't believe what I'm about to say, ask them. But this book was seriously great. It was fast-paced, had great characters, and was funny. I'm not the type to laugh out loud very often at movies, and certainly not while reading books; I understand when things are meant to be funny, but they're
very rarely funny enough that I spontaneously laugh. But every few pages through this book, I laughed out loud. Drew gave Charlie such a wit, and a ruthless eye for observing people. I started reading it the night I got it, and stayed up until 2:30am the next three nights because I didn't want to put it down. I finished it in less than a week, and I'm kinda sad it's over. This is weird, but one thing I really admired about it was Drew's discipline in creating Charlie's character. Maybe it's just me, but if I were writing a novel about a gay boy in high school, I wouldn't be able to resist making him confident, well-liked, big-dicked and generally awesome. I don't know, I guess I'd just want to be associated with the really cool guy I'd created. Even though I don't fictionalize, in selecting what to tell you on this blog versus what I leave out, I suppose I'm "creating" the character of Matt. I'm not really sure how you perceive me, and I think I'm pretty honest about my imperfections, but I suppose I probably err on the side of wanting you to think I'm cooler than I am and avoiding embarrassing myself. But Drew made Charlie very real, very raw, and very honest about his faults. This blog is kinda like that, and I appreciate the honesty.
I think different people will get different things from it, but the best part about the book for me was that it gave me a glimpse into a high school experience I never had. Charlie is unashamedly out of the closet, and it's fascinating to go through a couple months of his life with him. I have no personal experience to compare it against, but I have a feeling it's very realistic. I hurt with him when people were mean, I understood how he could loathe the asshole jocks but still ogle them, I sympathized with his struggles about just how in-your-face gay to be. And it had a surprisingly large number of explicitly described cumshots! haha! Basically, it was a fun book, and I highly recommend it. Thanks again for sending it, Chris!
And Drew can tell me if I'm wrong, but I came across these pictures and realized this is how I picture Rob who, until late in the story, was my favorite character:
The next time I opened a package from one of you it was sorta surreal. Inside was Gore Vidal's 1876, which is the third book in a series I'm loving, and it's what I'm reading now. What was crazy is that it was a gift from Drew Ferguson. Yes, the same Drew Ferguson who wrote The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second, which I was in the middle of reading at the time. I had to do a double take, like, "huh!? The author of the book I'm reading just sent me another book to read? Cool!" So, thanks Drew! That was really exciting, and I appreciate it very much. I hope your move went smoothly!
posted by Matt at 2:02 PM
6 Comments:
Well i've never heard of the second book you mentioned, but based on your description alone I think i'm gonna try and pick it up. My head has been stuck back in high school days for awhile now so it sounds perfect for my current mood. I'm not sure if you've done a post on books that you think are a "must read", but if you haven't I was wondering if you could throw out a few titles for me. It would be much appreciated :)
The Screwed Life Of Charlie the Second sounds like a real interesting read. Thank you for letting us know about it. I think I might want to read it ;)
And I just saw a new banner for the blog... someone doing their hair in the mirror.. Is that you?
Matt,
Wow. Thanks for the very kind words. Not only does it seem like you "got" the book, but you even got my approach to Charlie.
And want to talk about creepy, that guy is very close to how I imagined Rob.
You scare me. :)
I was actually 'recommended' Charlie the Second by Amazon the other day, sounds like its worth a crack.
You should read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. It is my all-time favorite book. I've read it at least three times.
In any event, thanks for these recs - I'm in need of a book to read, so I'll check one of these out.
I have read it, toby, and it's good! Kinda disturbing, but good. They made us read it in high school.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home