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Summary
Summary
A domestic story told in numerous original and endearing voices. The story opens with Wesley, a tenth grader, and involves his two sets of parents (the mom and her second husband, a very thoughtful doctor; and the father who has become a major gay lawyer/activist and his fabulous "significant other" who owns a restaurant).
Wesley is a fabulous kid, whose equally fabulous best friend Theo has just won a big school election and simultaneously surprises everyone in his life by announcing that he is gay. No one is more surprised than Wesley, who actually lives temporarily with his gay father and partner, so that he can get to know his rather elusive dad. When a dramatic and unexpected trauma befalls the boys in school, all the parents converge noisily in love and well-meaning support. But through it all, each character ultimately is made to face certain challenges and assumptions within his/her own life, and the playing out of their respective life priorities and decisions is what makes this novel so endearing and so special.
Author Notes
Richard Kramer is the Emmy and multiple Peabody award-winning writer, director and producer of TV series, including Thirtysomething, My So-called Life, Tales of the City, and Once and Again. He's been nominated for numerous Emmy awards. His first short story appeared in The New Yorker while he was till an undergraduate at Yale.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wesley Bowman, the teen protagonist of this debut novel from the writer, producer, and director of such TV dramas as My So-Called Life and Thirtysomething, leads a privileged but fractured life in Manhattan. His parents have divorced, and Wesley's recently moved in with his father-an influential gay rights activist-and his father's partner, George, in order to "get to know each other as men, since the belief is I might soon become one." While Wesley struggles to acclimate to his new digs, his best friend, Theo, wins the class presidency and announces he's gay during his acceptance speech. His classmates are indifferent, but Theo, eager to acquire "edge," hopes for a trial by fire for coming out. When the flames do crop up, they're much hotter than Theo could've imagined, and they land him in the hospital. Despite a tendency to couch exposition in dialogue, Kramer succeeds in depicting an emotionally resonant and unexpected connection between Wesley and George. The humanity and love between two people thrown together by circumstance is Kramer's triumph, and it nearly redeems the novel. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary. (Nov. 2) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
In Kramer's warmhearted and appealing novel, we get to know Wesley through his own storytelling and via chapters told in the voices of the significant people in his life. Everyone knows Wesley and his best friend, Theo, are close. After Theo is elected class president in their socially liberal private school, he comes out during his acceptance speech. Controversy and violence follow, and Wesley comes to his friend's aid. Theo has questions he wants Wesley to ask his father, a gay activist lawyer, and his father's partner, an actor and chef. Wesley's mother and stepfather also weigh in. Questions lead to more questions and, ultimately, to examinations of the essentials of life and love. Wisdom and understanding are achieved, but not from the expected sources. Kramer catches the snap of adolescent speech and the concerned tones of the adults with skill. Choppy on the surface, the novel is calm and deep as a whole. Wesley is a remarkable and well-drawn character, as are the adults in his life. Kramer's tale of coming-of-age and coming out should have wide appeal.--Hoover, Danise Copyright 2010 Booklist
Excerpts
Excerpts
A lot can happen in a day, sometimes. Not every day, of course. Most have one event, and that's if you're lucky. Many have less, which seems especially true in our school, which is hard to get into and committed to serving the community but is also, as a rule, unthrilling. Maybe things pick up in eleventh grade, which is when Mr. Frechette, a teacher we like, says our brains have developed to the point where we can grasp irony, accept ambivalence, and acknowledge the death's head that lurks at the edge of all human endeavor. His exact words; I put them in my phone. We'll see, although I trust him. Mr. Frechette can get sour, but he's also pretty wise. Maybe today's a preview of next year, then, because a lot has happened in it, even without the death's head. School's out. Theo and I are on our way to tae kwon do. Wherever you look, whoever and whatever you see seems glad to be a New Yorker, not just people but buildings, and pigeons, and signs. Theo's my best friend, and always has been. He says that's just because he's the only boy in my school who's not named Max or Jake, but that's not it at all (which he knows). It's simple. He bores easily. So do I. But we don't bore each other, and that's since in utero, practically, as our moms met in Lamaze class and got to be friends. He got his name because his mom wrote a book about the loser relatives of famous artists. Theo Van Gogh was Vincent Van Gogh's brother; Mrs. Rosen, Theo's mom, pronounces the name (I quote Theo here) "like she was choking on a rugelach."). Theo V.G. knew Vincent was the talented one and worked hard to make sure the world knew it, too. I admire that, and hope I would do the same, if I had a brother who was an insane depressed genius, which I don't. I'm an only child. Excerpted from These Things Happen by Richard Kramer All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
