Kirkus Reviews (Print)
March 1, 2014, Saturday

ONE MAN GUY

SECTION: FICTION

Alek thought summer school would be the biggest bump in his
summer…if only he’d known. Fourteen-year-old Aleksander Khederian is
devastated when his parents break their promise to send him to tennis
camp over the summer, but even worse is that they are forcing him to
go to summer school just so that he can stay on the honors track.

This, like traveling across town to a specific church or avoiding all
things Turkish, is just part of being an Armenian-descended American.
When his best friend, Becky, surprises Alek with an unwanted,
passionate kiss and he reacts badly, he knows the summer is going to
be lonely and awful. Then Ethan, a cool, skateboarding junior also in
summer school, “kidnaps” Alek for a day trip by train to a Rufus
Wainwright concert in New York City. Ethan, who’s out to his skater
friends, opens up a whole new world for Alek, and their friendship
becomes a relationship. How will his traditionally minded family
handle this? Alek is pretty sure it will be awful. Barakiva’s debut is
well-wrought and realistic within its Northeast context, and it’s
entertaining without sliding into easy gags or melodrama. Despite a
too-neat-and-happy ending, it deftly draws strong parallels between
homosexuality and ethnicity that will resonate with audiences. East
Coast teens will see themselves; Midwesterners will feel a little
envy. (Fiction. 12-16)

Publication Date: 2014-05-27
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Stage: Children’s
ISBN: 978-0-374-35645-3
Price: $17.99
Author: Barakiva, Michael

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress