Crutcher, Chris - Whale Talk

[oyceter]

I read Crutcher's Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes a long time ago, and while I liked it, for some reason I never looked for more of his books until I was asking my librarian for fluffy YA books featuring POC protagonists. She shoved this in my hands and said that it wasn't fluffy, but she loved it and it was awesome.

She was right (on both counts).

T.J. Jones (the "J" is redundant) is a great athlete who won't play for any of his school teams, and some people might say he has a giant chip on his shoulder. Given that he was abused as a kid before being adopted by his current parents, given his multiracial heritage in an oh-so-white Idaho town, and given the personalities of the people involved in his high school athletics, this isn't far from the truth. But when his teacher decides to put together a swim team, T.J. sees it as an opportunity to assemble seven misfits (himself included) and get them all letter jackets to thumb his nose at the school.

This sounds like every other sports movie out there, but it's not. The misfits aren't lovable; many of them are angry and hurt and lash out. The book touches on themes (sizism, ablism, racism, sexism, abusive relationships, class, etc.) that could have turned it into an after-school special, only Crutcher is really good at making everyone so human, even the villains of the piece (scummy humans, but humans nonetheless).

Argh. I'm not sure how to write about this so it doesn't sound boring. It's really dynamic, I love T.J.'s narrative voice (1st person), I really like how Crutcher brings in all these separate elements (abuse, forgiveness, when to fight and when not to, honesty, social outcasts, sports) and makes them work beautifully together. Without his prose and T.J.'s very down-to-earth take on things, the ending might be a tearjerker, but it's not.

Anyway, this is really good, so just go read it instead of listening to my incoherent babbling.

Comments

[anoel.livejournal.com]

OMG you reviewed my favorite book!!! :D This is my absolute favorite, it really touches me in so many ways and I've read it so many times and somehow it makes me cry. I know how hard it is to describe it as it leaves me babbling as it says so much and is just so good and I love all the characters. It has helped me in many tough times actually. T.J is my personal hero along with many others. And the end just completely wrecks me. Anyways, I'm so glad you got to read it and loved it and talked about it in your journal! I will try to send people over this way to get them to read it :)

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of this one as well (and it totally made m cry at the end).

[oyceter]

It's so good! I suck at describing it accurately! But I hope other people will read it anyway.

[oyceter]

I totally cried at the end as well.

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

I grew up on a lot of Chris Crutcher's (Stotan was the one I imprinted on) but never read this. Yay!

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Whoo, Crutcher! That could-be-generic-after-school-special-but-isn't-because-the-characters-have-so-much-character thing is really really typical of his work. He is _awesome._

Whale Talk

[(Anonymous)]

Yay - I'm so glad you liked it! I'm a big fan of Crutcher and this is my favorite. I really admire how he writes his characters - nobody is all good, and nobody is all bad - his characters are complex, compelling, and above all human.
Marie

[oyceter]

Ooo! I will grab that one some time. I got Ironman last library run, and must remember that even though the back cover blurbs of his books sound boring (sports, sports and more sports), I will probably like them anyway.

[oyceter]

I know! I keep reading the backs of his books and being turned off because they sound so boring and serious, but I must keep reminding myself that he is too good to do that.

Re: Whale Talk

[oyceter]

I loved it a lot! I think based on this and my memories of Sarah Byrnes, I am going to go through his backlist.

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

I guess I should caveat that Stotan!, which features four high school guys, has an Asian character who might have stereotypical elements? He's a cool character, their swimming coach, but (iirc), the four guys are white and, of course, he's in the mentor role, and I believe he's a badass martial artist too.

Actually, hmm, now I want to go back and reread Crutcher's books in order and see if there's an evolution. B/c if I remember from the ones I read, he tended to focus on issues of social justice, and he often had casts that included people of different races and gay characters. But I feel like the protags of the ones I read, which would have been earlier ones, were all white straight boys? Unless I'm misremembering? I wonder if moving a POC to the protag role represents something newer for him.

[oyceter]

Oh, interesting... I will try to keep an eye out on that as I go through his backlist. Maybe I'll try going in chronological order.