How Beautiful the Ordinary

My first book read in 2010 is How Beautiful the Ordinary, a YA collection of twelve short stories exploring identity. The collection is edited by Michael Cart and includes stories by such renown writers among others as David Levithan, Emma Donoghue, and Julie Anne Peters. I will count this book as my first read in the GLBT Challenge.

 How Beautiful the Ordinary is a wonderful book. Were I to rate it, I would probably give it four and a half stars. Some of the stories I absolutely loved (a bit more about those in a moment).The last half a star would be missing only because there were other stories I merely liked. Interestingly, after reading the author descriptions from the last pages of the book, I had to rethink my initial reaction to one of the stories. When I first read Fingernail by William Sleator, I did not like it very much because of the abusive elements in the plot. It was unpleasant to read about a young Thai man's relationship to an unbalanced, violent Frenchman even if the story does end with a positive note. When I later learned that the story was based on Sleator's late partner's life, it made me value it quite a bit more.

All in all, How Beautiful the Ordinary is quite a well balanced collection. Maybe the stories exploring gay male identity dominate a little (6  stories), where as there are 3 stories about lesbian as well as transsexual identity.

Two of the stories are in graphic form, one is a historical short story, and one is partly written as a movie script. First Time by Julie Anne Peters, a touching story of two girls' first time making love, is told alternatingly by the two girls so that the pages are divided vertically in two halves and each girl has her half of the page to speak and think. Last story in the collection The Silk Road Runs Through Tupperneck, N. H. is noticably longer than the others, more of a novella than a short story, really.

This collection introduced me to many new authors. The only ones I had read something by before were Emma Donoghue (Touchy Subjects) and Julie Anne Peters (Define Normal), but now I would like to read something more at least by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Ron Koertge, and David Levithan.

Then to my favorite stories in How Beautiful the Ordinary. And I really cannot tell more about the plots, as I don't want to give too much away. You have to read them yourself!:)

• Jennifer Finney Boylan: The Missing Person
  In this story 14-year old Jimmy steals his sister's skirt and goes to see the Devon Horse Show as Jenny. Beautifully told, intimate portrait of a young boy's realization that he actually is a she.
• Emma Donoghue: Dear Lang
  Lang's non-biological mother writes her a letter for her 16th birthday trying to explain why Lang probably doesn't even know that she in the beginning had two mothers.This is another touching story & it speaks also about the importance of having certain legal rights/the problems caused by the lack of rights
• Ron Koertge: My Life as a Dog
  After ending up in hospital a young man finally gets the courage to tell his parents he is gay. I loved the innovative way in which this story was told.
• David Levithan: A Word From the Nearly Distant Past
  The spirits of the past generations take a loving look at the present and future state of affairs. This is the first story in the book and it ended up being my absolute favorite. Here is a little quote from page 19 that made me chuckle. Let's hope this becomes reality (well, not the Facebook part necessarily:), but the part about rights):
  
  
  
  

  "There will come a time -perhaps even by the time you read this- when people will no longer be on Facebook. There will come a time when the stars of High School Musical will be sixty. There will come a time when you will have the same inalienable rights as your straightest friend. (Probably before any of the stars of High School Musical turns sixty)."

Well, that concludes my review of How Beautiful the Ordinary. Happy reading, everyone!