Suspended in Fullness

Having absolutely LOVED David Levithan’s novel Boy Meets Boy, I was skeptical when he followed it with a book that at first looked to me to be too full of poetry.

I’m glad I turned out to be so very wrong.

The Realm of Possibility is full of poetry, but not too full. And in fact, my worries that its mixed narrative genre wouldn’t compare to the storytelling in Boy Meets Boy were completely unfounded. In Boy Meets Boy Levithan makes us a part of Paul’s world, lulls us into the fantasy that is Noah, and surrounds us with the love and community of Kyle, Tony, and other good friends. I came away from Boy Meets Boy feeling comfortingly wrapped in warmness.

It was different, though, in The Realm of Possibility-—not different, worse, but different nevertheless. Reading Boy Meets Boy was like easing into a hot tub, whereas entering into the worlds of the characters in The Realm of Possibility is more like diving into the deep end of a pool and swimming underwater. You become submerged in Levithan’s words...sometimes losing track of which way is up and which way is down. Not to the degree where you panic and take in great gulps of water drowning yourself, but rather to the degree where you reach this place and time where you are suspended in the fullness of each moment-—feeling infinite.

It’s a book I know I will read over and over again, each time carefully contemplating Levithan’s choices of words...images...messages. It’s a book I know I’ll give as a gift to a woman who captivates me, hoping that it’ll touch her as much as it (and she) has me.

You think you know your possibilities.
Then other people come into your life
And suddenly there are so many more.
(Levithan, The Realm of Possibility, 207)