11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bravo, Nico Medina, May 28, 2007
This review is from: The Straight Road to Kylie (Paperback)
I was alerted to the existence of this book from a notice the author put up on SAY HEY, the invaluable UK-based Kylie fan site and the best resource for all things Kylie that I know of. Quickly I used my Amazon Prime to speed a copy to my door. I don't know Nico Medina, but I congratulate him on having written a speedy, often funny and sometimes rueful look at one American teenager and the strange byways he takes trying to complete what he calls his "mild obsession" with our mutual idol, Australian-born pop princess Kylie Minogue, whose 39th birthday we celebrate this week.
Jonathan is a well-adjusted high school senior living in Winter Park, an exclusive district of Orlando, in Florida, a community so privileged that a street sign advising "Drive with Extraordinary Care," has been altered, Jonathan informs us wryly, so that you can't read the final "e" in "care." His best buds are three upper-middle class girls with boy problems, including his very best friend Joanna, a pretty girl who just can't seem to get lucky with boys. Jonathan is kind of the pet of these girls, who depend on him to be the sounding board to their problems and to DJ for them and to help them learn the latest dances. He's a sparkplug in the community, and one of the few "out" teens at school, boy or girl.
All of the titles of Medina's chapters are the names of Kylie's songs, and he uses them brilliantly! He missed "Tightrope," which would have been a good one considering that Jonathan winds up walking a tightrope of sexual confusion and lack of self-esteem, but maybe he can write a sequel, this book deserves one.
At Joanna's 18th birthday party, Jonathan gets swacked and winds up losing his virginity at last, and not to a guy but to a girl! One of his second tier of girlfriends, Alex Becker. Once the word gets out that Jon can perform with a girl, he becomes to target of superwealthy Laura Schulberg, who like Satan tempts him with promises of great riches and opportunity. For example, if he agrees to pose as her boyfriend at school, she will reward him with a trip to London to see Kylie in concert! But is seeing Kylie worth going back into the closet at age 18? That's Jonathan's dilemma.
I didn't understand why Jonathan is so averse to meeting guys through online services or whatever. Over and over again he frowns on on-line hookups as though they were against his code of behavior, which otherwise is not all that prescriptive. Finally I figured out that Medina had to make Jonathan hard up for guys otherwise he might never have tumbled into bed with Alex Becker no matter how drunk they were. So his aversion to online dating was just part of the plot, and a pretty contrived one at that. And also, how believable is it that a, Laura would want Jonathan as a boyfriend, or that b, all of Winter Park would suddenly agree that he has gone straight? But these are minor flaws. I commend Nico Medina for having written a nailbiter about what one boy will do to achieve his goal, and the regrets he piles up after himself like dirty laundry. And also for having written a book that communicates some of Kylie's own joie de vivre and hidden sadness, like a glass of tears heaped to the brim and perfectly still, a frozen river. Jonathan is a great addition to the gallery of great American teens mouthing off, a Holden Caulfield for our time and place.
PS, Nico Medina, if you come to San Francisco, look me up!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book, June 14, 2007
This review is from: The Straight Road to Kylie (Paperback)
Just wanted to drop a line and say that this is a cute book that any gay guy in the US who is obsessed with Kylie Minogue will enjoy. It is like we could all by Jonathan. The book is a fast easy read with plenty of kylie, madonna, and garbage references to name a few. The book cost nearly nothing and this christmas i am sending copies out as gifts. Check it out. Not sure why someone listed it as gay erotica, because it is not. There is just a couple of meantions of pot smoking.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Straight or Gay, You'll Love This Book, September 27, 2008
This review is from: The Straight Road to Kylie (Paperback)
Life is fabulous for Jonathan Parish.
He's seventeen, out and proud, and ready to party through senior year with his posse of best girlfriends. But the year starts off with the wrong kind of bang when Jonathan -- in an inebriated lapse of judgment -- sleeps with a friend of his...a girl friend!
When word gets around that hot-but-previously-unavailable Jonathan might be on the market, the school's It girl approaches him with a proposal: pretend to be her boyfriend, and achieve popularity like he's never known. But popularity isn't what Jonathan wants. And suddenly, going back into the closet becomes Jonathan's only way to get what he's after -- a trip to see Kylie Minogue.
(Summary from Amazon)
The Straight Road to Kylie is one of the most recent and best gay teen books I've read. Everything about it seemed to capture and represent Jonathan's life perfectly and made it seem real. To be honest, I couldn't relate to the characters in many ways because I'm not eighteen or gay and I definitely don't host parties and rarely even go to them but as I was reading this, I felt like I was there, partying with Jonathan and his friends. The prose and characterizations make it seem that real.
I must say that after reading this a few of my opinions have changed, including those on pop goddess, Kylie Minogue, who I now worship.
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