Customer Reviews

Blackbird

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The protagonist is a black teen who knows that he is gay, knows that he cannot be openly gay at home or at school and basically puts his life on hold while waiting to graduate with a specialization in drama. He manages to avoid innuendos, questions and even friends' attempts to ... cure him. Then he falls in love.

I read this book over eight years ago and still remember it well enough to recall how bittersweet it is. It's definately going on my one-day-when-I-have-more-space-list. In the meantime, I recommend it to others.

Johnnie Ray Rousseau looks back on his last year of school at the time when he was seventeen and half years old, the year he was rejected for the role of Romeo in the high school play, a year of discovery, realisation, and tragedy. Jonnie Ray, an intelligent cute slim black youth lives with his mother and father in a small conservative town about ninety miles from L.A., his friends are predominantly white, apart from Cherie, his all too understanding and devoted girlfriend. Jonnie Ray has always known that he s different; he is attracted to boys, and suffers a constant natural physical reaction whenever he encounters any of the many attractive boys amongst his peers. Apart from coming out to Skipper (confessing his love for the boy only to be rejected, but who keeps his secret), to Cherie and another trusted girl, he otherwise remains in the closet, but then meets twenty four year old student the sexy Marshall MacNeill at a drama audition. Eventually they consummate their love, but then Marshal suddenly leaves. In the meantime gorgeous Todd Waterson gets the Baptist minister's daughter pregnant, and Jonnie Ray's best friend Efrem Zimbalist Johnson is beaten senseless by his father; the reason for the beating is a not altogether surprising revelation for Jonnie Ray. Following that the church youth minister betrays a confidentiality to Jonnie Ray's parents.
Jonnie Ray comes through all these events and more with surprising maturity, supporting his friends through their difficult times while weathering his own loss and other problems.
I found this a charming tale; Jonnie Ray retells his story positively and with lively humour, a story about love, integrity and loyalty.

Recently I've read somewhere that all coming-of-age stories are sort of "Catcher in the Rye". Indeed "Blackbird" reminded me on the "Catcher" (it was mentioned in the book as well) but with one huge difference: I hated "Catcher in the Rye"; I've found Holden Caulfield as THE most irritating fictional character I've ever met. The conclusion might be that I hated "Blackbird" and its main character Johnnie Ray Rousseau as well. On the contrary: While I was reading "Blackbird" I couldn't get rid of the feeling (as blasphemous as it probably is) that "this must what "Catcher in the Rye" supposed to be!"

It's a YA novel with such a likable main character. Jonnie Ray is obsessed with pop culture and therefore I had a feeling that this book is an homage to music and film (or should I say movie?) industry of the mid 20th century. Of course that can't be since the novel has been published 23 years ago. But the music references (after all the novel itself has been named after the song of The Beatles) made me doing little search since my knowledge wasn't that high leveled.

"Blackbird" is so sentimental novel; the plot is simple but the language is beautiful. I was bursting out laughing in the public transport (and earned several strange who-still-reads-book-anyway looks); I simply love Duplechan's sense for humour (which tells lot about me since the book is from 1986). I've read about the novel that it has character which I can't agree more. He [Johnnie Ray] is so sincere when he talks about his emotions about people that he loves and about those he fantasize. His descriptions of longing, first touch and then sex are so real so honest, never augmented and never sensationalistic as if it was allowed you to peek thru the keyhole. They are just as they really are. You can really recognize the feeling. Of course regardless of the sexual orientation. Of course!!!

I almost forgot to mention that Jonnie Ray is homosexual which is not big deal, plus he's black which is even more no big deal but then one should keep in mind when the novel is published and the plot is settled in the mid 1970s in rigid Baptist American small town where "black boy can't kiss a white girl" (parents would immediately send her on the other coast) and that image of small American town I liked a lot [not the town but the way it has been described]. I must say that the part when he came out to his parents was very moving, very sincere. The way his parents reacted and then how they decided to "solve the problem" with a little help from the youth minister of his church was nothing but scary; totally unbelievable. The way society handled with teen pregnancy, homo (and hetero) sexuality, religion, teen suicide, queer bashing, child abuse, has been described fantastically. It's sad that those methods and that way of public thinking can be still found nowadays.

This was fast, easy and enjoyable read.
Little Sister's Classics. is doing great job re-publishing novels that have left traits in gay/lesbian literature when it wasn't easy publish books that have any drop of homoeroticism. Of course from present perspective you can even ask yourself why it was big deal to publish novel like this or even skip the fact that main character is homosexual (like I almost did with this one) but I presume that then, the they were pioneers. I really like appendixes that are included in these new "Little Sister's Classics" editions with letter correspondence between author and publisher, reviews in newspapers when the novel has been published and interviews with the author. It helps a lot to the reader to create full picture about the time when novel appeared.

Larry Duplechan is one of those rare writers who is both erotic and witty. His characters are full and well developed, and one quickly becomes attached to Johnny Ray Rousseau and reads breathlessly to find what will happen next while savoring Duplechan's style. Duplechan is one of those rare writers who writes so well that you are not aware of his style, which is so well crafted that one reads him effortlessly. He gets better with age like a fine wine.

I liked reading this book. It's a romance on different levels with caring and likeable characters and I warmly recommend it.