The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Educating Simon
By Robin Reardon
Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2014
ISBN: 9780758284761
Five stars

So, the second Robin Reardon book to which I’ve given five stars, and not just because of the adorable redhead on the cover, whom I assume is Simon Fitzroy-Hunt, the protagonist and narrator for this novel-as-journal.

What I love most about this book is Reardon’s clean writing style and her grasp of detail. That’s crucial here because she throws a lot of detail into this teen-angst-coming-of-age story. There’s the Big Plot (16-year-old torn from the London he loves and moved to Boston he hates); and then the various sub-plots (autistic stepsister, transgender adolescent, closeted college boy, burgeoning sex life). It’s a lot to manage, and Reardon handles it more that deftly – she orchestrates it into something rather powerful and, ultimately, transformative for the reader (at least this one).

Most interesting is that, other than being beautiful, Simon is a schmuck. But in some ways he’s no worse than most sixteen-year-old boys. The real oddity is that he’s preternaturally smart, and determined to go to Oxford. He’s also torn up, understandably, about the sudden death of his father a few years back. In fact, Simon is a hot mess, even more than we are given to understand from his surface anger at the forced move to Boston. All of this is woven into the different subplots as Simon’s education, intellectual and emotional, moves forward.

There are a lot of important characters in this book besides Simon. His mother, Emma; his stepfather Brian, the family’s chef, Ned; the child Simon is tutoring, Toby…and more. This is a rich array of interesting, complex people, and each one of them becomes a counterpoint to Simon’s shifting persona.

Another thing that appealed to me very much is that Simon and his family are rich. And this is handled matter-of-factly, rather than turned into something that either makes them special or implies that they’re nasty. Simon’s financial privilege is the background for his difficult character, and while it is not ignored, it isn’t turned into any sort of focus for the plot.

There is probably a little too much sexual activity in this book for a YA “rating,” although as far as I can say (again, I’ve got two kids), it’s the kind of book I’d want my high school student to read. They know all about sex, believe me. But they don’t always know about moral strength.

So far, Robin Reardon seems to focus her books on the question: how can one be a good person? That’s a much more difficult question than one might think.