Richie's Picks: LOVE & LIES: MARISOL'S STORY by Ellen Wittlinger, Simon &
Schuster BFYR, July 2008, 256p., ISBN: 1-4169-1623-7
A sampling of my favorite first lines:
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that
they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
"My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent
me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two
tomatoes and I came back with a dog."
"So here I am, not a half-hour old as a tie salesman and trying to look like
I know what I am doing, which have got to be two of the biggest jokes of all
time, when who should walk into Awkworth & Ames Department Store but Skeezie
Tookis."
"Henry Smith's father told him that if you build your house far enough away
from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you."
Among the skills that eighteen-year-old Marisol Guzman will practice in the
adult education class in which she has enrolled ("How to Write Your First
Novel") is the crafting of first lines.
"I would never have agreed to room with Birdie for the year if I'd known he
intended to pick up every stray that wandered across his path."
So flows the first line of LOVE & LIES, the companion novel to Ellen
Wittlinger's memorable, Printz-honor-winning HARD LOVE.
Lesbian heroine Marisol has deferred her first year at Stanford, become
roommates with her long-time gay buddy, Birdie, and taken a job "pouring coffee
and hustling cheeseburgers at the Mug in Harvard Square," in order to pursue
her desire of writing a novel before heading off to college.
On the first day of the writing class, Marisol discovers that Gio -- the
young man from whose point of view HARD LOVE is told -- is one of her
classmates, and that the previously-listed teacher for the class has been
belatedly
replaced by the beautiful and brilliant twenty-something Olivia Frost, an
accomplished writer and a Harvard instructor.
In short order, it seems as if life cannot get any better when Olivia takes
a personal interest in Marisol, buying Marisol a token of her affection,
taking her out for a meal, and then home to her apartment.
"Her touch on my back was enough to render me momentarily speechless, but I
struggled to get the words out."
But things get quite complicated, thanks to the strays that Birdie brings
home, the attentions of Lee, the young lesbian transplant from Indiana whom
Marisol meets at the Mug, the reemergence of her friendship with Gio, and the
intensity of Olivia Frost's hot-and-cold secretive and controlling behaviors.
As life in the glow of Olivia progresses -- for better or worse -- Marisol
comes to recognize that life, love, and character development are not as
straightforward as one might think:
"I try so hard to be truthful with people. I used to think it was easy -- I
took pride in my policy of honesty-at-any-price. But the older I get, the
more it seems like telling the truth isn't always such a straightforward
business. Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what the truth is. And sometimes
it
takes a lot of explanation to get at the actual truth. True is not always
the exact opposite of false."
There are all sorts of great layers to LOVE & LIES. For those who loved
Gio's story, this is a happy reunion. For those who aspire to write, this is a
great story about the process of writing. The story of dangerous love is
incredibly sensual without ever becoming graphic. There is the tension and
loneliness of Lee's coming out story. And it is all held together by the comedy
that is life with Birdie.
If you missed HARD LOVE the first time around, this is your chance to become
familiar with an essential read and one of the inaugural Printz honorees.
Definitely read both books. For those of us who have long booktalked Gio's
story, LOVE & LIES: MARISOL'S STORY is a long-awaited joy to behold.
"She laughed and cocked her head so that her hair drifted from her shoulder
onto mine. 'Would I lie to you?'"
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
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http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
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