Product Description

Keir Sarafian may not know much, but he knows himself. And the one thing he knows about himself is that he is a good guy. A guy who's a devoted son and brother, a loyal friend, and a reliable teammate. And maybe most important of all, a guy who understands that when a girl says no, she means it. But that is not what Gigi Boudakian, childhood friend and Keir's lifelong love, says he is. What Gigi says he is seems impossible to Keir....It is something inexcusable -- the worst thing he can imagine, the very opposite of everything he wants to be.

As Keir recalls the events leading up to his fateful night with Gigi, he realizes that the way things look are definitely not the way they really are -- and that it may be all too easy for a good guy to do something terribly wrong.

Chris Lynch has written a no-holds-barred story about truth, lies, and responsibility -- a story that every good guy needs to hear.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #414916 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780689847899
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Keir is a senior who fancies himself a lovable rogue. So do his widowed father, his older sisters, and his classmates. He likes being liked; he just doesn't do well with involvement. Keir would never do anything to hurt anyone intentionally–or would he? When he tackles and cripples a member of an opposing football team, it's determined to be an accident–one that earns him the good-humored nickname, Killer. When he and his buddies destroy a town statue, they consider it a high-spirited, funny prank. When he gets drunk, the alcohol abuse is dismissed as silly, harmless drinks, and drugs at parties are strictly recreational. And when he date rapes the girl he thinks he loves, at first he convinces himself that the way it looks is not the way it is. Keir's first-person narrative chillingly exposes the rationalization process that the troubled teen goes through to persuade himself and those around him of his innocence. Characters are clearly developed through immediately post-rape chapters that alternate with flashbacks of Keir's experiences and perceptions leading up to that point. As compelling as Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (Farrar, 1999), though with a different point of view, this finely crafted and thought-provoking page-turner carefully conveys that it is simply inexcusable to whitewash wrongs, and that those responsible should (and hopefully will) pay the price.–Diane P. Tuccillo, City of Mesa Library, AZ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* "The way it looks is not the way it is," begins Lynch's bone-chilling new novel. It looks like a date rape, and in the novel's first scene, set just after the alleged crime, teen Gigi accuses narrator Keir, whose terrifying denial ("I am a good guy . . and so I could not have done this") sets the book's tone.

Many YA novels about rape, such as Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (1999), have shown the horror and pain from the victim's perspective, but Lynch's daring story is told in the defensive voice of the accused rapist. In chapters that move between the rape scene and the past, Keir tries to convince readers of his own innocence and earn their trust: "I'm going to tell you the truth," he says early on. "You could ask pretty much anybody and they will tell you. Rock solid, Keir. Kind of guy you want behind you . . . Loyal, polite. Funny. Good manners. He was brought up right, that boy was."

Attempting to defend his character with anecdotes from his senior year of high school, Keir relates a string of disturbing, morally ambiguous stories in an energetic voice that's alternately playful, earnest, rational, and, as almost all readers will recognize, deluded. Many stories involve Keir's football team, including an on-field accident in which Keir cripples a receiver during a routine play and releases himself from blame. When Keir joins his teammates in violent year-end hazing and vandalism, and then watches a videotape of their actions, he struggles to reconcile the reality of himself and his friends as frightening aggressors with the "lovable rogues" he has imagined.

His rationalizations, his response to so many incidents, convince readers that they are listening to an unreliable narrator, a sense that only increases as the story progresses, returning frequently to the rape scene, and Gigi's furious and clear accusation: "You raped me." In one of the many remarks directed straight to readers, Keir says, "I'm lying. I said I wouldn't do that to you, but I am," which simultaneously undermines his credibility and draws him closer to his audience, creating an uncomfortable intimacy that Lynch masterfully balances throughout the novel.

Through expertly drawn, subtle, every-guy details, Lynch creates a nuanced, wholly believable character that will leave many readers shaking with recognition: They know this guy, a strong athlete who fleetingly struggles with his self image, loves (and is disappointed by) his family, wants to have fun with his friends, and has a deep crush on a girl. His very familiarity, combined with his slippery morality, violent actions, and shocking self-denial, will prompt many readers to question themselves, and their own decisions and accepted ways of talking and behaving with each other.

Teens may doubt Keir's reliability as a narrator, but his self-recognition, in a final, searing scene, rings true. Here, and throughout this unforgettable novel, Lynch raises fierce, painful questions about athletic culture, family denial, violence, and rape, and readers will want to think and talk about them all. Where does personal responsibility begin? What defines a "good guy"? Are we all capable of monstrous things? Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"This raw and powerful book will hammer its way into your heart and haunt you. The world needs this story. And you want to read it -- trust me."

-- Laurie Halse Anderson, Printz Honor-Winning Author of Speak

"Chris Lynch is the best pure YA writer we have -- he has the guts, he has the chops, and like his readers, he'll take a close look at anything. Inexcusable is irresistible, in its limning of the spaces between brutality and grace, between the soul and the law. Start at page one -- you'll never stop."

-- Bruce Brooks, Newbery Honor-Winning Author of The Moves Make the Man

"Inexcusable is a not-to-be-missed chapter in the anthropology of ritual male dating behavior. From the first phrase to the last phrase, Chris Lynch creates a character with such flawless self-deception that the reader mistakes being seduced with being stalked. In the end you become the books trophy, and you'll find your head mounted on the cover."

-- Jack Gantos, Printz Honor-Winning Author of Hole In My Life

Customer Reviews

A forceful story and a compelling character study
Keir Sarafian is a self-proclaimed "good guy." After all, he says, he has "character witnesses." His two older sisters love, respect and support him, and "people like that don't support monsters." And, of course, there's Keir's dad Ray. Widowed for more than fifteen years, Ray expends all of his energy on his kids (OK, and some on the occasional glass of beer...or two...or more). "You had to be a good guy if you were Ray Sarafian's kid," says Keir. "You couldn't possibly be anything less."

As Keir's narrative unfolds, though, readers may start to question whether Ray's "good guy" persona is really accurate. Troubling chapters that take place in the aftermath of an action that Gigi Boudakian is calling date rape alternate with chapters that tell the story of Keir's senior year in high school. Keir claims that the point of these stories is to tell the truth, to show that he's not the kind of guy who could ever be capable of rape.

As the saga of Keir's senior year unfolds, though, his account raises more questions than it answers. Keir's masterful tackle during the football season, which leaves the tacklee paralyzed and gives Keir the nickname "Killer," is an accident --- right? Clearly Keir wouldn't have gotten all those football scholarships otherwise --- would he? That video that shows a shadowy figure violently hazing the high school's soccer team couldn't be of Keir --- could it? That statue of Paul Revere couldn't have been so utterly destroyed by Keir and his friends in a post-party frenzy --- could it? And, of course, it's normal for Keir to forget all of these episodes after a night of binge drinking and popping pills --- isn't it?

By the end of the novel, the reader, and maybe even Keir himself, is starting to question not only everything Keir claims, but also the premises on which he bases his life. Is his dad really a good influence, or does he enable Keir's problematic behavior? Do Keir's sisters really support him, or has their relationship already been utterly damaged?

"The way it looks is not the way it is," says Keir. This statement is true in more ways than one, as INEXCUSABLE's surprising narrative plays out. Chris Lynch's accomplished novel is bound to get readers thinking about whether or not they can trust this narrator. They're also likely to consider long and hard what it means to be the popular guy, the "good guy," and whether those labels excuse a lot of destructive, dangerous behaviors.

INEXCUSABLE is not only a compelling character study and a powerful, forceful story that will draw in readers --- it's also a thoughtful examination of a certain kind of young man, an exploration that should be practically required reading for high school students today.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

inexcusable is all about excuses
i really really hated this book. which is exactly why it is so very good. from the beginning i was convinced that kier was a sociopath...but the ending which vindicated this theory was anything by satisfying. it burns me up when i think about it even now, which is, i think, exactly what lynch wanted.
lynch's take on modern day high school is extremely authentic.
i remember many boys exactly like this from those years of my own life...destructive, pill popping, line toting, jerks who refuse to take responsibility for their actions and are given leeway because they are good at a sport.
kier rejects all reality checks (like when his sister honestly points out their father's enabling behavior) and when things don't go his way, he invents his own reality in his head, editing the things he doesn't want to see.
quite honestly, this book is unique. a close look at society's tendency to 'hand it all over' to the boys who can kick around a football.

The way it looks is not the way it is
"I am only trying to stop the sound. It looks terrible what I am doing, as I watch my hands doing it...but I am only trying to stop that awful sound and the way it looks is not the way it is.

Keir Sarafian is a good guy. Would brainy older sisters love him if he was a monster? Does a menace to society choose to stay home and play a board game with his father when parties are raging? He doesn't even have a lot of experience with girls, okay? Yet the love of his life, the precious and unattainable Gigi, has accused him of going too far. He loves Gigi and has loved her forever, so why would she accuse him of this? How does Keir appear to the outside world?

In Lynch's award-winning novel, our "good guy," a star football player, a close friend to his widowed down, an admiring younger sibling, faces how his actions appear to the outside world. Keir examines the aftermath of his team's drunken rage on a Paul Revere statue-why does the town not understand the hilarity, the spirity of the statue attack? Why does the living video record of the soccer team party not show the funny parts of the evening, but just the "grotesque, awful, dark, blurry, horror film" of harassing and humiliating acts that our narrator committed?

Inexcusable gets inside the mind of a guy I'd probably label as big-time trouble if I ran into him. Highly recommended for both male and female teens.