Sexy

by Joyce Carol Oates

Sixteen-year-old Darren Flynn, a popular, good-looking high school athlete who lacks self-confidence, learns that his jock friends are hatching a revenge act against their English teacher for failing a member of the swim team.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, LGBT, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Teen, Coming Of Age

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Reviews

[Justin Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the only JCO novel that hooked me instantly and didn't let go. It's the story of 16-year-old Darren who excels on the swim team and has grown incredibly handsome. He becomes popular and begins receiving a number of special favors reserved for the young and beautiful. But being the shy type he doesn't go around abusing his powers. There is a pivotal moment when his male English teacher gives him a ride home and gets somewhat flirty. Though nothing sexual happens, Darren feels embarrassed and recalls his father's harsh opinion on homosexuality. He also happens to be struggling with his own sexuality. More than anything he wants to forget all about the encounter. In fact he does brush it off, but when his friends want to get even with the English teacher for failing them for plagiarism, he is faced with more tough choices.

The book is dedicated to the "Darrens" of the world, and I think that's so appropriate. Darren is someone who's a jock, but also gay, or maybe just different than what society says a jock should be. He's someone who's still a child but facing adult dilemmas. Even though his popularity should make him feel comfortable anywhere, he feels out of place in every crowd. He's an under-represented type of kid, and though his situation may sound less significant than the heartache of others, Oates is able to breathe life into his experience and prove that it deserves to be highlighted.

Certainly I knew some Darrens in high school, though I didn't realize it until much later. Some confided to me about their feelings through tears and years of pent up anger. In many ways, it must've been much harder for them. To be popular for one thing, but feel different on the inside requires much more acting, repression, and self-loathing than to be unpopular and embrace it. Sexy explores this situation better than anything I've read, and certainly fish out of water stories have been done a zillion times before. She succeeds by focusing on a specific type of high school dilemma, even when she could have taken it in a more theatrical direction. It's a quiet drama, but it sizzles like a live wire.

I can't say how well it holds up. I read it nearly 10 years ago and culture has shifted a lot. I've also been out of high school long enough to not know if Darrens still exist. I'd be shocked if they didn't. There's probably more acceptance now for jocks to be gay, or express emotion that's not hyper-masculine, but at the same time we're still calling them 'jocks' and thus cramming their wide-ranging personalities into a box.

Anyway, the fact that this YA book has remained in my consciousness for 10 years must prove something. If nothing else, it's certainly an excellent discussion starter. Recommended!

[April · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found it a)disturbing, and b)insulting to me as a teacher that our culture is so preoccupied (one might say obsessed) with the notion of teachers as pedophiles in such an exaggerated and sensationalized way. Add to both these factors that the book is poorly written, the characters poorly developed and unrealistic, and the plot and ending contrived and you have one of the most over-rated books (by an equally overrated author) I have ever read.

[Sibel Gandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kitabı bitirdiğimde aklimdaki tek şey "bu neydi şimdi" oldu.

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

Une telle notation mérite des arguments :
1) je n’ai pas compris le but de l’histoire. Quelle était elle ? Qu’est-ce que l’on cherchait ? Pourquoi faire ?
2) des personnages assez nazes et inutiles. Le narrateur n’a pas de personnalité on dirait juste une grosse victime
3)quel rapport avec le titre ? Je n’y ai pas vu de correspondance avec l’intrigue (qu’il n’y a pas MDR)
4) le style est pauvre et nul, mon frère aurait pu l’écrire en fait
5)aucune réflexion de m’est venue pendant ma lecture
6)même pas divertissant puisqu’il ne se passe rien
7) irréel (jamais ça se passe comme ça dans la vraie vie)
Voilà, après, peut-être qu’il y avait des choses à comprendre mais bon… même Nietzsche il est plus clair 💁‍♀️

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first book by Joyce Carol Oates, Sexy is a rather minor work marketed toward the YA crowd while retaining themes that are relevant to adult readers, such as the dangers of groupthink and peer pressure.

Darren Flynn is a popular teenager: he is good at sports, and he is attractive. He also feels awkward in his own skin; he does not make the best grades. A chance encounter with one of his teachers changes Darren’s life forever, and not for the better — it is because of this event that Darren, and the rest of the town in which he resides, will have to come to terms with themselves and their morality.

This book is written in a minimalist fashion, almost reminding me of Hemingway . . . if Hemingway had written for teens. That means not a word is wasted, but it also means I could not get close to any of the characters. Especially Darren. I knew of him, but I never felt like I got to know him. Same for his friends and family, all who were rather underdeveloped.

As well, there is a plot hole that just can’t be denied: at one point, photos cut out from magazines are believed to be Polaroid photos. This is crucial to the events in the book — to say more would be spoiling things. I’m sorry, that just didn’t work for me. No one in their right mind, especially the person this trick is pulled on, would believe such an obvious falsehood.

Overall, I had a good time with this book and am eager to jump into the adult releases by this author. She has been publishing since 1963, so I am a little intimidated!

[Jessi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't particularly thrilled with this one. The title seemed a forced fit with the actual story, and seemed somewhat inappropriate for the age range, without offering a very clear message to the reader. In my opinion, it moved quickly, but failed to fully develop into a fully entertaining work.

[Kyle C · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this was a horrendous novella. Darren is a handsome high-school athlete, a shy mediocre student who can coast on his attractiveness, earning popularity and average grades by the simple virtue of his physical appeal. One day, he is stranded after practice and his flamboyant, "feminate" English teacher, Mr Tracy, offers to drive him home. Nothing sinister happens, except that Mr Tracy asks Darren to call him by his first name "Lowell" and this casualness immediately makes Darren uncomfortable. At practice, Darren's swim team all complain about Mr Tracy, his tough grades, his bias against jocks and his preference for girls, and they hatch a plan to frame him as a pedophile. Darren doesn't participate directly in the scheme but he also doesn't try to stop it. He is awkward around girls, aloof from the rest of the class and self-conscious about his looks; he is terrified of being seen as gay (it's never made clear whether he is or isn't) and so he effects a facade of sullen indifference to everyone. He allows himself to be caught up in homophobic violence and he does nothing to help Mr Tracy, the man whose only sin was to be overfamiliar with him.

If that were the whole novel, I could have enjoyed it, an examination of the dynamics of homophobic prejudice and toxic masculinity, but I hated the way the novel played into the ubiquitous fear of predatory gay men, groomers, pedophile teachers preying on innocent boys, perhaps trying to convert them. Mr Tracy, in the end, is not simply some innocent victim of grade-grubbing, homophobic meat-heads. Mr Tracy, the beguiling English teacher, the tough grader who dispensed Ds and Fs with delight and fanfare, takes pictures of the boys in their speedos at swimming carnivals, and, even if his conduct isn't criminal, it is definitely creepy. I dislike these kinds of stories because, instead of refuting the paranoid ravings of homophobes like Anita Bryant, they give some narrative plausibility (how many novels and plays are there like this about gay English teachers? Just for example: Alan Bennett's "History Boys" and Jonathon's Galassi's more recent "School Days"). Why are these stories over-represented in gay literature? Why would a publisher promote this kind of book to young audiences? I don't think novels have to constantly present good characters and good representation, but this kind of story is too pervasive and too pernicious.

[Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any book that a teen can read is a teen book. Treating this as a teen book is both radical and lame. Rad cause it is honest and straightforward without the all too typical patronizing teen-speak, but lame because well, yeah, what the hell is a teen book? Yes, it deals with high school, yes it deals with teens, but so do lots of books. I suppose it´s all how it´s marketed and if it motivates school libraries to shelve this, it is one not ridiculous teen book, typically housed on cobwebbed high school library shelves. As usual Oates is at full throttle, never beyond the scope of her points, never tangendential, and her hallmark stark prose is as visible as ever.

Also, I´d like to note that I am both a teacher and a homosexual. And though I have never been accused of child-molestation directly, it is not something I don´t worry about, like who will think what if they knew I were gay, will the parents feel comfortable, or will the children be able to get it, or continue to learn from me..., and so on.

My 12th form students asked me if I were, and I got out a yeah, and was met with none of the nightmare situations one could dream of, but I was nervous about the repercussions, not only for the above reasons, but for the questions "will I lose my job?" "will this end my career in education?" and well it didn´t. and it was a good educational and personal decision in the long run, as the two cannot and should not be separated, it is conservative rhetoric that does no one any good, because keeping kids in the dark about who we are, is the same false, patronizing bullshit that teens find so contemptuous about adults, and this alas prevents dialogue.

Yet this behavior is perpetuated through fear. And this breeds the kind of bullshit situations like false molestation accusations, ongoing homophobia, gay teen suicides, and really annoying myopic opinions which don´t just end in high school, but are carried into adulthood and manifest into discrimination, abuse, murder, all perpetuated because we are too shy to ask, or too scared to tell or talk candidly with our teenagers as teachers or as parents.

So, yeah, I give this book 5 stars for not being ridiculous material for teens about gay discrimination, for handling teen-sex maturely and unflinchingly, and raising questions about an infuriatingly taboo topic.

[Elisa David · Rating 3 out of 5]

(spoiler)

Non so bene cosa pensare di questo libro: ho apprezzato la lettura ma non posso ignorare alcune critiche (anche feroci) che ho letto. Se il tema dell'omofobia è ovvio e permea l'intera narrazione, ho notato comunque una certa ambiguità sul personaggio del professor Tracy. Le accuse di molestia erano false: ma l'uomo ha comunque scattato fotografie a un suo studente minorenne in piscina, e si è comunque comportato in maniera inappropriata approfittando della sua posizione di potere e influenza rispetto agli alunni. Inoltre, nell'ultima mail che Tracy scrive a Darren, è presente una sorta di mezza confessione su quello che Tracy avrebbe "provato" per Darren, specificando di non aver mai agito per soddisfare questi suoi desideri. La morte di Tracy lascia tutto in sospeso: questa sua "propensione" per gli atleti (studenti minorenni) non verrà mai sviscerata del tutto.

Tracy si meritava, dunque, le accuse false di pedofilia? Ovviamente no. Ma non è un santo, e il fatto che Darren ne celebri la memoria, alla fine, come se fosse un assoluto innocente vittima del sistema E BASTA, è da ricollegare al fatto che la prospettiva è quella di un ragazzo di 16 anni cresciuto in un contesto fortemente problematico, omofobo, dove la violenza non solo è tollerata ma incoraggiata dal suo stesso padre, un ragazzo quindi che per forza di cose vede la situazione in bianco e nero. Ma Darren fino a poche pagine prima si era sentito effettivamente a disagio per via delle attenzioni del professore, un disagio da subito soffocato dall'omofobia interiorizzata e quindi tradotto nella paura di essere bollato come gay.

Tutto sommato, penso che la confusione e l'assenza di un finale soddisfacente siano in linea con la nebulosità della vicenda raccontata. È una storia che parla di omofobia, di oggettificazione del corpo maschile, e che in qualche modo restituisce bene (almeno secondo me) l'impossibilità di trattare e parlare di certi argomenti in maniera chiara e cristallina, considerando che spesso si tratta di una zona grigia dove nessuno è santo e nessuno è peccatore.

[Mary Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspective. Narrator is a popular high school boy, uncomfortable with his emerging "sexiness." There's a scandal involving his gay English teacher and JCO does a masterful job of slipping the reader under the protag's skin, which at times is a very uncomfortable place to be.

[Antoine BRIEND · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bien écrit, personnage touchant et attachant, on aimerait bien lire une suite !

[Scrittevolmente · Rating 1 out of 5]

Joyce Carol Oates viene considerata una delle più grandi autrici del nostro tempo. Io dico che se tutte le sue opere sono come Sexy, c’è da chiedersi cosa si siano fumati quelli che hanno fomentato queste voci.
L’unico aggettivo con cui sento esprimere appieno quello che provo verso questo romanzo è: vergognoso.
La narrazione dipinge Darren come un ragazzino chiuso in se stesso, con bel fisico e un gran nuotatore, quello che però non afferma mai in modo chiaro e conciso è che è un omofobo in tutto e per tutto.
La sua mente è un unico pregiudizio contro il professore con la sciarpa e gli atteggiamenti un poco femminili, lo rifugge, non vuole nemmeno guardarlo in faccia né rimanere solo in aula con lui, perché? Perché così dicono che bisogna fare, perché gira voce che sia gay, che sia un pervertito.
E dopo che il suddetto pervertito gli ha offerto un passaggio in auto, Darren non fa altro che essere preda del continuo terrore che gli altri lo cataloghino come omosessuale, è la sua onta, diventa il suo chiodo fisso, non se lo leva dalla testa, tutti sparlano di lui perché l’hanno visto sulla sua auto, e ovviamente Darren – povera stella eterosessuale! – si sente ferito nel profondo per essere additato come uno di quegli schifosi.
Arriva il giorno in alcuni ragazzi – teste di cazzo aggiungo io – iniziano a diffondere false voci che il professore li abbia molestati, così l’unica cosa che rimane da fare all’uomo è chiedere aiuto a Darren, pregarlo di dire la verità, che in realtà non si è mai permesso di mettere le mani addosso a nessuno studente. E Darren? Darren cancella tutte le mail senza muovere un dito, giustificandosi con Non sono affari miei.
Poi il professore muore, in un incidente stradale.

Per leggere la recensione per intero: QUI

[Amoena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Badly written and lame.

[Jesten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, though it had one of the most abrupt endings I have ever seen. I really felt for Darren, who was clearly very confused and uncomfortable in his own skin. The situation with Mr. Tracy left me with just as conflicted feelings as Darren’s, as I know it can be confusing and difficult to react when people make you highly uncomfortable, but don’t actually touch you (making it seem that they may not have actually done anything wrong). I thought this book was really thought-provoking.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très bien écrit, autour d’une histoire qui tient bien en haleine et ne laisse pas indifférent. L’écriture laisse place à beaucoup d’imagination et d’interprétation. J’en ressors un peu perturbé, avec beaucoup d’interrogations, et c’est aussi ça qui en fait, je pense, une réussite.

[Floflyy · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'écriture m'a un peu rebuté et dérouté. Bien qu'étant classé en Young Adult, j'en attendais un peu plus de la part de Joyce Carol Oates dont le talent n'est plus à prouver.

Concernant le sujet de la pression des pairs, je trouve par exemple le sujet bien mieux abordé et plus impactant dans La Vague. Sinon l'intrigue est menée bizarrement jusqu'à un point de rupture et une conclusion très déceptive.

L'économie de mot et le style très froid ne permettent pas vraiment l'attachement aux personnages et j'imagine mal comment des ados peuvent donc s'identifier au roman.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is interesting, in some ways I liked it and in others i hated it. As a teenager myself i have to say I'm very insulted by the way she depicts the characters, most teenagers are nothing like that. She made the characters very unrealistic and unrelatable. I did like the way that she left the end open and unanswered, so you can use your imagination to create a ending. I saw that many people in the reviews found the book confusing and had to read in multiple times to understand, they didn't understand how any of it was related and none of the questions were answered, the author did this on purpose, your supposed to read between the lines and decide for yourself whether Mr. Tracy's a pedophile or if Darren is gay which is one of the aspects of the book I found interesting. Over all I don't think this book is that good, mostly due to the writing, and i doubt I will read anything else by this author.

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting...Joyce Carol Oates for the teen set. Who knew? I found some of the details and plot lines to be a bit predictable or stereotypical. A teacher, (effeminate aka might be gay-that's new) is accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior with some young boys/men (again new concept and for the record there is a difference between being gay and being a pedophile, a big difference). Eventually we learn something did happen between him and the teacher. The twist is the reader knows all the accusations are not true, we just aren't sure what is true. Without explicitly reading it in the text we get the feeling the student is conflicted about his sexuality, though the books ends on a strange note with the student engaged in a explicit scene with an older college woman. The target audience for this book is high school kids but I think I'd rather have them read Foxfire.

[Julie N · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the beginning this book was on my nerves. In an early passage the teenage protagonist states that when he is on the diving board at competitions he can feel the eyes of men in his community looking at him and admiring his body. As the book continues we learn that this is a small town (8300 pop.) with apparently rampant homophobia. And yet there are multiple pedophiles in town checking out teenage boys at swimming events? Seriously? It also rankled me that the only actual homosexual character in the book was a male teacher who put the moves on a student. The book was readable, but completely unbelievable. The ending was disastrous. Yuck. I like JCO's short stories, but I'm not so sure about her YA books after this one.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book went in a different direction than I expected based on the flap copy. It offers a unique take on uncomfortable, upsetting subject manner. I found Darren Flynn a believable and sympathetic narrator in spite of his flaws. It's amazing how well Joyce Carol Oates captures a teen boy's voice.

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good quote: "It was all invented, wasn't it? People saw on others what they wanted to see, not what was there."
(page 184)

[Em Chainey (Bookowski) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonunun doğru düzgün bir yere bağlanmaması sebebiyle sinir etti :(

Oates'in takipçisi olacağım.

[Jocelyn Mae · Rating 1 out of 5]

“They all liked him. They liked the boy they believed he was.”

I found this at a thrift store and bought it because I’m doing an author study for my lit class and she happened to be one of the authors. I’ve read many of her short stories so I knew what I was getting myself into, however this book in particular grossed me out (more than just the surface level stuff). I understand that this was written in a different time, and homosexuality wasn’t as prevalent. But writing a book that explicitly shows an adult man being accused of preying on his students (particularly the male ones) is just derogatory. Especially when looking at her other books which are all heteronormative.
I understand that this is supposed to show the way people often read too much into teachers and the relationships they hold with their students and how a rumor as such could ruin a person’s life. However it is extremely inappropriate for a teacher to offer their STUDENT a drive home and stop for coffee on the way. Use your head.
The author in the first place I believe is extremely overrated and talked about more than she deserves. Her writing drags and all her novels are essentially the same story over and over. She states in many interviews that all her characters are very different from one another, but I cannot help see them as the same person because they all are predictable and body the same traits.
Dont waste your time with this read or this author.

[Sarah Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting perspective.

Darren is popular and attractive, but never fully feels like he belongs, in any group, or even how to be his true self. He experiences a moment with his history teacher, and after realizing the awkward flirtation his teacher displays, he separates himself from the situation. Feeling disgusted by it. But, we also get what he hears about homosexuality, basically pedophilia, and it affects how he reacts. Meanwhile a scandal blows up against said teacher by kids playing a horrid joke, and Darren wants to help but feels helpless in actually helping. Is Darren having issues with his own sexuality? Does he see in the teacher a bit of himself, and what he thinks he doesn’t want to be?

An interesting little character study.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Knapp 2:a. Trodde Oates var en rimlig författare men det här var någon snabbt ihopkrafsad high school-film.
Själva storyn (som inte heller känns unik) lämnades lite därhän.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der 11-Klässler Darren ist durchtrainiert, sexy und ein guter Kumpel. Dass er als muskulöser Schwimmer auf andere sexy wirkt, scheint ihm nicht bewusst zu sein. Darren bekommt im Englisch-Unterricht trotz mittelmäßiger Leistungen einen Sportler-Bonus. Das Interesse seines Lehrers Mr. Tracey an seiner Person ist Darren peinlich. Oberpeinlich findet er auch das Gespräch über Homosexualität, das ihm sein Vater aufnötigt. Warum hat Vater Flynn sich um Darrens älteren Bruder Eddy im gleichen Alter weniger gesorgt als jetzt um Darren?
Darrens Clique hat ein Problem mit Homosexuellen. Wer schwul aussieht, wird zusammen geschlagen. Für keinen aus der Clique gibt es einen Sportler-Bonus im Englisch-Unterricht. Um es Mr. Tracey zu zeigen, denunzieren die anderen ihn wegen Kindesmissbrauchs. Darren weiß, dass der Englischlehrer nur aufdringlich ist. Nur Darren kann Tracey entlasten. Die Situation gerät außer Kontrolle, die Polizei ermittelt, Darren schweigt. Darrens Verhör bei der Polizei zeigt beklemmend, wie Zeugen unter Druck nur die peinliche Situation hinter sich bringen wollen. Die Wahrheit oder die Gerechtigkeit bleibt auf der Strecke.

Joyce Carol Oates hat das überzeugende Porträt eines Jugendlichen geschrieben, der hin und her gerissen zwischen Loyalität und Aufrichtigkeit nichts gegen den Rufmord an seinem Lehrer unternimmt.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Swim your heart out! What else do you have?"

I haven't read much Joyce Carol Oates but I was disappointed with how this book was written.

While I understand it's in the YA category I found there to be very little depth to this story. The title felt forced and even the writing in this book was choppy and full of fluff. I get we're supposed to feel that Darren is torn but I never felt like he felt bad. We don't see him doing anything to right the wrong, we don't see him doing anything to fix anything, or to show that he regrets not doing anything. We get a lot of one word sentences and a very superficial teenage boy who has no growth in this story and nothing has changed except there's a tragedy.

Especially considering the gravity of this book - covering pedophilia and homophobia - very little of it is actually addressed in any real way. If anything this book seems to imply that gay people are more likely to be pedophiles which is absurd. I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book but there's no resolution, no growth, and no redeemable characters.

[Géraldine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Son œuvre est inégale mais celui-ci est sympathique. Un peu psycho. Le personnage principal est un adolescent très beau qui le gère mal, d'autant plus qu'un de ses profs s'intéresse à lui pour des raisons peut-être pas nettes. Celui-ci se retrouve bientôt accusé de pédophilie par des élèves en punition de sa sévérité. Thème assez actuel. Livre péché (on ne s'étonnera pas) chez Incoldblog.

_____

Relu avec autant de plaisir. Vraiment un bon roman. Dommage que tous les livres de Oates ne soient pas de ce niveau.

[Brown Girl Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good looking. Fine. Cute. Hunky. Sexy. Hot. The word sexy can best be defined as being sexually suggestive, stimulating, or appealing. However equivocal the word, since it can be used to describe how one feels and how one is perceived, that is the main focal point of the Young Adult novel by Joyce Carol Oates. The novel begins with an intriguing first line which sucked me in immediately...
http://didibooksenglish.wordpress.com...

[Megan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected nothing less from a Joyce Carol Oates young adult book - a vivid main character dealing with difficult yet realistic high school male issues, with an ambiguous ending. Being a high school English teacher, I feel as though Oates had nailed this character and his dilemmas perfectly. Quick, engaging read.