Leave Myself Behind

Although I thought the whole mason-jars-and-baby's-skeleton thing that drove that plot was pretty over the top, I loved this book for its extremely good depiction of human relationships: Noah's relationship with his mother and his deceased father, his growing romance with J. D., J.D.'s abusive mom, etc. The dialogue and the characters' actions were very real to me, and Noah and J.D.'s homosexuality was well done. Some books overstress the gay aspect of the story, but in this case the amount of emphasis was just right: clearly a factor in play, but not something you got slammed over the head with. I look forward to reading more of this author's work.

Title: Leave Myself Behind
Author: Bart Yates
Genre: Coming of Age (?)
Rating: 4½/5

Summary:

Noah moves into a small town with her 'psycho-poet' mother. During the summer they start tearing down the old Victorian house in order to renovate it and from within the walls of the house, a mystery unfolds, seeming to tear down Noah's mother's sanity as well. It doesn't help ease the situation that Noah falls in love with the mysterious boy next door and the whole town finds out. By the end of everything, things have to completely fall apart before they can be fixed.

And then some:

What I like most about this book is the realism of the characters. Especially Noah's character is truly refreshing in that it isn't portrayed as anything else than what show more it is. He isn't perfect, he has flaws, and at points the reader even gets more than a little irritated at him. But still you can't help liking him.

Initially this seems like a pretty easy read, but the further I got, the darker the themes turned, and by the end of it I was feeling a little gloomy myself. Not necessarily because of the story itself, but more so because of the topics it handled. The story itself didn't really move me like it could have, mainly because Noah's point of view is that of a helpless observer's to his loved ones' miseries.

All in all, this book was good but not outstanding. It left a faint smile of hope on my face and a simmering rage in my heart. A book I wish I'd read when I was seventeen and lost. show less

Noah is seventeen, honest and a bit profane (not anywhere near so much as other reviews or Noah himself seem to say, though). A kid from Chicago, he and his slightly psycho mother have just moved to a big house in a small rural town. As the two repair the house, they begin to discover jars filled with bits of writing, pictures, and other trinkets from the previous owners of the house, unraveling a mystery which consequently begins the unraveling of Noah's mother as well. Oh, and you know, there's some business with Noah and a kid from town (J.D.) realizing they're gay for each other and dealing with that.

So. A little funny, a little mystery, an interesting mother/son relationship, a little romance, a little sex, maybe even a little show more 'literary,' but looked to have conversational, easily digestible prose. And the praise for it seems pretty universal. To a certain extend I was willing to write that off as the only-people-who-like-this-sort-of-thing-read-it-so-everyone-who-reads-it-likes-it factor, but I was expecting to like this pretty well.

Verdict? I feel kind of horrible saying this since I've barely found a negative review, but... This isn't bad at all, but I really do think it's overrated.

The first half, though, IS better than the second. The worst part, I'd say, is that the romance between the mains feels pretty generic. J.D. and all those connected with him feel this way, actually. He's got a bitchy girlfriend, a couple normal supportive guy friends, a nicer female friend who will of course be supportive of their gayness later on, bullies at school, and a ugly bitchy mom and a fat drunk of a dad. I mean, what is this, Harry Potter? Do people have to have such flat, overdone personalities, and must they also have physical appearances that match them just so you don't get confused or anything? (Mind, it kind of works in HP. But here we're not reading HP, and here it doesn't work.) J.D. himself doesn't have much of a personality at all (or rather, he seemed like he might when we meet him, but he flattens out more and more the longer the novel goes on).

Still, the two are decently endearing, and for other good points, in general it's pretty well written, a little funny (it's not really THAT funny, mind. It's just got kind of a humorous tone sometimes), the mystery is nothing amazing but pretty interesting as a side plot. Noah's mom was a good mix of intelligent, motherly, and batty, and there's tension in the air when she starts to become more unhinged. Actually, this novel at first kind of reminded me of the movie Beautiful Thing, in that the romance was sweet but generic, but the movie was made actually very good by the fact the other characters were more interesting, and sort of warmed me up so I could enjoy the scenes between the mains more. The mystery in the house and Noah's mom were what did that for me in this book. It was pleasant.

In about the middle, though, it begins to lose direction on all accounts. As we learn more about the mystery of the jars and the house, it starts looking less interesting and more just contrived. Noah's mom becomes more distant generic crazy. As everyone around him spirals into crazy or depressed, Noah really doesn't change his behavior much. There's an attempt to give a couple of the characters angsty backgrounds to explain their current personality. Since the characters have already gotten together at this point, nothing more is going on on the romantic end.

So it's a pleasant read for the first part, and a little tiresome for the last. For me. But even at the best of times, I really do finds this much less grand than most seem to say. It's still maybe a little better than average, but I probably wouldn't read anything else by Yates since I'm finding this rather overrated. ...Only I've already got another novel of his on my shelf. Well, this was a first novel, anyway. Perhaps he improves? show less

I bought this book months ago, but I always delayed to read it since I had the idea that it was sad and difficult, and if I have to spend my mind in a book, at least I want in the end to be happy. But I was wrong... Oh yes, the book is difficult, almost tragic in some part, but it's not sad, and I'm very happy to have read it and I will recommend it to everyone who wants to end a book with a tender smile on his face. Mind you, the book has not a pink glasses perspective on the world, but it still has hope in it.

Noah is a really good character, but he is not the only protagonist of this book: he shares the role with the other young boy J.D., but also with his mother Virginia, and in a way, also with Donna and Tom, J.D.'s parents. And so show more I would like to start my post speaking of Virginia: she is the classical strong woman who built a shield around her to not face a dramatic and long buried secret in her past. She managed to find a piece of serenity with his husband, probably a more simple and quite man than her, even less clever, but able to give her the stability she needed. Noah had never seen his parents in intimate behavior, but he felt the positive energy between them, he knew that his family was an haven from the world, a place where he could grow and be the man he wanted to be without fear of rejection. But that haven was destroyed when his father suddenly passed away, and the other plate who balanced his mother disappears.

Now Virginia drags Noah to leave in a small town, but it's not the cultural shock who Noah would expect. In a way, the small town way of life replace that safe haven, and the disorientation Noah would probably had in the city, is avoided with this moving in an old Victorian house that needs a lot of work to be inhabitable and in this way distracts Noah from his own problems. And another distraction arrives from J.D., the new neighbor a year young than Noah. It's strange, Noah is way too clever than J.D., and he is also older, but when J.D. enters the scene, he always takes the role of the leader, the one who always seems to be more aware and adult. Even with his parents J.D. has a way too adult behavior for his own age, he is comprehensive and respectful, even if they have obviously a lot of problem and if J.D. will continue to live with them will end in a very bad way.

This is obviously a coming of age story, both of Noah and J.D., but in a way also of both their mothers, who need to make pacts with their past to not ruin the future of their son. But it's also a love story between Noah and J.D., and even if dealt with tenderness and the right dose of eroticism for a young adult book, it's nevertheless a very sweet and satisfying love story. It evolves in a way that maybe makes Noah and J.D. face some decisions before time, but it's right, since also in their personal life they are facing events that no one at that age should face: and since the world asks them to be adult, it's right that also in their sexual life they are adult.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0758203497/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

This is definitely a worthwhile read - it possesses a unique plot and a fresh perspective, but much of the praise it is given may perhaps be unwarranted. Some have claimed that its narrator is worthy of being considered the Holden Caulfield of a new generation - this isn't so. Although Noah certainly has a realistic voice and the limited perspective that all who have passed through adolescence are well-acquainted with, it stops short of being all that it could be. It's a fun read with a fresh voice, but it's easily forgettable. (And, sometimes, that's okay.)

Part coming of age story, part gay romance, part mystery-come-melodrama; maybe a bit over-ambitious, but a good narrative voice. (Grammatical nitpick: repeated use of 'lay' for 'lie'.)

This is the first book with the same characters. It would have made sense to read this first. I think Noah voice as a 17 year old was too mature and too young. Interesting story about the house which was just alluded to in the second book.