My Side of the Story [Paperback]

Will Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2007

'My name is Jarold, but everyone calls me Jaz, which is a damn sight cooler I think you'll agree. I'm sixteen (just) and I have two remarkably undivorced parents, along with a sister and a grandmother and we all live in the same house together just like in a TV show. I've just started my A levels too, which me and Al are planning to fail, which is our way of saying Fuck You to the British educational standard.' So what if your parents hate each other and want you to have therapy? So what if your holier-than-thou sister and her posse have decided you're going to hell? So what if the school tyrant and his goons are hunting you down, or if your best friend has just outed you to a neo-Nazi? Jaz isn't planning to lose any sleep over it - at least until he meets the guy of his dreams at the local gay bar. Suddenly things are a lot more complicated Witty, acerbic, and incredibly funny, My Side of the Story is the perfectly rendered portrait of a precocious, troubled teenager faced with the awkward process of growing up and coming out.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A troubled gay British teenager navigates the barbarity of adolescence in Davis's middling debut. It begins when 16-year-old Jazz's sister, "the nun," rats on him for sneaking out and going to gay bars. His overbearing mother freaks out, and family therapy soon follows, providing plenty of material for the quick-witted, self-hating narrator. Jazz, of course, continues carousing and eventually runs away. The escape is short-lived, and troubles at home and with bullies at school worsen, though it appears most of Jazz's problems aren't rooted in his sexuality but in his misanthropic attitude, which, though clearly an emotional feint, lacks nuance. The narration-rendered in a snotty teen argot (expect the abuse of "like")-will alienate as many readers as it hooks, and though much happens, little is resolved by novel's end.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The best thing about British author Davis' first novel is the chatty, self-deprecating, ultraironic voice he has created for his 16-year-old gay narrator, whose full name is (shudder) Jarold. "But," J. tells readers in one of many asides, "everyone calls me Jaz, which is a damn sight cooler I think you'll agree." Poor Jaz: all he wants is a little fun at the local gay pub, where he hangs with his best friend Al (short for Alice), but the two kids keep encountering their sobersided teacher Mr. Fallows and--in an effort to get him off their backs--launch a campaign they call "Finding a fellah for Fallows." But there are complications: Jaz inadvertently outs himself at school, his grandma has a stroke, his parents' marriage starts to disintegrate, and the chief object of his affection, an older man (he's 22), refuses to be involved with a teenager. These customary coming-of-age elements are saved from staleness by the freshness, humor, and honesty of Jaz's always-engaging voice. Michael Cart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (March 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747586918
• ISBN-13: 978-0747586913
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,099,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars U.K. Coming-Out Story, September 9, 2007

By 

Chad Sosna "Doo-Lang Love" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Side of the Story: A Novel (Paperback)

It's exciting to see a plethora of teen-gay coming-out stories in the recent past, but unfortunately, it creates a challenge to deliver a unique story with color and energy.

Set in the U.K. (a nice change), this story can be enjoyed by all because of the universal recognition of family strife. Jazz is surrounded by a dysfunctional family. His younger sister is a bossy, self-righteous princess, his father is dully absent, and Mum runs the household sternly and imposes family counseling when Jazz least expects it. Living with them is Jazz's grandmother, who. like him, tolerates their daily lives with the knowledge that another life and place will come someday.

Jazz has a biting sense of humor, a shell starting to harden over his sensitivity, and a noticeable degree of self-hate. His sarcasm is a tool to help him deal with bullies at school and his lack of family support. You will either like Jazz's precociousness or not. While I wouldn't class it as "a la Holden Caulfield" (as Kirkus Reviews did), his voice is lasting. Some readers might have difficulty with the pounding use of casual teen narrative that sometimes sounds slangish or clichéd. It's clearly not as captivating at the voice of Noah in Bart Yates' "Leave Myself Behind."

Jazz's fag hag Al helps him circumvent myriad obstacles: the high school girls who want to date Jazz, the childhood friend of Jazz's who has become a nemesis at school, and the attentions of Mr. Fellows--a teacher whom they suspect is gay.

As Jazz and Al decide to get out of town and have other adventures, their crazy fiascos are darkened by the reality of their unfriendly world. In the end we discover that each major character we've seen in the book is not necessarily as black-and-white as we've thought, and we see a new, brighter world emerge for Jazz.

A relieving aspect of the story is that Jazz is 16. After seventh-grader Joe of James Howe's "Totally Joe," 12-year-old Billy of Graeme Aitken's "50 Ways of Saying Fabulous," and 11-year-old Andy of Joe Babcock's "The Boys and the Bees," one wonders if authors are not competing to raise the bar on who can write the youngest coming-out story. Of course, many people realize they're gay as young children, but I don't have a comfort level with the protagonist's age in some of those books. It's nice to read about a 16-year-old instead of a much younger boy.

This book will probably join those high school "banned books" (like Robert Cormier's "Chocolate War") due to the fact that in one scene Jazz gets together with an older man and has rough sex in a scene that does not spare the reader much detail.

All that said, Will Davis is a strong writer who hopefully has more tales to tell. My only strong criticism is the two-sentence author bio, which cheats us of much-wanted background on the Davis.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great gay coming-of-age tale, from a British point of view, April 25, 2008

By 

William Siwicki (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Side of the Story: A Novel (Paperback)

This novel is narrarated by a British teen who has a very unique voice and perspective indeed. And I believe his voice is very true to the nature of a teen, especially one with so many negative things going on in his life. He has quite a few laugh-out-loud quips throughout, and overall the book is very amusing. It also is sad in its own way, and you often are not quite sure when to sympathize with him and when to grab him and tell him to look at the truth of the situation! His runaway excursion with his best friend Al (a teen girl with her own share of problems at home and school) is a provocative riot. And the ending of the book is nice in that it does wrap some things up very truthfully and well but leaves others dangling a bit, as would be the case in real life. This is a great gay coming-of-age story. I love this sub-genre of gay fiction, and its very cool to get a British version of it. Speaking of which, Now if I can only figure out what "naff" means! Loved this novel!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trouble gay teenager tells how it is, July 19, 2007

By 

Benjamin (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: My Side of the Story: A Novel (Paperback)

Jarold, who prefers to known as Jaz, a troubled sixteen year old preparing to take his A level exams, tells his story as he sees it; and without the intention of winning any sympathy. He lives at home with his self-centred mother, a lawyer; his weak willed father, a chef; his pious younger sister (the Nun); and his widowed grandmother, his one ally at home.
Jaz is gay, although to others he prefers to know as "confused". Along with best friend Alice, called Al, he frequents a local gay club where one day he meets Jon, and he is smitten; but nothing for Jaz is ever simple. Matters are not helped when Al outs him at school.
Jaz speaks very much as a sixteen year old Londoner and directly to the reader in a very casual conversational manner; and the words flow with considerable ease making for a fluent and fast read. The result is an hilarious, witty, and yet appealing and moving story, and despite Jaz's stated intentions, one cannot but help be endeared to him.