Product Description

08:06 p.m.

Saturday 07.29.06

You are in L-O-V-E. Notice how I have no hesitation spelling it. At all. Reason? That was just the wildest entry you've posted! Ever....You are so seeing the world through the eyes of L-O-V-E.

A ten-year best friendship is put to the test when Chuck and Hal spend their first summer apart falling for two questionable mates: a sexy Saudi songstress and a smokin' hot French punk. As Chuck heads off to summer theater camp and Hal stays in their hometown, learning how to drive, they keep in touch via blogging, reporting to each other about their suddenly separate lives and often ridiculous romantic entanglements. As both their relationships take some unexpected turns, Hal and Chuck struggle to come to terms with their growing differences while trying to keep their friendship alive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183742 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780689874390
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up–For the first time in their history as best friends, Hal and Chuck will be spending the summer apart: Chuck to attend a summer theater camp and Hal to stay in their hometown of Wheaton, MD, and learn to drive. To ensure contact throughout their separation, Chuck sets up a private blog where the boys can post daily messages about their adventures (or lack thereof), the text of which constitutes this witty novel. Sloan succeeds at the dual voicing of the characters; from the first entries, the teens distinct voices are clear. Much of their virtual conversation revolves around their summer romantic prospects and their pursuit of emotionally as well as physically meaningful relationships. This somewhat typical premise is complicated by the fact that Hal is gay and has newly outed himself to Chuck. As they compare their experiences, the boys are also working together to define what Hals sexual identity means in the context of their friendship. Many of their entries involve discussions of the physiological dimensions of intimacy, such as when Chuck asks, Not to be crude or anything, but exactly how does a gay guy lose his virginity–is that actually possible? Hals answer is frank, explicit, and endearing. Compared to Melvin Burgesss Doing It (Holt, 2004), this novel is less deliberately bawdy and more realistic, earthy, and even sweet. Like David Levithan and Julie Ann Peters, Sloan is breaking ground among the greats of gay-themed young adult fiction.–Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Chuck is straight, and Hal is gay. They have been best friends since the age of 5. Now, at 15, they must spend their first summer apart; Chuck has the lead in a musical show. They talk online through a blog, often several times a day, and they share every intimate detail of their lives, including romance and sex ("OMG . . . we friggin' made out!!"). Hal hooks up with and has sex with Henri, a French foreign exchange student, but Henri's pot habit gets out of control. Chuck is caught between two young women, but what involves him the most are rehearsals for the show and the build-up to opening night. As with any blog, the talk is often repetitive and trivial, and readers will race through the rambling interchanges, maybe even skip some. But the two contemporary voices are right-on: informal without being cute; supportive, irritable, funny, and angry; intense about love, sex, drugs, family--and especially about friendship. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Freshly believable reality...the level of complexity frees up Sloan to take Chuck and Hal's friendship in directions that no gay-themed YA novel has ever been before."

-- Kirkus

Customer Reviews

A Very Honest and Unique Tale
I am a literature student in the University of California and one of the things that I look forward to most about my vacations is being able to read 'fun' books that no self-respecting professor would have on a sylabus. For my spring break, one of the novels that I blind w/o any knowledge (besides amazon's descriptions) was 'A Tale Of Two Summers' which has honestly become one of my favorite books - over the course of three days I read the book twice.

The book follows the summer adventures of two best friends (one striaght, one gay) as they spend their first summer apart in almost 10 years. Both of the boys are 15 years-old, and they are going through the struggles of lust, love, and lonelyness, while trying to find their niche in the world. While the book had many personal touches that I could relate to (I am gay and met my own 'Henri' several months ago), beyond that, the story not only have a very frank portrayal of a budding gay relationship. But, it also touches on the realism of gay life, sex, and relationships.

But beyond that it shows a beautiful story of two friends bonding, despite the distance placed between them for the summer as they fall in and out of love.

The ups and downs of friendship
I wish that a novel like this had been around when I was in high school. Author/director/screenwriter Brian Sloan (WTC View, I Think I Do) writes a satisfyingly dense story of a summer in the lives of two bets friends: gay (and newly out) Hal, and Chuck, the straight "wonderboy."

I'm not usually one for books written entirely in emails, letters, diary entries etc. but it works in this book; the heroes are corresponding via a blog, they get more detailed when explaining what's going on in their lives.

The novel is also notable because it explores the friendship between a gay teen and his straight friend. This is such a rare phenomena to depict, it makes the book feel ex. I did relate in many ways as this book reinded me so much of a one of my most important friendships, right down to Hal's neediness. Sloan really gets it. I think Hal may have been just slightly better developed a character than Chuck, but that may just be because part of me was more interested in his tale.

This an excellent, frank and very readable novel. I read it in two days because I kept wanting to see what happened next. The best thing is that nothing works out the way I thought it would. Despite this being targeted for the Young Adult age bracket, I'd recommend this for us "grown-ups" as well. When a book's this good, everybody should take a chance and read it.

Fresh and Easy to Believe
OK, I've taught high school for 37 years, and this book captures the dramatics, hyperbole, stunts, depression, hope, and anxiety of being a teen. Mr. Sloan has demonstrated a profound knack for capturing the cadance of adolescent speech, the multiplicity of their thought patterns, and their overall obsessions with becoming who they want to be. Coupled with good humor and insight, this novel reads just like a blog, and most assuredly should be read in that manner. Kudos to this book, and its honest look at contemporary kids; their lives, loves, disappointments, and most significantly, maturation.