Absolutely, Positively Not

Absolutely, Positively Not... by David Larochelle was a fantastic book. It follows the story of Steven DeNarski, a sophomore in high school who is starting to think he might be gay. When he begins to develop a crush on the health substitute teacher, Mr. Bowman, Steven begins to analyze events in his life that would make him gay-having a girl for a best friend, square dances with his mother, having men's underwear magazines, and being unable to stop thinking about Mr. Bowman in tights. Upon realizing that he is in fact gay, Steven confides in his best friend, Rachel, who tells him she has known for a while that he is gay and is very happy he has finally come out. The next hard step was telling his parents. Steven's mother thinks her son is going through a phase and doesn't want to hear it, and his father accepts his son for being gay but never wants to discuss it again. The story takes a turn for the better when Steven discovers a Gay and Lesbian support group that meets at a coffee shop once a month. When Steven realizes one of the attendees is a guy from the school's hockey team, he suddenly doesn't feel so alone. The book ends with Steven arranging his first date with Mike and finding acceptance from himself and his family as well.

The book addresses several issues surrounding the gay community and their ability to be open about their sexuality. One issue is the name calling that is associated with being gay. For example, after the hockey team barely wins their game, the head coach calls them a bunch of "faggits" and tells them they better start skating like men. This is taken very offensively by Steven and disgusted by those who used those types of words.

"Even though he wasn't talking to me, the disgust in his voice made me want to crawl beneath my seat" (Larochelle, 183).

This is an excellent book that demonstrates the difficulty many face when coming out of the closet. It is also an inspirational book to those who may be facing this problems and are able to learn by Steven's experiences. As a straight individual, I not only enjoyed this book but I also learned a lot from it as well. I would highly reccomend this book to be placed in the classroom as well as discussed when talking about the GLBT community.