It's a YA sort of life

My Dear and Patient Reader,

Thank you for your understanding in my inability to post at a consistent time.  I can promise you more book reviews will come and that I will get caught up on everything… someday.  I’ve had a request or two to post some of my thoughts beyond the book reviews that make up the majority of this blog.  After all, this blog is supposed to be about my exploration of YA, and that has to do with more than just what books I’m reading from the genre—this still evolving genre that deals with the questions Who am I? and What am I going to do about it?

I’ve been thinking about and realizing lately that it’s not just teens who ask these questions.  We all reencounter them in adult life, especially at times of transition.  For me these questions are natural companions of feeling overwhelmed.  And right now… I’m there.  I’m working two jobs, taking five classes, rehearsing for a play, serving as president of a student organization, and trying to pull together graduate school applications…not to mention trying to maintain some sort of social life including friends, family and dating.  Much of the way I feel currently is comparable to my senior year of high school (although now it’s accompanied by the dreadful prospect of a hefty chunk of personal debt).  The over commitment to extra-curriculars, the sleep deprivation, the uncertainty surrounding where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing next year, the anxiety of wondering what will happen to the relationships I’ve formed over the last four years—it’s all back like an old friend (or fiend… not sure).

And so, here at 2 in the morning on a Wednesday at the age of 21 years 8 months and 3 days, I am still asking Who am I? and What am I going to do about it?  How YA of me…   I supposed the one thing keeping my personal existence from fitting right on a little YA shelf is that I don’t have the limited adolescent perspective of YA books:  I’ve traveled, lived on my own (both in another state and, for a while, another country), I’ve been a leader and a follower, I’ve been hurt (oh yes) and I’ve hurt others, I’ve loved and been loved, I’ve learned from some mistakes and repeated others, I’ve laughed, cried, failed and triumphed, I’ve discovered the people and ideas that are important to me, and I’ve developed a pretty darn good idea about the type of person I want to be.  And even for all that, I still find myself squinting at half-composed possibilities glowing with fuzzy uncertainty in the middle of the night. 

I suppose my point is this:  no matter how far removed one is from the ages, experience levels and contexts of YA novels, there are questions embedded within them that resonate with something human… not just something adolescent.  The novels that are truly able to speak to this without it being stifled by the superficial aspects of their respective genres (in this case namely the nostalgia of adolescence) are ones worth reading and keeping.  That, my friends, is how classics are born.  …and how I choose to end this post in favor of sleep…maybe.

--E

Begrudgingly Embracing Young Adult Lit

At the outset of my college course on Young Adult (YA) lit, I have to say I was pretty dubious.  I was one of those kids that ploughed through YA as fast as possible en route to the “greener pastures” of adult fiction.  You might be one of those kids—sorry… young adults—who feels very much the same way.  I mean, who wants to be caught in the baby section of the bookstore when you’re entirely capable of reading novels written for adults?  Trust me… I’ve been there.  For me, reading has always been like breathing:  something I never questioned, something vital to my existence that I simply did.  I set my appetite on the reliable feast of “classics” and never looked back.  While I still adore classic novels and new fiction aimed at adults, my perception of YA lit is beginning to turn around. 

For me, the dissipation of the stigma surrounding YA lit began with exploring how it is really defined.  I used to think that YA lit was merely a collection of books targeted toward teens (and often devoid of any literary merit whatsoever).  While how a book is marketed does play a factor in its status as YA, a publisher’s perspective is only part of the equation.  For me, the key was in starting to think of YA as a genre rather than a target market.  According Patty Campbell, a well-respected critic on and advocate for YA lit, the genre is defined by several things:  1.  A theme centering on becoming an adult and answering the question “Who am I, and what am I going to do about it?”  2.  Central action that is internal, set in “the turbulent psyche of the adolescent mind.”  3.  A perspective (whether first or third) that operates from a limited, adolescent point of view.

Equipped with this set of criteria, I started to let go of my notion that YA was as fickle and culturally disposable as boy bands and snap bracelets.  Sure, one still has to wade through the mindless, mercenary drool of books like the Gossip Girl series, but I’m starting to find that within YA lit there are more than a few literary gems.  (By the way—there’s just as much waste of paper and ink in the adult section…adult fiction just generally isn’t characterized by it).  While the adolescent perspective runs the risk of becoming dated faster, there are still many novels with in the ever growing cannon of YA lit that can and should be considered classics.  When we stop thinking about YA as books written to appeal to teens and start thinking about them as books within their own defined genre, they have a greater opportunity for expanding literary quality and audience appeal (to young adults and adults alike).  It will be my goal in this blog to write about some of my new favorites from this genre.  I wont be afraid to get critical, but I wont include any spoilers either… promise.  I’m sure I’ll throw in comments on other books I’m reading/have read from the classics or adult fiction just to spice it up—but this blog will mostly be about me exploring, for the first time, the growing tracts of YA literature.

--E