Ehh. Following up on the well-reviewed
“Happyface” (which I have not read) comes Stephen Emond’s
semi-romance between Evan and Lucy, a couple that may or may not be
working against fates to come together. Their childhood friendship
has devolved into a two-week winter-break get-together ever since
Lucy’s dysfunctional family split apart, sending her to live in the
south with a mother more concerned about her next boyfriend than the
welfare of her child. Evan looks forward to their limited time
together – relaxing into an old, comfy relationship in a sea of New
England snow – but recognizes that this visit, during his
pressure-filled Senior year of High School, has the two of them at
very different places in life. With a strong desire to be an artist
(drawings and comics fill the book), he struggles with his father’s
demands that he apply to the most demanding colleges so that he can
become a chip off the old block. Lucy, living nearly on her own, has
fallen into some scary behavior and is too sad and angry to find
comfort in a world that now seems alien to her. The book takes place
(mostly) over this one two-week period and has a fair amount of angst
as the two would-be lovers struggle to connect. On the plus side,
the characters are strong and it is refreshing to see a romantic
story with a male lead. Supplemental characters, such as the gay
friends, the parents and grandparents, are well-filled out and the
tendency to stereotype them is mostly avoided. It makes the novel
feel real, which might explain the kind of messy, non-linear feel to
the book. The drawings enrich the story by underpinning the tone and
the title “WinterTown” becomes obvious as a theme when you
compare the fake holiday town Evan’s dad puts up each year with the
kind of distant view of the city which Lucy sees outside of her plane
window. It is a “tonal” novel overall. Events don’t run
smoothly and there are a lot of random bits that just don’t seem to
fit – it’s not clear, for instance, as to how/where Lucy gets her
plane ticket to come up for the visit as her mother is not currently
in the picture. Another disconnect is the comic excerpt at the end
of each chapter. The two young people have created a world in their
joint comic “Aelysthia,” but the storyline in the comic doesn’t
further the narrative, rather it seems to be an esoteric comment on
the latest fight between the two leads. Aelysthia is supposed to be
“instantly recognizable” by a sun that vomits, but that image is
never included in any of the strips until the lengthy addendum at the
end of the book. The result is a choppy story that doesn’t so much
draw you in as it challenges you to figure out what is happening. I
didn’t feel like I was entering Evan’s world, I felt like I was
spying on a slice of his life. It didn’t engender me to the story
and I didn’t feel overly compelled to push through it as it was
coming off as yet another one of those semi-autobiographical
fiction-but-not-fiction novels I dislike … there are just too many
“inside references” that I can’t understand as reader. That
being said, Lucy’s take on “the perfect night” is terrific and
Evan’s grandmother is the kind of person we should all aspire to
be. Worth it, I guess, if you are a guy who appreciates a certain
amount of randomness, longs for a girl you don’t think you can
have, and wonders whether the path your family has set for you is the
right one.
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