[CALIBK12] Richie's Picks: LOVE & LIES: MARISOL'S STORY

[BudNotBuddy at aol.com]

Richie's Picks: LOVE & LIES: MARISOL'S  STORY by Ellen Wittlinger, Simon & 
Schuster BFYR, July 2008, 256p., ISBN:  1-4169-1623-7
 
A sampling of my favorite first lines:
 
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were  proud to say that 
they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
 
"My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the  preacher, sent 
me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white  rice, and two 
tomatoes and I came back with a dog."
 
"So here I am, not a half-hour old as a tie salesman and  trying to look like 
I know what I am doing, which have got to be two of the  biggest jokes of all 
time, when who should walk into Awkworth & Ames  Department Store but Skeezie 
Tookis."
 
"Henry Smith's father told him that if you build your house  far enough away 
from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you."
 
Among the skills that eighteen-year-old Marisol Guzman  will practice in the 
adult education class in which she has  enrolled ("How to Write Your First 
Novel") is the crafting of first  lines.  
 
 
"I would never have agreed to room with Birdie for the year if  I'd known he 
intended to pick up every stray that wandered across his  path."
 
So flows the first line of LOVE & LIES, the companion novel  to Ellen 
Wittlinger's memorable, Printz-honor-winning HARD  LOVE.

 
Lesbian heroine Marisol has deferred her first year at  Stanford, become 
roommates with her long-time gay buddy, Birdie, and  taken a job "pouring coffee 
and hustling cheeseburgers at the Mug in  Harvard Square," in order to pursue 
her desire of writing a novel before heading  off to college.
 
On the first day of the writing class, Marisol discovers  that Gio -- the 
young man from whose point of view HARD LOVE  is told -- is one of her 
classmates, and that the  previously-listed teacher for the class has been belatedly 
replaced by  the beautiful and brilliant twenty-something Olivia Frost, an 
accomplished  writer and a Harvard instructor.
 
In short order, it seems as if life cannot get  any better when Olivia takes 
a personal interest in  Marisol, buying Marisol a token of her affection, 
taking her out for a  meal, and then home to her apartment.
 
"Her touch on my back was enough to render me momentarily  speechless, but I 
struggled to get the words out."
 

But things get quite complicated, thanks to the strays  that Birdie brings 
home, the attentions of Lee, the young  lesbian transplant from Indiana whom 
Marisol meets at the Mug, the  reemergence of her friendship with Gio, and the 
intensity of Olivia  Frost's hot-and-cold secretive and controlling behaviors.  
As  life in the glow of Olivia progresses -- for better or worse -- Marisol  
comes to recognize that life, love, and character development are not as  
straightforward as one might think: 
 
"I try so hard to be truthful with people. I used to think it  was easy -- I 
took pride in my policy of honesty-at-any-price.  But the  older I get, the 
more it seems like telling the truth isn't always such a  straightforward 
business.  Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what the  truth is.  And sometimes it 
takes a lot of explanation to get at  the actual truth.  True is not always 
the exact opposite of  false."
 
There are all sorts of great layers to LOVE & LIES.   For those who loved 
Gio's story, this is a happy reunion.  For those  who aspire to write, this is a 
great story about the process  of writing.  The story of dangerous love is 
incredibly sensual without  ever becoming graphic.  There is the tension and 
loneliness of Lee's coming  out story.  And it is all held together by the comedy 
that is  life with Birdie.
 
If you missed HARD LOVE the first time around, this is your  chance to become 
familiar with an essential read and one of the  inaugural Printz honorees.  
Definitely read both books.  For those of  us who have long booktalked Gio's 
story, LOVE & LIES: MARISOL'S  STORY is a long-awaited joy to behold. 
 
 

"She laughed and cocked her head so  that her hair drifted from her shoulder 
onto mine.  'Would I lie to  you?'"
 
 
Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator,  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
BudNotBuddy at aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks






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