From: Seo, Ginee <Ginee.Seo>
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 19:04:25 -0400

Several members of the ccbc-net community brought the recent discussion of INEXCUSABLE to my attention, as I was the editor of the book and have been talking about it to many people in the children's book community. It's a book that naturally engenders strong responses--as virtually all of Chris's work has done--but I thought I would share some of my own thoughts about it and perhaps correct some impressions (or misimpressions) of what Chris's book is trying to do.

What I find most interesting is the way people feel about the main character. Keir is a totally unreliable narrator, and I think Chris does an amazing job of getting inside his head so that--for a while--you really root for him. You want to like him. As the book goes on, you realize that there is a huge difference between his self-concept--his insistence that he is a good guy--and his actions. There is, in fact, a disconnect--this is a boy who will not take responsibility for his actions, who will not accept the consequences of his behavior. And what unfolds is--to me, anyway--as tragic and inevitable as Greek drama. You wonder, When could he have stopped? Was there any point at which he could have NOT done this terrible thing? As it happens, I believe there is a point, and it occurs very early in the story. But never, at any point in the story, did I ever think that Keir was a lunatic or--as someone said--"just plain crazy." Nor did the author, nor was this his intention.

What Chris does believe, and shows beautifully, is that there is darkness and violence lying just below the surface in many adolescent boys. These boys are not crazy, although they are capable of crazy behavior. But many of them ARE angry, and their anger sometimes expresses itself in terrible violence, especially when it is exacerbated by drugs and alcohol (in which all too many of them indulge). In that sense, this is not a date rape book per se--although a date rape is in it, and the date rape is important. As one woman recently wrote to me, "Both my sons (19 and 15) read it, and both thought it was about so much more than rape.? Sure, the rape is central, but it's also about bad behavior -- about doing things that are cruel and hurtful and then lying to yourself, making excuses.? Until people like that see the truth, they'll never change.? That's what makes the novel so eerie.? That's why it resonates.? Of course, both my sons claim they know guys just like this one.? And my youngest loved the fact that he was taken in by the character's voice at the beginning.? He bought the excuses at first, but then he started raising his eyebrows over a few events.? By the time he got to the videotaping part, he saw the truth himself.? My thinking is that's what makes this book brilliant -- the reader is forced to use his own moral compass."

Which brings me to an observation: Virtually every guy I've asked to read this book--and I've asked quite a few guys across a wide spectrum of ages, including several twentyish guys and teenage boys--has told me the same thing: He KNOWS this kid, and furthermore he knows (or knew) at least one guy who IS this kid. And none of them thought the kid was wacko. One of them told me, in fact, that the genius of the book was that even if you were not this kid, you could recognize aspects of this kid that were inside yourself, whether you wanted to admit it or not.

But the women who read this book are sometimes a different story, and that leads me to an interesting (and possibly incendiary) question, which feeds right into the discussion about gender differences: Are there some books that more men and boys are likely to get than women? (And vice versa?)

I believe--well, you all know what I'm going to say. I believe the answer is YES. And I believe that it's important to recognize and respect these differences in our literature. A lot has been written lately about getting boys to read. It is indeed an important mission--but it's one that will only be half accomplished if we don't provide boys with literature that has authentic voices--voices they recognize as their own--real guys that they can accept or reject as they see fit. Some--a lot!--of these stories will be hard to take. INEXCUSABLE is not an easy story to read (and let me tell you, as a woman, it was REALLY not an easy book to edit). But it's my hope that in the end this novel will do what all good novels are supposed to do: make the reader THINK.

This is a long post, so I thank you all for letting me have my say.

Ginee Seo VP, Editorial Director ginee seo books Atheneum Books for Young Readers


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Received on Fri 29 Jul 2005 06:04:25 PM CDT