TEEN NOVELTY // At homo-neurotic we don’t really fall into the target audience for young adult novels anymore. Despite that, it has not stopped us from bringing to your attention Nick Burd’s debut novel ‘The Vast Fields of Ordinary.’ While not the first to replace the love starved heroine of the genre with a homosexual on the verge of manhood, it certainly is a work worth taking notice of. [Full disclosure: Burd frequently writes for HN.]
Dade Hamilton, our reluctant hero, is trapped in that magical last summer after graduating high school, before escaping to the literary halls of college. Not quite a boy, not quite a man. Between fighting parents, a part-time job at a grocery store, and being a social pariah, Dade represents a large part of the life that current gay teens live, along with stirring up similar memories in many of us grown gentlemen.
Summer starts with Dade mooning over his “straight” fuck buddy Pablo. Yet a fateful run in with gay drug dealer, Alex Kincaid, and a new lesbian neighbor Lucy, soon sets Dade’s last truly free summer alight. Add in the mysterious disappearance of a local child and a bit of tragedy and the book truly encompasses the young adult genre, while still maintaining a completely original voice.
Burd’s quality of writing, which surpasses its genre’s peers, is truly noteworthy. Lacking the typical “dear diary” teen angst bullshit, Vast Fields represents the teen I remember: too smart for my own good, yet not a complete jerk. Burd should also be commended for not writing a tragic cliché after school coming out special and for writing a story where the character just happens to be gay. Filled with some amazing one liners (“His room smells like a rap video”) and a host of made-up bands that sound so cool (the Vas Deferens — a reference to the male anatomy), you find yourself feeling out of the loop (Is that band I should know about?), Vast Fields of Ordinary is not only a great summer read, but an overall entertaining and beautifully observed coming of age story.