LS 5903 MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE

A. Hartinger, Brent. THE GEOGRAPHY CLUB. New York: Harper Tempest, 2003.


B. PLOT SUMMARY:

THE GEOGRAPHY CLUB is a story of a group of teens who are gay, lesbian, and bisexual. Russel is the main character. He is in the closet except for nighttime forays on the internet. While iMing someone his own age that happened to go to his high school they decide to meet. Russ risks the inherent because he is lonely and tired of being misunderstood. The boys are shocked when later that same night Russel and Kevin meet. Kevin being the superstar baseball and all a round sports jock of the school was a happy surprise for Kevin who had tried to keep his eyes diverted when changing in the locker room after a group shower. Russel’s best friends are Gunner and Min. Min turns out to be bisexual and her female partner is also a student at their school. The friends of friends get together, Min, Russel, Kevin, Ike and Terese, Min’s partner. They are all shocked and amazed that they are not the only teen at school with a different sexual orientation. The club officially organizes and selects a teacher who will not really be a faculty adviser or meet with him. Soon he even gives them a key to his room where they conduct meetings. They fill out the necessary paperwork and call their support group “The Geography Club” they chose the name of the group because they thought it sounded so boring and geeky that no one else would attempt to join. (They are not so lucky after a while) I remember high school clubs meeting once a month but this group decides to meet twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They have to start their meeting promptly because Terese is as much a jock or should I say as much of an athlete as Kevin. Russel struggles with being dragged into one double date and then two so his friend Gunner can date the other girl’s friend. Kimberly doesn’t care for Gunner at all. She’s doing this so her friend Trish, who has the hots for Kevin can have some time to go out and some time to be alone with him. Russel has kiss number one from Trish and then kiss number two on the next date as Trish tries to get him to have sex with her as they “borrow” Gunner’s car. The girls are wild and crazy. Trish carries condoms in her purse (so I salute her for being responsible). Russel tells Trish he’s a virgin and always wanted the first time to be special. That is endearing to Trish who is not use to guys like Kevin. Russel is so upset when he gets home from the date. One of Russel’s problems is that he is just too nice so he goes to many places that he doesn’t want to go. Kevin meets Russel at the gazebo and they talk through the date. Russ figures Kevin has been chased by girl after girl because he is very handsome and a sports star. Kevin sympathizes with Russ after the date. For one tiny moment as Trish pursues Russ sexually in the parked car she has the “you’re not gay are you?” chat with him. It didn’t seem like a quick harmless question to Russ so he confides in Kevin.
“Man that really sucks. Trish sounds like a real bitch.” Russ answers in the negative and comments, “She just wanted what everyone wants. I just didn’t want it with her.” Kevin and Russ have their first shy and tender kiss that night and we witness the social and sexual relationship between Min and Terese ebb and flow and what happens to “The Geography Club” when an African American girl with a bright orange shirt and headband and smiley face earrings comes to join a “real” club. Her father is a cartographer and this is an unexpected intrusion to the plans of the other “Geography Club” members.


C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (WITH CULTURAL MARKERS)
The book has lots going for it even though some of the plot line is a bit too improbable to make you believe it entirely. Author Brent Hartinger is a gay writer from Washington State so he speaks with authority and authenticity.
I like the fact that the characters are first just seen as ordinary high school kids who are in cliques, get bored easily and are full of teenage angst. Their sexuality doesn’t not define them totally, but yet it does. Hartinger does a great job of showing well rounded characters, a relationship with a parent, who has the wheels for adventures and other things any teen would have experience with. Russel, Min, and Gunter have always eaten together in the cafeteria each day. Now the club wants to eat together but they realize that isn’t wise. This is totally realistic that new friends that happen to be gay, that meet and confess their orientation to each other, would be more easily identified if they all hung out only with each other.

I liked Kevin and Terese being athletes. That’s something that so many people in our culture do not realize, that military employees, cops, Olympic athletes, prissy females and even Republicans :o) can be gay. I believe Hartinger is trying to point out in the novel that anyone anywhere might possibly be gay, from the minister to the heartthrob in a soap opera. There was very little focus on the physical attributes of the gay characters except that Russ thought Kevin was cute and Terese worried that she looked a little “butch.”

I thought the book did a very good job of humanizing the characters and making them believable while avoiding stereotypes. It would be a healthy book for a middle or high schooler, gay or straight to read. It is a quick read and a book I really didn’t want to put down. It reads like many realistic young adult fiction, the setting is suburban. A really funny and believable part of the story was Russel getting ready for his first date with Trish. He doesn’t want to go. He’s mad at himself for letting Gunner talk him into this, but still he wants to look nice. He agonizes over his clothes and stares at himself in the mirror to see which angle makes him look coolest in his underwear. First I think of an ancient Tom Cruise move where he slides across the floor in his sock feet looking cool and then I think of listening to Augustan Burroughs narrating his life story in RUNNING WITH SCISSORS and that is a more probable comparison.

I applaud Brent Hartinger for avoiding plastic figures just to make a point. Being gay himself gives him a voice rarely heard in the world of children’s literature. Russel nor Kevin are not smokers, they do not lift their pinkies when they drink and they are noteffeminate. Kevin is into his appearance as much or a bit more than one would expect a high school boy to be. The “bad girls” are a bit stereotyped a bit too hardened, but there are certainly young ladies that are total bitches, looking for a free screw, and love to send food back at restaurants; just anything to get attention. There are many females of all ages who are more interested in sex than their male counterparts.

THE GEOGRAPHY CLUB reads like a typical teen drama that is better than most. The characterization is good and the story rings true. The only part I found a bit unbelievable is that within a few days 5 people at the same high school suddenly “discover” each other. The dialogue sounds extremely natural and not forced. Teenagers don’t want to stand out in a crowd and Hartinger’s characters are no exception to that rule. The reading level has a 4th or 5th grade feel to me and the size of the book and type make this look like it is for preteens. Being a high interest-low vocabulary book might be a possibility here. The volume comes to fill a large niche that has been waiting to be filled. I enjoyed the Geography Club. I am on hold for the sequel. The theme of the book is coming to terms with being gay but it serves as a lesson that we all must learn to accept ourselves no matter what society tells us. As the club “outs” our author has first rate knowledge of forming support groups of tolerance for young people because he formed such an organization in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS:

School Library Journal characterizes this as a Grade 10 and up selection. I vehemently disagree with that. My regular young customers at the public library and my former ones in the media center could easily read the volume in elementary and middle school. It has a much lower reading level than Harry Potter for example.

SLJ does agree with me however about the book’s merits, “The club members relish the opportunity to discuss their lives and to relate to one another openly and honestly. Eventually, however, intense peer pressure and insecurity take their toll. Russel's relationship with Kevin ends, but the "Geography Club" becomes the "Goodkind High School Gay-Straight-Bisexual Alliance,"

Booklist sees this as a 7-12 grader novel. Obviously the topic is for older children but the white space and type size betray that fact. Booklist goes on to say, “for a short time, life is blissful. Russel has friends with whom he can be himself, and he also makes love with Kevin. Then things fall apart. Russel refuses to have sex with a girl, and word gets out that he's gay. Kevin can't come out, so he and Russel break up. Things are settled a little too neatly in the end, but there's no sermonizing. With honest talk of love and cruelty, friendship and betrayal, it's Russel's realistic, funny, contemporary narrative that makes this first novel special. The dialogue is right on; so is the high-school cafeteria; so is the prejudice. Booktalk this. (Now wouldn’t that be something!)
Reviews accessed from:

http://www.amazon.com/Geography-Club-Brent-Hartinger/dp/0060012234/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186626980&sr=1-1

E. CONNECTIONS:
The first books that come to mind are from different YA authors who share the last name of Frank.

E.R. Frank’s AMERICA is a poignant, realistic novel that looks at the issues of being different and stereotypes but AMERICA has more depth and for a little bit more mature student.

The other is Hillary Frank’s BETTER THAN RUNNING AT NIGHT which deals with first love, betrayal, growing up. Hillary’s book to is a bit more ripened than Hartinger’s and the main character is a freshman in college.