Openly Straight

Openly Straight is a book by Bill Konigsberg. Bill Konigsberg is an award-winning writer. He’s known best for his book Out of thePocket, which won the 2008 Lambda Literary Award in the LGBT Children's/Young Adult category. Openly Straight is his newest novel. Before he began writing fiction he was a sports writer. As a sports writer and editor for The Associated Press from 2005 to 2008, he covered the New York Mets and his weekly fantasy baseball column appeared in newspapers across the U.S.

In spring of 2001, while working for ESPN, he came out as gay on the front page of their website in an article called “Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays”. That article won him a GLAAD Media Award the year after the article was published. Openly Straight is book about a gay teen named Rafe. Rafe is out of the closet and has been since eighth grade.  Yet as you read you find he has decided that at his new school to “put off his sexuality” as he calls it. He isn’t hiding his sexuality but instead just not mentioning it. Now, to the average person this would still be in the closet.

For Rafe it isn’t though. You see at his old school he was out of the closet and part of many LGBT activities around where he lived. He feels like his sexuality defined him too much at his old school so he decided to just not mention it at the new school. As the story progresses this becomes harder and harder to do, though.

This is a terrific novel. It made me giggle, laugh and even cry a little. It takes a lot for a book to do that to make want to finish in two days. It is achingly honest and full of true emotion. I love how the writer separates the past and present by having Rafe himself tell you and his teacher why he decided to “put off his sexuality” and about his past, of course. Then in the present chapters, the imagery is terrific how he describes everything that happens and how he feels over these situations.  This book is LGBT/teen writing at almost it’s best.

Book Review by Ivy W.