Idlewild
Books | Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Lesbian
James Frankie Thomas
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: Vox * The Paris Review * NPR * Vanity Fair / A FINALIST FOR THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR FIRST FICTION James Frankie Thomas's Idlewild is a darkly funny story of two adults looking back on their intense teenage friendship, in a queer, trans, and early-Internet twist on the Manhattan prep school novel. Idlewild is a tiny, artsy Quaker high school in lower Manhattan. Students call their teachers by their first names, there are no grades, and every day begins with 20 minutes of contemplative silence in the Meetinghouse. It is during one of those meetings that an airplane hits the Twin Towers. For two Idlewild outcasts, 9/11 serves as the first day of an intense, 18-month friendship. Fay is prickly, aloof, and obsessed with gay men; Nell is shy, sensitive, and obsessed with Fay. The two of them bond fiercely and spend all their waking hours giddily parsing their environment for homoerotic subtext. Then, during rehearsals for the fall play, they notice two sexually ambiguous boys who are potential candidates for their exclusive Invert Society. The pairs become mirrors of one another and drive each other to make choices that they'll regret for the rest of their lives. Looking back on these events as adults, the estranged Fay and Nell trace that fateful school year, recalling backstage theater department intrigue, antiwar demonstrations, smutty fanfic written over AIM and a shared dial-up connection--and the spectacular cascade of mistakes, miscommunications, and betrayals that would ultimately tear the two of them apart.
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Author
James Frankie Thomas
Pages
389
Publisher
Abrams, Incorporated
Published Date
2023
ISBN
1419769146 9781419769146
Community ReviewsSee all
"10s across the board. It always interests me to see trans characters such as Fay, take decades to figure out why they were straight but always felt gay, that performance by Kristen DiMercurio where she says “I want to be a ******” over 100 times, was some of the best acting I’ve ever heard in an audiobook. To grow up in a Post-9/11 world is so hard and to be in high school while it happened and after is even harder. The author portrays this through a series of events that happen throughout the book. How a collective trauma changes people. But this book is something that Gen X and Elder millennial queer kids can relate to. It’s such a powerful book!!! One of things That blows my mind is that the school allowed their play director to write a prologue about Othello being a ******* slave and then only did something because the black kids parents threatened to sue. ******* wild"
Finn Hughes
"3.7 stars<br/><br/>well that was weird as ****. really good tho"
James b
"Actual rating: 3.5 stars<br/><br/>I'm not really sure what to say about this book. I was about to give up on it about 20% in but then it started to pick up and I got completely sucked in and even felt sadness it was over, but that was also because the ending is kinda sad and a letdown. I agree with other reviews that there's a lot brought up as topics/themes in this book and I'm not sure it resolves all of them well. I do think it provides an interesting perspective on someone struggling with this feeling of being "other" but not really being able to formulate in what way until years later. Also since the characters are in high school around the same years I was, I related to that time period, especially the days of Livejournal and reading fanfic, and although I didn't go to a quaker school, my all-girls catholic HS had a similar insular feeling, where you have this close-knit, safe, feeling and once you leave it you feel lost."
Liesl Prentice