Guilty pleasures. We all have them. I know I'm a bit infamous for my dedicated knowledge of Ben & Jerry's. There's also something freeing about sitting on the couch after a particularly long day and stepping into the world of some really awful and mindless feature on ABC Family. If you like to read and you've ever sought this kind of guilty mindlessness in book form, chances are you've picked up a sappy teen romance. Maybe you've taken a lesson from that one chip commercial by hiding the book inside a copy of something more scholarly because, for some odd reason, we think it's below us to live vicariously through sixteen-year-olds experiencing love for this first time.
But if you ask me, there's zero guilt in that.
In fact, I think we can learn a lot more from these teen duos than we're willing to admit.
In her 2013 debut young adult novel, Rainbow Rowell introduces us to Eleanor and Park, two very different high-schoolers in the eighties brought together through unexpected compassion, shared interests, and the intrigue of first-time physical attraction. I know what you're thinking--a perfect pitch for some unrealistically sappy story about naive love, right? Think again.
Instead, Rowell is reminding the world that there's something truly remarkable about loving blindly and somewhat naively. There's something magical about the excitement of young love that we lose as we get older. There's a unique humanness we have when we're younger that suddenly fades as we become adults and acquaint ourselves with harsher perceptions. Rowell is giving the world priceless gifts.
I read Eleanor & Park over the course of about 24 hours because I was rather desperately seeking a John Green-esque escape. I read the brunt of it in my bed one evening from about 8PM to 12PM, only stopping for bathroom breaks. I simply couldn't stop. I needed to know why this teen romance would be different. Eleanor's home life is a shit show. Park's is straight out of Southern Living. They're trapped in Nebraska with a heck of a lot more knowledge and capacity than many of their peers. The ingredients for recycled, cliche universality. But here's what I learned from that redundancy--it's ESSENTIAL!
Yes, it is important that we pick up the novel about the disabled child who lost her entire family to a war because "wow this is so tragic. I'll never relate to this kind of tragedy. Maybe this will make me a more empathetic person." It is also, of course, even more important that we peruse Shakespeare and take a tip or ten or twelve from Ralph Waldo Emerson and all of the greats.
But what about the breezy, realistic read that is such because it's true to life? Reading Eleanor & Park reminded me of the value in simplicity and the importance of relatability. Thank you Rainbow Rowell.
Now go read some YA Fiction!
xoxo
RMD
But if you ask me, there's zero guilt in that.
In fact, I think we can learn a lot more from these teen duos than we're willing to admit.
In her 2013 debut young adult novel, Rainbow Rowell introduces us to Eleanor and Park, two very different high-schoolers in the eighties brought together through unexpected compassion, shared interests, and the intrigue of first-time physical attraction. I know what you're thinking--a perfect pitch for some unrealistically sappy story about naive love, right? Think again.
Instead, Rowell is reminding the world that there's something truly remarkable about loving blindly and somewhat naively. There's something magical about the excitement of young love that we lose as we get older. There's a unique humanness we have when we're younger that suddenly fades as we become adults and acquaint ourselves with harsher perceptions. Rowell is giving the world priceless gifts.
I read Eleanor & Park over the course of about 24 hours because I was rather desperately seeking a John Green-esque escape. I read the brunt of it in my bed one evening from about 8PM to 12PM, only stopping for bathroom breaks. I simply couldn't stop. I needed to know why this teen romance would be different. Eleanor's home life is a shit show. Park's is straight out of Southern Living. They're trapped in Nebraska with a heck of a lot more knowledge and capacity than many of their peers. The ingredients for recycled, cliche universality. But here's what I learned from that redundancy--it's ESSENTIAL!
Yes, it is important that we pick up the novel about the disabled child who lost her entire family to a war because "wow this is so tragic. I'll never relate to this kind of tragedy. Maybe this will make me a more empathetic person." It is also, of course, even more important that we peruse Shakespeare and take a tip or ten or twelve from Ralph Waldo Emerson and all of the greats.
But what about the breezy, realistic read that is such because it's true to life? Reading Eleanor & Park reminded me of the value in simplicity and the importance of relatability. Thank you Rainbow Rowell.
Now go read some YA Fiction!
xoxo
RMD