NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • STONEWALL HONOR BOOK • LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST “You have to read this.” —Rainbow Rowell, bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Carry OnFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Every Day, this love story of shared humanity and history Hypable calls “an interconnecting web that will leave you emotionally … “an interconnecting web that will leave you emotionally exhausted and absolutely thrilled to have read something so beautiful and unique.”
Based on true events—and narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS—Two Boys Kissing follows Harry and Craig, two seventeen-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record. While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teens dealing with universal questions of love, identity, and belonging.
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In 2010 Matty Daley and Bobby Canciello from NJ kissed for 32 hour, 30 minute and 45 seconds. Two Boys Kissing, while loosely based on this account and the pair’s efforts to promote the idea that love is love bases his novel around two high school boys (Harry and Craig) in small town America and who set out to beat the kissing record. They do so in part to honor the experiences of a classmate, Tariq, who has experienced violence due to his sexuality. Two Boys Kissing a uniquely written book, weaving a chorus of Gay men who have died of AIDS observing the kiss, as well as relationships between other boys close by: a blue haired and pink haired boy (who is transgender), two boys who are part of an established couple and a boy who surfs the web searching for someone. This account is also the stories of the families, several of whom love and accept their gay sons, and others who are yet to come to terms with having a gay loved one. The stories mesh beautifully, and we cheer Harry and Craig until the final second. While this book is billed as YA fiction it’s much more than that and in fact one of the best books I’ve read this year. Highly recommended.
After a confusing opening “we” chorus, the story introduced all the different boys and their stories. From that point on, the “we” narrator made sense to me and provided a poignant commentary. The book handled “coming out” and “being out” from many different perspectives – some sad; some starting sad and growing happier; some happy all along. Cooper, the runaway, made me cry three times. Particularly moving was Cooper’s attempt to have casual sex. What a talented writer David Levithan is to be able to describe the physical act and at the same time depict the utter despair behind it. Extremely well written with an unusual narrator which, despite my initial misgivings, worked well.
I’d imagine the reason this book appears on so many banned lists is right there in the title. Two boys kiss. The kiss is very long (over thirty hours long, in fact), as these two boys are intent on breaking the Guinness Book of World Record for Longest Kiss. Surrounding this amazing stage are several other stories, other boys who are connecting, looking to connect, and missing connections. All of this is relayed from the point of view of dead gays. In other words, the book is thoroughly gay. Unbelievably, there are a lot of folks who still have a problem with that.
Two Boys Kissing is about more than just simple kisses–though I’d hardly call a thirty-odd-hour kiss simple. It actually sounded pretty brutal! The narrator is essentially a chorus, and passages devoted to their hopes, dreams, and laments, tell the story of the AIDs epidemic in the late eighties and early nineties. These dead men are thrilled by the freedoms taken for granted by some of the boys. They’re cautiously optimistic regarding the coming out of others. They cheer the boys’ successes and commiserate with their failures. A lot of times, they simply remember.
The book could have been darker for these remembrances, but it isn’t. Not really. I did feel sad at times, but the chorus sings with such a fond tone. Their lament is more melancholy than tragic.
As to whether I enjoyed the book or not–hmm. I’m glad I read it. I think it’s an important book, beautifully conceived and written. But the dark moments got to me. Some of the side stories veered into events I’d rather not read. People absolutely need to know that discrimination is alive and well and sometimes brings a terrible cost, but I generally prefer my books a little on the lighter side.
Still, I believe this book should be considered a modern classic and should be added to school reading lists rather than banned.