Reviews: (by author)

Gantos, Jack. Desire Lines . Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 2006.

Jack Gantos' Desire Lines is a story of succumbing to high school social pressures and the consequences that follow. As teens struggle to find an identity that separates them from their parents, some can't help but be lured to an identity built by their peers. It is an inward turmoil many teens can relate to and I think Gantos succeeds in showing that turmoil.

Sixteen-year- old Walker always minds his own business as he follows his desire lines. In ancient planning, a desire line was a footpath that was the quickest way from point A to point B. For Walker this means hopping hedges, disobeying no trespassing signs and crossing back lots. He likens it to not living by the rules, but by your gut. Walker 's desire lines mostly lead him to school and his favorite hideout, an overgrown abandoned golf course where he enjoys reading National Geographic articles about the fall of ancient civilizations. Walker's obsession with these fallen civilizations is a foreshadowing of what is to come when Walker veers off his own desire lines, neglecting his gut instinct just to save face: "As far as I'm concerned vegetation waiting to creep over neglected cities is the same as the wild animal pacing back and forth on the outer edge of your brain..and when you reach rock bottom it's every man for himself, and like Machu Picchu, Palenque, and Angkor Wat, you'll do anything to survive."

It is at the golf course that he happens upon two of his female classmates having an affair. Walker decides the girls' affair is their business and keeps it to himself, although it doesn't stop him form spying on their weekly private rendezvous. To complicate matters, a family of radical preachers begins to show up daily outside the school on a homosexual witch hunt. The preacher's son wittingly ridicules Walker in front of the whole school, calling him a homosexual even though he knows he is not. It is the preacher boy's hope that Walker will give up what he knows about the girls to save face for himself. Walker has a firm resolve to keep the girls' secret hidden, but he has his breaking point. He lets the secret out when he can't take anymore of the whole school teasing him. Walker has the heat off of him, but the girls are harassed nightly at home and their parents are mortified. In a melodramatic and clichéd twist the girls show up at the pond with a gun, not knowing that Walker is again hiding in the bushes. Even though Walker feels horrible about himself for giving up the girls, he observes quietly when this time saying something would have prevented the incident he witnesses.

What Gantos doesn't quite succeed at is relaying an effective message about homosexuality. While Walker himself was multi-faceted, the preacher's son is more of a caricature, which diminishes his power. There are a few good scenes between the girls, but the characters fell flat at the end, leaving me unattached. Once I picked up this book, I read it in its entirety. At only one hundred and thirty eight pages, it is a quick and easy read. It is a worthwhile read for its suspenseful plot, vibrant imagery and the questions it asks.

Shelley Moreno, December 2006

Back to reviews G-K