My Father's Scar

Cart (From Romance to Realism), a YA columnist for Booklist and former librarian, joins the rank of YA novelists with a courageous if not entirely successful story about a gay youth's coming-of-age. A college freshman in 1969 or '70, Andy Logan has a crush on his high-profile literature professor; meanwhile, the professor's teaching assistant seems to have a crush on Andy. As relationships advance (primarily through the trading of literary quips), Andy flashes back to pivotal moments in his adolescence. He sees himself as a fat and bookish 12-year-old, bullied by classmates and the object of his own father's disgust; he recalls his bookish great-uncle, the object of Andy's grandmother's disgust; he remembers a charismatic older classmate who is viciously beaten after publicly announcing that he's gay; he describes his senior-year romance with a high school football player. Despite many memorable turns of phrase, the episodic structure undermines the cohesiveness of the plot. As Andy skids from turning point to turning point, the other characters are left to play theatrical roles, from quaint old men who speak to each other in Latin, to Andy's brutal, alcoholic father. On the other hand, the Ugly Duckling motif of the intellectual outcast who eventually finds acceptance, admiration and love is bound to win a sympathetic reading from like-minded teens, straight or gay. Ages 12-up. (May)