What would be the consequences of an adult engaging in a sexual relationship with a minor? In its simplest form, this is the premise of Barry Lyga’s Boy Toy, but for so many reasons the book is so much more.
Let me begin by stating that, much to my surprise, I rather enjoyed the book. I thought it to be well written, introducing what clearly is a difficult and potentially unsettling topic with an incredible sensitivity and thoughtfulness which can only be admired—a book on this subject matter could have easy gone terribly in the other direction. I was particularly impressed also with the style of writing employed by Lyga; clean, simple, but descriptive nonetheless. The inclusion of flash back sequences and were beneficial, serving well to break-up what would otherwise have been a terribly-long straight read, and being that the story covers a period of four years I am glad he took this approach. The addition of flickers—mini (stress/anxiety induced) instantaneous flashbacks exclusive to the character of Josh—were also a creative writing technique which aided in adding little bits of descriptive flares; although, I initially found them to be annoying, causing me to lose my place only to reread the sentence (hey I’m special).
Warning! Spoiler alert for the next two paragraphs (I apologize)
O.K. as I already alluded to, the story revolves around the teenage life of Josh Mendel—a 12 year old baseball all-star whiz kid—and the fallout which follows the revelation that he and his seventh grade history teacher, Mrs. Evelyn (Eve) Sherman have been, for a four month period, engaging in extra-curricular activities of a sexual nature. This ‘arrangement’ is revealed following an incident in which a closet kissing game between Josh and his long-time friend Rachel goes terribly wrong—Josh suffers a flicker and mistakes Rachel for Eve; in short, Josh’s mom, enraged and horrified at her son’s actions, questions him exposing his relationship with his teacher.
The consequences of this discovery hits Josh hard; haunted by the guilt of his actions, particularly what he has committed against Rachel and what has occurred to Eve—she lost her job and went to prison for 5 years—Josh imposes a sort of self-ostracism upon himself, becoming anti-social in every manner outside maintaining a friendship with Isaac (Zik) and playing baseball. To cut things short, all of this builds up toward Josh’s senior year in high school where he has to make a decision on what college he should attend, how to deal with the difficulties of his parents marriage, how to deal with the fact that Eve has been released form prison, and what to make of the advances of Rachel who has recently been trying to rekindle at the very least the friendship they had prior to the closet incident. (I apologize for that ridiculously long sentence).
So, clearly there are numerous competing story lines occurring all at once here; this not simply a tale of ‘forbidden’ pleasures. Although, sex is a prominent theme, but so is love, ideas of friendship and family, and notions of life and living through the choices you make, preferably those that are not made out of fear or on the expectations or actions of others.
Some people may find the (sometimes) graphic nature of sexual descriptions to be overly excessive and inappropriate, but I tend to disagree. I fell that they are somewhat necessary for telling this story revealing essential meaning to the purpose of Josh’s experience and the reasons for his subsequent plight and hardship. To remove it, would, in affect lessen this understanding for the reader. I relate this (this might be a terrible example) to the depictions of war or the Holocaust; you should not hide the horrors and atrocities, they are part of the story, they provide and shape our conceptualization of the events that have come to past—in a weird way, death brings meaning to life, and so does sex, why should this be censored, especially if it is communicated in a sensible manner for a greater purpose.
Finally, one small issue I had with the book—the same fault that Jeff had earlier expressed over The Outsiders—it inappropriately wraps everything up, leaving little to be digested or processed by the reasoning or intellect of the reader. In particular, the last page/chapter of the book interprets in clear language of how baseball served as a metaphor for life. Oh well, it was a good read regardless.
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