50 Ways of Saying Fabulous [Paperback]

Graeme Aitken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2006

12-year-old Billy loves food and Lost in Space. As the only son on a remote farm in New Zealand, he’s forced into farm chores that aren’t just abhorrent, but that leave him little time to indulge his theatrical bent. He gets by with the help of his tomboy cousin Lou and a rich fantasy life. The arrival of two outsiders — the freaky, pimply Roy and the sexy David Cassidy look-alike Jamie — changes everything. Billy is drawn to both Roy and Jamie, testing his friendships and loyalties in the process. Funny and engaging, this tale of a gay awakening resonates with anyone who endured an awkward adolescence. Billy struggles with his sexual identity, but also with his weight, in achingly familiar attempts to diet and camouflage his girth. Capturing the period when the adult world begins to impinge on the child’s, the book narrates the agonies of early adolescence with wit and tenderness.

Product Details

• Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Green Candy Press; 1 edition (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931160481
• ISBN-13: 978-1931160483
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,566,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who shot dante?, June 8, 2007

By 

Elliot "Son of Nietzsche" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous (Paperback)

Billy is a 12 year old boy in a small farming community in New Zealand; the son of an uneducated, primitive father and a frustrated, repressed mother. They barely raise an eyebrow when he dons a fake ponytail and announces that he wishes to be called 'Judy'. His schoolmates are less obliging. When one tells him that he is 'acting the poof' ('fag', in American vernacular), Billy is uncertain whether this is a compliment (since he knows that he looks fabulous), but quickly decides that he must attempt to repress his nature. This is complicated by his regular furtive fumblings with the new boy at school, and his obsessive attraction to the muscular 19 year old farm-hand hired by his father.

Yes, this is another novel about gay adolescence, and there is little here that hasn't been covered before: anxiety in the locker room, ineptitude on the sports field, attraction to the popular guys at school, etc. Nonetheless, this portrays reality, and there are numerous features that combine to make the book a highly worthwhile read. In particular, Billy's incredibly authentic voice holds an all-too clear mirror up to the confusion, anguish and torment of gay youth's self-awareness. Billy's plight is genuine, and conjures up feelings and memories experienced by many of us in childhood - not to mention anger at the knowledge that millions of young people still suffer this treatment daily. It is also refreshing to see a somewhat more-realistically aged protagonist experiencing sex, desire and first love, rather than the implausibly naïve and virginal 15/16 year old teens that tend to emerge from many coming of age novels. Further, by presenting Billy as an (initially) unlikeable character, the novel offers an interesting opportunity to revisit those aspects of our own characters that we despised about ourselves as we grew up.

It is also worth noting that a film (by the same name) has been made of this book, sensitively done and well-acted.

An engaging and seamlessly-penned début novel. Highly recommended.

4.0 out of 5 stars Rural awakenings rarely more poignant, October 2, 2007

By 

P. D. Cuming "goofyfoot" (NZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous (Paperback)

Short & sweet - I loved this book. A throwback to the time when innocence was a wonderful thing when you were a boy growing up, until you hit dreaded puberty! AND, confounding that - you like boys! Strong on narrative, never twee; growing up on a farm was never more accurately portrayed. Aitken's descriptions of Billy's infatuation with a farm worker and sneaky goings-on with a mate are spot on. One warning - don't watch the movie first. It'll spoil the book for you. The casting director should go back to casting school!

4.0 out of 5 stars Naive but touching, January 22, 2005

By 

Stéphanie "un peu de ci, un peu de ça" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fifty Ways of Saying Fabulous (Paperback)

Ce roman de Graeme Aitken se termine comme il commence : par le mystérieux terme qu'on flanque au jeune Billy-Boy, douze ans. De tantouze à tarlouze, la boucle est bouclée. Mais au cours du roman (328 pages) le jeune garçon n'aura de cesse de se questionner sur ce mot étrange et de se cantonner à la tout autant énigmatique définition : "Des hommes qui portent des perruques, qui se déguisent avec des robes et qui ont cinquante façons de dire fabuleux". Fils de fermier dans un région reculée de la Nouvelle-Zélande, Billy-Boy aspire à ressembler à son héroïne préférée de la série télévisée "Perdus dans l'espace". Il arbore une queue de vache sous son bonnet, se fait appeler Judy, part à l'aventure en compagnie de sa cousine Lou dans les champs de son père, qui deviennent des paysages lunaires dévastés. Mais Billy-Boy va aussi connaître de nouvelles aventures : l'attirance inexplicable pour les garçons nus des magazines de sa mère, les émois avec un camarade de classe et la venue d'un garçon de ferme à la troublante ressemblance avec l'acteur David Cassidy. Les émotions complexes vont bouleverser l'existence du garçon qui va définitivement dire adieu à son enfance. Et ce roman de Graeme Aitken trace en délicatesse la métamorphose et le passage de l'enfance à l'adolescence. L'auteur utilise le jeune Billy-Boy pour raconter son histoire et par ce procédé le récit sonne juste, naïf et très touchant. On partage ses gênes, ses sentiments d'injustice, ses révoltes contre son père, ses troubles pour Roy ou Jamie, ses coups bas avec tante Evelyn ou Lou, et toutes les questions qu'il ne cesse de se poser et de tenter d'analyser. Un roman d'initiation très pertinent, léger car très innocent, et percutant car l'apprentissage est progressivement judicieux. Des questions resteront sans réponse, mais Billy-Boy aura l'illusion d'un été éternel. Je signale que ce roman a été adapté au cinéma par un réalisateur néo-zélandais.