TRYING HARD TO HEAR YOU

by Sandra Scoppettone ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1974

No doubt Camilla Crawford's ""terrifically"" trendy, affectedly blase monologue is intentionally slanted to reveal a certain cliquish pseudo-sophistication. Still, these Long Island teen-agers, whose lives revolve around a little theater production of Anything Goes, may turn readers off long before Cam's problems with her buddy Jeff and new boyfriend Phil coalesce around the discovery that the two boys are homosexual lovers. Despite the group's much-flaunted worldliness, the revelation proves shattering and leads to the boys' persecution by cruel teasing, an attempted tar and feathering, and eventually the death in an auto accident of Phil and the girl who had offered to help him ""prove"" himself. Though the tragic outcome may seem overblown, it is logical in the context of the group's well-established pattern of sel-dramatization and acting out. The message about homosexuality is well handled both factually (Dr. Reuben is rebutted point by point) and in terms of kids' emotional reactions, which in Camilla's case don't keep pace with her growing intellectual acceptance of the situation. One can't help suspecting that other areas of Cam's snobbish immaturity (""Have you ever noticed how people with basically dumb jobs take them so seriously?"") are being exploited. But for all the soap-operations, the approach to homosexuality is honest and substantial enough to justify the discussion it will no doubt generate.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION