by Carol Rifka Brunt
ages: adult
First sentence: “My sister, Greta, and I were having our portrait painted by our uncle Finn that afternoon because he knew he was dying.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
It’s 1987, and June is 14 years old. Her uncle Finn has recently died AIDS, something which (as I well remember) is new and Scary in 1987. Finn and June had a special bond, they shared interests and outings, but it was more than that: to June, Finn was the only one who really Understood her. And to say his passing has really upset her is an understatement.
Little does she know there is a balm for her wound (sorry: too much Jane Austen lately): Toby, Finn’s boyfriend, whom the family shuns, reaches out to June for help and healing. Together these two people who cared immensely for Finn, and whom Finn cared for as well, might just figure out how to go on living without him.
While I enjoyed this novel, and I understood June’s connection with her uncle, a couple things bothered me. First, I’m not really sure it needed to be in 1987. Perhaps it was just so the family could be so deeply homophobic (they’re okay with Finn being gay, he’s just not allowed to have a relationship, so he keeps Toby under wraps). Maybe it was so that June could run around the forest behind her school or into NYC on a whim, because as we all know, parenting in the 1980s was much more permissive than it is today. But it disappointed me that there wasn’t much done with the whole AIDS scare. There were brief mentions of it here and there, but I didn’t feel anything substantial was achieved by it.
What I did like, however, was the exploration of June’s relationships. Not only with her uncle and his boyfriend, but also with her mother and sister as well. June’s perceptions of all those relationships were — partially because she’s 14 — off, sometimes drastically. And it’s a growing process for her to realize that everything isn’t quite how she perceives, that the truth of everything is multilayered and complex. For me, the true draw of the novel, the true heartache, was watching June grow up.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
The Book Nut 
I liked this one. I think that part of the reason it was set in 1987 is because it's marketed as an adult book, so for those of us who were teens in the late 80's, it's a perfect fit.
I also saw that it made the awards list (ALA list?) of adult marketed books published this year most appealing for YA readers. I tried to get my daughter to read it, but she hasn't.
LikeLike
I've seen this one around, and adored the cover, but I honestly had NO IDEA that this is what it was about. Interesting…Knowing this actually makes it appeal to me less, not because of the issues, but because I just don't read much contemporary/literary fiction.
LikeLike