I FELT A FUNERAL IN MY BRAIN

A damaged patella lays up Avery Fowell and gives him time to contemplate the most eventful summer of his life.

Best friends Avery and Luca, two white boys, made a pact: If they passed biology, they’d lose their virginity with each other. They’ve been friends forever because their alcoholic mothers used to get drunk together—and are now in recovery together (although Luca’s mom is much more successful). When a car crash lands Avery in a cast and his mother in rehab, Avery stays with his beloved grandfather Pal and Pal’s girlfriend, Babs. However, Pal has his own problems with alcohol, complicated by his diabetes, and Luca has asked to cool things down. Avery does his best to cope with everyone’s issues while exploring who he is, wants to be, and will be. As he deals with history, betrayal, and grief, he finds the best tool is poetry, that of the masters and his own. Walton’s (Anything Could Happen, 2015) sophomore effort eloquently explores a lot of territory in prosey-verse…or maybe versey-prose. The pop references won’t weather well, and the poetical references will only spark the poets in the crowd. However, those willing to invest a little time and brain power in figuring out (or feeling out) what the text communicates will be rewarded with a heartfelt and ultimately uplifting experience peopled with real humans.

Portrait of the artist as a young queer.