Doing It! [Audio CD]

Melvin Burgess (Author), James Gilbey (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2006

The award-winning author Melvin Burgess’s ribald and insightful account of contemporary teenage life chronicles the ups and downs of doing it. The controversial book on which the cult favorite ABC television series Life As We Know It (now available on DVD) was based, Doing It introduces us to Dino, Jon, and Ben, three teenage best friends who can’t stop thinking about, and talking about (and hoping to experience) sex.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Melvin Burgess, author of Smack, has written what is potentially the most controversial young adult novel ever. Doing It is an honest and funny book about three teenage British boys learning about themselves and life through their sexual experiences. But here's the catch: the story is told from the point of view of the hormone-sodden young males, naughty bits and all.

Gorgeous Dino thinks that equally gorgeous Allie should realize that they belong together and is puzzled and frustrated when their passionate lovemaking always ends with her refusing him. Jonathan fancies sensible, sexy Deborah but can't admit it to his friends, even after several steamy grope sessions, because she is…well…plump. And Ben is living every teenage boy's dream, an affair with a lusty teacher--but somehow it's getting to be too much of a good thing.

Nearly all YA novels about love and sexuality are told by and for girls, like Judy Blume's groundbreaking classic, Forever. The contrast here is striking--as Burgess said in an interview, "I wrote Doing It because I do believe that we have let young men down very badly in terms of the kinds of books written for them. This book is my go at trying to bring young male sexual culture into writing." The result is surprising but educational for female readers. Wisely, the publisher has kept the British slang terms for sexual acts and body parts, rather than using the American four-letter words, a factor that will make the book less of a hot potato for librarians and teachers, but not diminish the reading pleasure for the inevitable hordes of young male readers. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–Three teenaged boys enjoy talking about, thinking about, and joking about sex. Dino finally establishes a relationship with Jackie, the prettiest girl in school, who will allow all sorts of sexual liberties, but draws the line at intercourse. He finds another girl whom he mistakenly thinks he can use for sex while keeping his relationship with Jackie viable. In the meantime, he witnesses his mother passionately involved with a man who is not his father, and must deal with the results of his own treacherous behavior as he watches his parents' marriage fall apart. Ben finds himself steeped in a dilemma of a different sort. His 20-something drama teacher chooses him to be her secret sexual playmate, which he first enjoys but then desperately tries to escape. Jonathon's predicament involves his budding romance with Deborah, an overweight girl whom everyone likes as a friend, but not a girlfriend. He has to decide whether to follow his heart, despite taunting from his peers. Burgess's novel, which retains its original British terminology and sexual slang, is crude, irreverent, and explicit, yet honest and frequently funny. At first, the sexual elements are uncomfortably overwhelming, but Burgess gradually twists the story so that the characters' personal situations become prominent, with casual sex secondary. The seemingly callous male characters become more sympathetic as their personalities, feelings, and problems are unveiled. The female characters are not afforded the same sensitivity. Readers may be drawn in by the intense sexual tone, and find a well-developed story that will spark reflection on the meaning and strength of peer and romantic relationships.–Diane P. Tuccillo, City of Mesa Library, AZ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 16 and up
  
• Audio CD
• Publisher: Listening Library (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400086124
• ISBN-13: 978-1400086122
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,841,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, well-written but a bit over the top, September 24, 2005

By 

Richard L. Goldfarb (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doing It (Hardcover)

This book provides from a first person point of view the sexual awakenings of three high school boys. Dino is the popular one, who lusts after the equally popular Jackie, who spurns him for her much older boyfriend. When she finally relents and starts snogging him, she can't help but lead him to the point of doing it, and then disappoints him. Dino instead loses his virginity with the younger, but more experienced Zoe, who plays him like a violin before ultimately destroying him for two-timing Jackie. Ben is the quiet one that all the girls are interested in, but he never asks anyone out because he's secretly been seduced by Miss Young, his drama teacher, who provides him sex but cannot provide him the experience of a girl friend he really longs for. When he finally finds a way to his freedom, she disappears with no consequences, which seems unrealistic in this day and age (compare Thisbe Nissen's The Good People of New York, where the girl's affair with her teacher occurs about 20 years ago). Jonathan is the only one attracted to someone he actually likes as a person, but Deborah being overweight makes her the subject of teasing from his friends and he cannot overcome both the razzing and the odd sensation he has in his penis, which causes him impotence when it is time to go all the way. He finally gets this fixed by a kind woman doctor.

Surrounding all this is a social milieu that includes mobile phones but otherwise could be the era of the Knack with condoms.

I enjoyed Burgess's writing and accepted that I was reading a comic novel that was trying to be frank and sensational, but was also conventional and ultimately moral.

31 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richies Picks: DOING IT, June 18, 2004

By 

Richie Partington "Richie's Picks" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doing It (Hardcover)

Last year many of us got to read the highly publicized and highly charged essay in The Guardian by British author Anne Fine about the new Melvin Burgess novel DOING IT. (If you haven't read the essay, Google "Guardian Anne Fine Doing It" and you'll find a link.) To put it mildly, Anne Fine was unable to find the appeal in DOING IT.

Reading Fine's attack, along with statements by other writers about Burgess's proported attempts to "push the envelope" by having the male, high school characters so candidly discussing issues of male sexuality, left me somewhat squeemish about the prospect of reading the book. I'd heard lots of "Wows," but not any "Really great story!"

DOING IT is, in fact, a really great story about three male high school friends and their obsessions about and relationships with females. It is well-written and compelling, fun and honest and occasionally heartwarming. Those three high school boys are a self conscious, vulnerable, and sensitive lot. And while I cannot necessarily see myself as any one of those three characters, I had friends in high school who were dead ringers.

To argue that normal high school boys don't spend a lot of time thinking about girls and girls' bodies would make my high school experience abnormal. (It could be argued that Richie's Picks began in the late 1960s when I kept a secret, hidden list, updated weekly, of the ten girls at school I'd most like to be with.) To argue that boys aren't fearful about their adequacy, that they don't worry about whether their bodies are normal, or that they don't say truly gross stuff on a regular basis is, of course, ridiculous. And to argue that boys won't go crazy over this book is something that even Ms. Fine didn't even have the...um...nerve to claim.

My point is this: DOING IT is a primo Growing Up Male book. High school and public YA librarians absolutely need to forget about Anne Fine's fears of DOING IT. Instead they need to read DOING IT and need to buy it for their collections whether or not it is their cup of T (as in testosterone).

I'm recommending this book for all high school and public library YA collections.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars YA?? Excellent read, December 15, 2006

By 

Kristy Caley (Grain Valley, Mo. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doing It (Hardcover)

I recommend that parents read this book before allowing a person under the age of 18 to read it. It is an excellent novel with well written and recognizable characters. We all knew or were kids like these in high school. Do not let anyone fool you into thinking that this is a novel which only the current generation can relate. The things that are dscibed in this novel happen everyday and in fact are somewhat tame compared to the outlandish behavior that is descibed on the 6 o'clock news. All in all a very entertaining read