Will Grayson, Will Grayson

I'm currently on a mission to watch all of the Vlogbrothers' videos from start to finish--this quite possibly stems from having four days off work inspiration from all things nerdy. Because I've immersed myself in John Green's life via the internet, I wanted my reading to reflect his voice as well. After devouring David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary, I was thrilled to read a book that Green and Levithan co-wrote.

In this novel, we follow the lives of two Will Graysons. One, the (literally) straight man of the story, plays the sidekick to his enormously enormous and enormously gay friend Tiny. While Tiny makes plans to present the biggest musical of the year, Will Grayson battles his own relationship woes, including mixed feelings about the A side of the GSA, Jane. After an awkward run-in in a porn shop, Will Grayson and Tiny meet the other Will Grayson, an openly gay teen who battles depression and internet personas. The relationship kinks and tears end up in a fabulous (and heartfelt) musical.

The authenticity of adolescence remained consistent throughout the novel. Oftentimes, adult writers see the teenage years as fuzzy around the edges, but Green and Levithan seem to be living adolescence (which, kudos to them, as that cannot be painless), rather than playing it. It is the "living by the hour" motions that teens go through that is most difficult to translate onto paper, but Levithan portrays the gay Will Grayson in such a way that is not a stereotype: "I have this ritual, that when it hits two o'clock, I allow myself to get excited about leaving. It's like if I reach that point, I can take the rest of the day off" (27).

While the authors explore the isolation, and hardships gay couples may face, Will Grayson, Will Grayson doesn't feel like a sexuality-specific book. Yes, Tiny and Will's relationship is often the main focus, but so is Tiny and the other Will's. The romantic relationships are the surface throughout the story, but the underlaying theme is consistently friendship. We see how friendships unravel into romantic relationships with Will and Jane. We see how friendships can often be unjustly put on the backburner when hormones come into play. We see how friendships culminate into something larger after they start simply for convenience purposes. As Tiny wisely observes, "'When you date someone, you have the markers along the way, right: You kiss, you have The Talk, you the Three Little Words, you sit on a swing set and break up. You can plot the points on a graph. And you check up with each other along the way: Can I do this? If I say this, will you say it back? But with friendship, there's nothing like that. Being in a relationship, that's something you choose. Being friends, that's just something you are'" (260).

One of the scary things about being in high school is that you're not only trying to figure out who you are, you're trying to figure out who other people are. Green and Levithan gracefully examine the ways that friendship could be perceived as leading someone on, or desperation to help someone could seem like trickery (although let me just add that if you make up a persona online just to psych someone out, you're kind of a douche). The separation between romantic relationship and platonic relationship is not always distinct. You're still trying to read friends' motivations for doing something. You're still upset when they promise they'll call, and don't. You still love them. Straight man's friend love for Tiny ends up just as powerful as the other Will Grayson's "let's make out in the bushes" love for Tiny.

While most of the book and the characters were quite believable, Tiny was a flat character up until the end. The revelation about his insecurity was certainly more powerful after believing that Tiny was the only teenager in the world who was perfectly okay with himself, but his one-dimensionality makes his story line blend in with those around him--even as he advertises himself as distinct. All of his lines are a little too fabulous. Some more indication that he's a human being would nicely round out his character.

This novel nicely portrays the trial-and-error that is adolescence. It's witty, sometimes sad, sometimes maddening, but mostly, it's very real.

And plenty of interspersed musical numbers make it quite the entertaining read. :)