Top 100 Gay Novel: Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Finally a novel where a boy has the chance to prove that not all teenagers are troubled kid, and that, yes, it’s not simple to be gay, but it’s not even the end of the world. True, Bobby, the boy in question, is probably living in a better situation than the majority of the gay teenagers out there, and it’s easier for him, but still, what strongly comes out of this story (no pun intended), is that, if a teenager has a strong and supporting family on his back, and a good net of relationship in front, then you can be gay, and your story can be more educative than angst.

Bobby is the quarterback of his high school football team, he is handsome and kind, he is the “beau” of the school, and he is gay. Bobby is a serene and well balanced kid, and his coming out to himself was balanced as well, first time he awakes in terror from a wet dream where Todd, one of his schoolmates, starred as main hero; at first he was scared, he prayed for it to not be true, he tried with all his own to make them disappear. But then the dreams continued and instead of being a feared appointment, they became almost a desired escape. All alone, with the strength and the quietness that characterize him, Bobby arrives to the realization that he is gay and the world is not crashed. He does all the right steps, he first tells to his best friend, then to the school counsellor and his football coach. He was probably arriving to his family when he is outed by a high school paper.

It’s not all a pink bubble for Bobby, it’s not like every person he talks with is all right with him being gay, but, truth be told, there are more people who support him than not. It’s South California, and it’s High School. Bobby, after all, is only a kid, and apart some fanatics, who would really go against an high school kid? It’s not fair. So yes, at least until the time he is still in high school, Bobby has like a voucher on reality, he can still think that his dreams are not all gone wasted. But I also like that the author has clearly in mind that this is only a delaying, that sooner or later, Bobby will have to face that reality, and that not everything will be all right. Will Bobby be able to be a football professional player? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Basically Out of the Pocket is the story of a teenager boy and his outing. Recently I read someone explain the difference between coming out and outing: you do coming out when you decide that it’s arrived the moment to do that, you are subjected to an outing when someone else decides that for you. So Out of the Pocket is not a coming out story, it’s an outing story, but it still preserve a positive vision that not often you find in a story like that: in the end, the reader has the feeling that, even if Bobby will not reach his dream, he will not have a bad life after all.

Amazon: Out of the Pocket

Amazon Kindle: Out of the Pocket

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