I must be one of the few YA fans who has never read anything by Rainbow Rowell so I remedied that on an airplane flight (why do all the inflight announcements stress the pronouns in every sentence?) and today I finished Eleanor and Park with plans to read Fangirl next. Eleanor and Park is such an unusual book it's hard to describe it. A number of book reviews describe it as a YA romance which it undoubtedly is, but it's so much more than that. Not only are both protagonists unusual characters (half Asian boy struggling with his cultural identity and misfit girl), but they are dealing with difficulties in their home lives that are not necessarily the norm in YA contemporary fiction.
The book tells the story from the two competing perspectives - Eleanor's and Park's. However, rather than dedicate one chapter to each character, the author plays with the format and swings back and forth from one character to the other when it suits the story. Rowell is really a master of this form (mistress of this form?) and it shows from page one. The story takes a while to warm up, as indeed does the friendship and then blossoming romantic relationship between the leads. But once it gets going it's hard to put down. The characters' respective voices are quirky and authentic and it's set in the 1980s with references to battery operated cassette tape players (and many mixed tapes to boot!). So this adds another unique dimension to a YA romance market that is overcrowded with extremely contemporary books.
I'm sure I'm not doing the book justice here. You really just have to read it. It's suitable for a wide age range. Even though there's some violence and romance, there's nothing explicit rendered on the page so that it should be accessible to young readers. And adults will undoubtedly enjoy it too because the setting really is a blast from the past and the characters stay with you after you've finished reading. Looking forward to reading Fangirl now.
The book tells the story from the two competing perspectives - Eleanor's and Park's. However, rather than dedicate one chapter to each character, the author plays with the format and swings back and forth from one character to the other when it suits the story. Rowell is really a master of this form (mistress of this form?) and it shows from page one. The story takes a while to warm up, as indeed does the friendship and then blossoming romantic relationship between the leads. But once it gets going it's hard to put down. The characters' respective voices are quirky and authentic and it's set in the 1980s with references to battery operated cassette tape players (and many mixed tapes to boot!). So this adds another unique dimension to a YA romance market that is overcrowded with extremely contemporary books.
I'm sure I'm not doing the book justice here. You really just have to read it. It's suitable for a wide age range. Even though there's some violence and romance, there's nothing explicit rendered on the page so that it should be accessible to young readers. And adults will undoubtedly enjoy it too because the setting really is a blast from the past and the characters stay with you after you've finished reading. Looking forward to reading Fangirl now.
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