The Blue Lawn [Paperback]

William Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1999

A fifteen-year-old boy acknowledges his attraction to an older rugby teammate as he also begins to break out of preconceived notions about him held by his family and others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

[New Zealand] humorist Taylor turns to serious subject matter in this emotionally charged story of love between two teenage boys. His accurate, nuanced writing shows rather than tells of the awkward advances and skittish retreats of 15-year-old David Mason as he struggles to understand his attraction to slightly older Theo Meyer. David feels like he is entering a foreign place when he visits the more outspoken Theo and his Polish grandmother (who insists David call her "Gretel"), yet the way David feels when he is with Theo seems even more alien to him. Being a rugby star at school ceases to be important, and David quits the team. He spends his time with Theo helping to landscape his grandmother's yard. The relationship between the two boys is cut short before it can fully develop physically (Gretel sends Theo back to live with his mother). Although David is devastated, it is clear that he will survive and continue to grow into an individual as unique and remarkable as the "blue lawn" surrounding Gretel's home. The strength of the novel lies in Taylor's ability to explore David's and Theo's feelings for one another in honest, raw dialogue, but the author goes perhaps one step too far in detailing Gretel's torturous past in Europe during WWII. He proves to be more deft in expressing his adolescent characters' pangs of longing, fear and regret. Ages 13-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-A study of a powerfully charged friendship between two teenaged boys in rural New Zealand. From the moment 15-year-old David Mason sees Theo Meyer, an outsider who smokes, drinks, and drives fast, David is drawn to him. Theo is also attracted to clean-living David. A violent locker-room confrontation between the two betrays a mutual passion that neither one quite understands, or is willing to accept. David soon becomes a regular at Theo's house, where he meets the boy's grandmother, Gretel, a Holocaust survivor. As the seasons change, measured by Gretel's garden and her lawn of grape-hyacinths, David and Theo's relationship grows, and both teens are aware of its sexual energy. While David is so well adjusted to the possibility that he may be homosexual it strains believability, Theo struggles with the idea of being "queer." When Gretel discovers the teens together, she separates them and their friendship is suspended. Their relationship is symbolized by the blooming of the blue lawn, a testament to the beauty in being different. While David and Theo come across as multilayered individuals, other characterizations are less successful. David's parents are blithely supportive background figures and his sister is immediately accepting of his homosexuality. While there are too few positive examples of coming out, here it is too pat. The boys' intimacy goes remarkably unnoticed and unchallenged in their school and in the larger community. This absence of social conflict makes the thread of Holocaust history awkward rather than integrative. A thoughtful, if slightly flawed character study.
Jennifer A. Fakolt, Denver Public Library
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books; 1st Alyson edition (May 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555834930
• ISBN-13: 978-1555834937
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #703,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellently written covering a sensitive subject, September 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Blue Lawn (Paperback)

I found the bok to be well researched and beautifully written. It allowed the characters to explore their feelings and understanding of their sexual awareness without it being overtly obvious to the reader. I feel the author has portrayed the boys human relationship in a positive and touching manner and one that many a young adolescent young man could easily relate to. I say well done to the author for having the "guts" to write on such a sensitive and often tabu subject that effects societies worldwide. A GREAT READ and congratulations to William Taylor

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, April 10, 2001

By 

Toby Sanders (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blue Lawn (Paperback)

David and Theo are best friends. In fact, they care about each other so much that Theo's grandmother begins to wonder if their friendship may be something more.

First love can be sweet, but it can also be confusing and a bit painful. This is especially true when the adults around start trying to help to make things better. As much as this story is about a teenage romance, it is also about how adults do not only choose the best thing to do even when they are trying to be supportive. It is also about how the emotions of our children are as powerful, as real, and as true as are our own.

It is refreshing to find a teenage romance in which romance actually takes the front seat. There should be more books like this.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An accurate portrayal of small town New Zealand life, May 25, 2000

By 

Matt Watson - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blue Lawn (Paperback)

I've read and reread William Taylor's book a number of times. Every time I am impressed with the way he manages to invoke the realities of life in small town New Zealand and especially the pressures faced by adolescent males in a society which holds rugby stars and good keen men tantamount to deities. This fact of New Zealand life needs to be kept in mind when reading The Blue Lawn - much of the inherent value is lost without reference to Kiwi culture. Taylor's characters are credible and authentic. I tend to agree with comments that the allusion to the Holocaust (in Theo's grandmother) is perhaps unnecessary, but I can understand Taylor's motives in using the motif in the book. I disagree with those who feel The Blue Lawn lacks more about rugby - this is not a sports book, it is about two boys who happen to play rugby (as most boys in New Zealand do at some stage) and their nascent relationship, emotional and sexual. All in all this book is a great read and I'd recommend it to anyone.