The Summer of My Discontent: A Better Place II

Rating:
Summary: Review of The Summer of My Discontent by Cheri
Review: For those readers who are keeping up with the Gay Youth Chronicles, we're back in Verona, Indiana, in the summer of 1981. All living together on the Selby Farm are our old friends Ethan, Nathan, Brendan, Casper, Ethan's Uncle Jack, and Jack's second wife, Ardelene, who happens to be Casper's grandma. The Summer of My Discontent is the much-awaited sequel to Mark A. Roeder's, A Better Place.

We meet a few new characters, including Dane, a troubled runaway looking for love and sex in all the wrong places. He chooses friends unwisely, and makes some bad choices while trying to find his place in the world. Dane takes up company and moves in with a male prostitute, Austin, then ends up working for a grave robber, Boothe, in order to put food in his stomach. He thinks his new life is better than living at home with his parents, and having them find out his big, dark secret. Dane fantasizes about having a real boyfriend, someone to love who will return his love, but he wants to have sex so is willing to go to any measure to get it. The problem is that he chooses the wrong boys to mess with. Dane is only sixteen years old and has a lot of growing up to do. Can he do that on his own in Verona?

Ethan and Nathan are as in love as ever and they help Uncle Jack on the farm. Each boy is thankful for the other, and for all they have together. Boyfriends, Brendan and Casper, feel fortunate for having stumbled upon the Selby farm. They leave their hometown, Kentucky, and land jobs on the farm. As a result they become a part of a loving "family." Life is good until a drought hits the farm, threatening its economic stability. The family draws closer together as they try to figure out a way to avoid financial ruin.

Ethan is willing to forgo his hopes and dreams of being Verona High's champion wrestler in order to help Uncle Jack farm the land. Brendan longs to be the new Verona High quarterback-a position he was very proud of in his old high school, before he was outed. In A Better Place, Brendan had been sent to the Cloverdale Center, a place designed to convert gay youths and make them straight. It is also a place for juvenile delinquents, which is ironic since Brendan was a good student, an incredible athlete, and a good person. His only "crime" was being gay, and his parents simply could not accept that fact. He escapes that horrific place, and takes Casper with him to seek a better place. Casper must escape because of his neglectful father and abusive brother. Brendan and Casper run for their lives, and, as luck would have it, they are given a second chance at happiness. In The Summer of My Discontent, Brendan is so thankful to be away from Cloverdale and his parents, he is willing to forgo his beloved football in order to help save the farm and secure his new home. With the four boys pulling together, along with Uncle Jack, they hope to save what is near and dear to them. Nathan and Casper get jobs outside the home to bring in a little extra cash, while Ethan and Brendan work the farm. Meanwhile, Casper's brother, Jason, is at the Cloverdale Center, serving time for killing their father, and trying to kill Casper, too. He writes Casper and tries to make amends for his past misdeeds. Is he redeemable, or is he just trying to manipulate Casper all over again?

Ethan's best friends, Jon and Brandon, lend a hand before the new school term begins. Ethan and Nathan make no secret about their relationship, but Brendan and Casper are not out about theirs. It's not that they want to hide who they are, but they are starting at a new school, and have yet to feel their way around. At Verona High, Brendan will have to prove himself as a jock all over again. Casper was shy and introverted at his old school...now he has a second chance to make friends. It should be an interesting, if not exciting year for all the boys, especially when Uncle Jack insists that Ethan and Brendan not give up sports to work the farm. Both boys couldn't be happier...even though it means school and practice all day, and then coming home to farm work and homework. They don't even mind working weekends.

Mark Roeder once again tells a riveting tale with our favorite heroes, along with some new villains. The Gay Youth Chronicles could easily be TV's next Dawson's Creek. I can absolutely see Roeder's series of books as a hit TV series that would delight, entertain, and teach a few lessons along the way. We need more gay youth oriented TV programming so gay kids don't have to feel like they are alone in the world, and straight kids might learn to be more tolerant. The Summer of My Discontent is fast-paced and fun. It appeals to all audiences and tells a great story. Mark Roeder never ceases to amaze me. He offers advice and hope for troubled youth who are having difficulties dealing with discrimination, fear, raging hormones, and insecurity. There is a common theme in Roeder's Gay Youth Chronicles. He offers hope that someday a world where being gay is not only accepted by society, but that being gay is not a big deal. He also shows that acceptance of being gay is the way to enjoy life to the fullest and achieve true happiness. Another common theme is that when love and friendship precede sex, intimacy will be much more meaningful and satisfying. Roeder does more than tell interesting stories; he teaches lessons in morality as his characters-his heroes-are honest, loving people who care about one another, and help those less fortunate. Ethan, Brendan, Nathan, and Casper are fine upstanding young men worth emulating. Dane, Jason, Austin, and Boothe are deviant characters that could either show redemption or suffer the consequences of their unacceptable behavior. Learning from one's mistakes, and not repeating them, is what life is all about. I give The Summer of My Discontent five stars. Whenever I pick up a book by Mark A. Roeder, I know I am in for a great time.




Rating:
Summary: Highly Unsatisfied
Review: I've read Mark Roeder's previous novels, The Soccer Field Is Empty, which was very emotional and well written; Someone Is Watching, which kinda strayed from the topic, but was still good; and A Better Place, which was awesome and so good that I expected A Better Place II to carry on the drama, twists, and turns. The premise of the novel is good. The farm is near bankruptcy and the new boys on the farm, Casper and Brendan, are trying to fit in the new community. I thought that this would be good, especially with the character of Dane, who is so naïve. No. It took so long for me to read it because the story developed more into a gay-themed Brady Bunch with a highly idealized plot. There's little struggle among the characters, all of which are still teenagers. Roeder failed at describing the events. He missed trying to show to readers what's happening, but instead told the challenges and events with little room for the imagination. The constant relation to the main characters of the first book became too monotonous that it became more of a disability to the memory of those characters than an asset. Then, there's little character growth. They appear and continue throughout as the same people they were from the previous novel and the only person that has any change would be Dane, which occurs at the very end. All of the main characters become more like idealized figures with little comparison to the greater majority of gay youths. In the end, I was more surprised by how much I wasted my time reading the novel than to how the farm was actually saved. My dismay from this novel can only compare to that of watching Glitter and Gigli. If you must read this novel, I highly recommend that you get someone else to pay for it, because you'll be very disappointed if you paid for it yourself.

Rating:
Summary: All Sequels Should be this Good
Review: To quote the book jacket, "THE SUMMER OF MY DISCONTENT is the much anticipated sequel to A BETTER PLACE", which happens to be my favorite in Mark Roeder's "Youth Chronicle" series. The time is late summer 1981, and the place is Verona Indiana. Teenage runaway, Dane lands in town, hell bent on experiencing life in a way that he's always been afraid of in the past. Dane is gay, desperately horny, and determined to find a boyfriend, regardless of the cost, be it blackmail or assault. He is going to get laid no matter what.

Also featured here, are characters developed in previous installments of the "chronicles". Ethan and Nathan, out high school seniors, very much in love with each other, and recent arrivals in Verona, Brendan, a football hero from Kentucky, and his slight but adorable boyfriend Casper. All four are living and working on Nathan's, Uncle's farm. A devastating draught has hit the region and crop failures threaten the farm's solvency. In an attempt to help out financially Casper and Nathan take jobs in downtown Verona, while Ethan and Brendan continue to work side by side on the farm, re-awakening erotic feelings Ethan has had for Brendan, but has been suppressing.

Dane, hanging out in a park across the street from the restaurant where Casper has found a job, develops an infatuation for Brendan's boyfriend, but when he is unable to entice him, sets his sights on the ultra-hunky Ethan, a star on the high school wrestling team. Dane is determined to get into Ethan's pants, and he doesn't care what he has to do to accomplish his goal.

Will Dane be successful in his attempts at seduction? Will he get lucky with Austin, a young hustler he meets in the park and crashes with? To what depths will Dane sink in order to experience the gay sex for which he is so desperate? And what of Ethan, will he be able to resist his secret yearnings for Brendan, and stay true to Nathan? Will he finally be able to deal with, and move on from, the suicides of two gay friends who were lovers, but were unable to handle the homophobia surrounding them? All these questions, and more, are answered realistically if somewhat idealistically, thru the course of this very involving novel.

Does THE SUMMER OF MY DISCONTENT, stand on its own as a novel or are, Roeder's previous books required reading in order to appreciate this one? Yes to both questions. "DISCONTENT" provides enough background information during the story to keep the reader from being confused about characters developed in earlier novels, and it has its own rich individual plot, but it is, after all, a "sequel", and should be approached as one. I encourage reading SOMEONE IS WATCHING and A BETTER PLACE (in that order), before starting THE SUMMER OF MY DISCONTENT, for maximum enjoyment.