Thursday, March 26, 2015

It's been a while since a book has moved me like this one.

Image result for I'll Give You the SunI'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Noah and Jude are twins.  Until the year they turned 14 they were inseparable, to the point that they would sit together with shoulders, heads and hips touching as if they were physically one being. They bargained with each other for parts of the universe.  “ 'I gave up practically the whole world for you' I tell him, walking through the front door of my own love story. 'The sun, stars, ocean, trees, everything, I gave it all up for you.' ”  But things change, and a lot happened in that fateful year that changed their relationship.  This is a book about truth and lies, failure and redemption, love and anger.  Oh, yes, and art. This book is about art and the artistic person, and the pain that encompasses them from time to time.  And it's about ghosts and spirits and superstitions and love and a whole lot more!  And it contains the best description of "mean girls" I've ever read:  Noah talking about Jude and her new friends: " She's surrounded by the same bunch of girls she's been hanging around with all spring and so far this summer instead of me.  Pretty hornet-girls in bright bikinis with suntans that glimmer for miles. I know all about hornets: If one send out a distress signal, it can trigger a whole nest attack. This can be deadly to people like me."  
Told in beautiful lyrical prose, devour this one in a few days.  Time jumps back and forth from 
age 13 1/2 to age 16, the early years are told by Noah, the later ones by Jude.  Secrets and lies are revealed little by little until the truth about what happened that year finally emerges in a very emotional final few chapters. Forgiveness and redemption really are possible!  

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