Title: The Realm of Possibility
Author: David Levithan
Series: N/A
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: 8/10/2004
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 224
Source: Local Indie Bookstore
Buy the Book: The Realm of Possibility">">
SUMMARY: Enter The Realm of Possibility and meet a boy whose girlfriend is in love with Holden Caulfield; a girl who loves the boy who wears all black; a boy with the perfect body; and a girl who writes love songs for a girl she can’t have.
These are just a few of the captivating characters readers will get to know in this intensely heartfelt new novel about those ever-changing moments of love and heartbreak that go hand-in-hand with high school. David Levithan plumbs the depths of teenage emotion to create an amazing array of voices that readers won’t forget. So, enter their lives and prepare to welcome the realm of possibility open to us all. Love, joy, and these stories will linger. (via Amazon)
BRIAN’S REVIEW: Earlier this year I read the debut novel by David Levithan — Boy Meets Boy — and it really moved me, and had a major influence on me. The book initially came out in 2003, when I was a scared, closeted freshman in college, and if I had read this book back then, I think it really would have changed my life. At least I’m glad I finally got to read it now, because it’s an incredible romantic story, one that I can’t wait to revisit some day down the road.
But until then, I’ve got a massive canon of Levithan books to read and review. His newest book Every Day just came out this week, and since 2003 he’s put out at least a book a year, including Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which became a film in 2008, and Will Grayson Will Grayson, which he co-wrote with John Green. I was lucky enough at the nearby independent bookstore to find copies of Levithan’s second and third books, The Realm of Possibility, and Are We There Yet? (the latter I even found with his autograph inside on the title page!). So after I finished a more literary novel for a book club I’m in, I knew it was time to relax, get comfy, and settle back inside the wondrous David Levithan universe, first up, with The Realm of Possibility.
Now, if this short novel, written not in standard prose but sparse verse, had been written by anyone else, and if I hadn’t recently read the magical Boy Meets Boy, I might have enjoyed it more. The Realm of Possibility is the kind of book you admire, more than you like. Levithan took on the almost impossible task with this book. Not only is it written in verse, which is unusual and not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s set up in twenty chapters, each chapter about a different teen character. So don’t plan on falling in love with any of these characters; all of the ones that intrigued me and I wanted to read more of, rarely even appeared as secondary characters throughout the rest of the book.
The opening and closing chapters are the best. I’m gay so I might be biased, but the writing, and the relationship between Daniel and Jed, is something I wanted an entire book of, not just twenty pages. Some of the other eighteen stories are interesting — a female singer/songwriter in love with another girl, a girl obsessed with Holden Caulfield, a goth girl, an anorexic girl, a football player who works out way too much, and a sexually active young couple who go to a sex shop. But some of the lesser stories run on too long, and others that are extremely interesting, like the Holden Caulfield story, wrap things up after just two pages!
I admired the hell out of this book, but I didn’t fall in love with it the way I did with Boy Meets Boy. Levithan’s third novel is written in standard prose, and has a great concept, so here’s hoping I fall in love with that one. But for fans of Levithan, The Realm of Possibility should be seen as more of an experimental curiosity than anything else.
