My funny valentines
YA author's stories inspired by annual celebration of romantic love is generous, intimate and LGBTQ+-affirmative.
Adolescent love (and lust) treated sympathetically and respectfully: what a grand idea. David Levithan’s book is 19 “tracks”, as in playlist and roads taken or not taken. It’s a collection that stems from his cheesy, charming habit of writing something for his friends each Valentine’s Day.
The pieces are LGBTQ+-affirmative: having “a six-foot-four transgender superstar” protagonist who’s both cheerleader and star quarterback is pretty … emphatic. They’re also teenage-affirmative in general, acknowledging the potency and universality of adolescent emotions across all genders.
It’s a multiform mixture. Levithan’s text joins Nick Eliopulos’ comic-strip in “A
Brief History of First Kisses”, from Mum through kindergarten to sophomore dance and yuck to oh, wow! There are song lyrics and verse but prose predominates. There’s a sweet meet during a protest march against Trump’s women-grabbing boasts; a writing class that becomes both
Sniper Alley and Memory Lane. And you have to read the author’s loving, aw-shucks journal of how his parents met. “Love forever? Yes, in fact.”
It’s contemporary without being trendy. A boy finds that his current crush secretly writes Taylor Swift fan fiction. The Philadelphia Queer Youth Choir sing a Katy Perry number.
“There’s no real story here,” begins one track. But Levithan has the knack – make that the hard-earned skill – of seeing potential in almost any fragment or moment. The book has probably offended adults who need to be offended. After all, who wants stories about non-heterosexual teens that honour loyalty, compassion and courage? Adolescent readers won’t have any trouble. Levithan is generous, intimate but discreet. He doesn’t condescend or proselytise. He’s gentle but never mawkish; funny but never superficial. He expects attention from his readers and rewards it with lucidity and humanity. Goodness me, I’ve just written a rave.