The environmental dynamics of adolescence has changed over time, yet somehow the emotional terrain, almost always difficult to navigate, remains the same. Such is the case with Sam Graham-Felsen's first novel, "Green." Like "The Book Of Lost Things," this book could function as both a Young Adult and Adult novel, and it would not hurt both groups to read each one.
"Green" refers to David Greenfeld, the only white boy at Martin Luther King Middle School, in the Boston area. His parents are socially conscious, over aged hippies, still trying to live the lifestyle of the Sixties, and imposing this on their child. But, hey what generation of parents, at some time or another, does not impose that lifestyle on their offspring, with that offspring champing at the bit, upon adolescence?
The novel covers vast emotional terrain--the strain on the Greenfelds, including David, of having a brother with special needs, David's resentment at being forced to attend a school he never really wanted to go, his friendship with a boy from the projects, Marlon Wellings, who has his own set of problems-- living with his grandmother, who is actually raising both he and his mother, her daughter, who is a crack addicted ho.' Add to this competing for Latin, the private school ticket to the Ivies that everyone wants to get them out of the situation they are presently in, and it all adds up to a pretty calibrated study of adolescence today.
Perhaps Graham-Felsen, as chief blogger for President Obama, has more insight to the Black community than might be expected. I liked the novel being set in the Boston area, which made it less predictable for me, had it been set in New York City. And the first time novelist is wonderfully capable at writing genuinely teen sounding dialogue, on both the Black and White sides. That he does not resort to street slang and pretentious showing off how "ghetto" he is, is to his credit, regarding both is sensibilities and his skill as a writer.
I was waiting for the shoe to drop, and it does, in an unexpected way, and one I could relate to. When I was David's age, my vision of the future was adulthood in a Jersey suburb, where my best friend, Doug, and I would live next door to each other, and raise our respective families as best friends. Well, that did not happen. In fact, as the year of Doug's passing nears, I am realizing how, even in high school, we were veering onto different paths.
David and Marlon start out on this wavelength, but it is clear, for many reasons, they will go their separate ways by the end of this novel. Each will go on to make a life for themselves, which won't turn out to be the life either expected.
Which is what happens when one emerges out of adolescence. Graham-Felsen gets so much right in this first novel, I cannot imagine what he will do next.
I am anxious to find out.
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