How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"There isn't really a gay scene or a straight scene in our town. They got all mixed up a while back, which I think is for the best." (1.3)
If this is the case, what are Tony's parents doing there? Does their presence imply that the whole world—or at least the whole United States—has become as accepting as Paul's town?
Quote #2
"At first, I thought it was a strange kind of foreplay, but then I realized their grunts were actually insults—queer, f*****, the usual. I wasn't about to take such verbal abuse from strangers – only Joni was allowed to speak to me that way." (2.57)
One thing about Americans that baffles many foreigners is that we show friendship by insulting each other.
Quote #3
He didn't use the word gay and I didn't need him to. It was understood.
If you meet a guy over a search for not one but three David Leavitt books, it's a pretty safe bet.
Quote #4
I wonder what feeling bad means in this particular situation. I can't imagine it's the same feeling bad as when you lend your boyfriend your favorite ultra-comfortable sweater and then find him wearing it as he says that the only feeling he can muster toward you is annoyance, and then wearing it again a week later as he walks past you in the halls, pretending you don't exist as he flirts with the one girl who had been after him the whole time you'd been going out. (9.17)
Meryn Cadell has a heartbreaking high school sweater song, appropriately called "The Sweater." She wears her crush's knitwear to school, playing it cool, only to "get a note passed to [her] by a girl in History that says 'He needs that sweater back. He forgot you put it on in the tent on Saturday and he's been looking for it.'
Ouch.
Quote #5
We hold hands as we walk through town. If anybody notices, nobody cares. I know we all like to think of the heart as the center of the body, but at this moment, every conscious part of me is in the hand that he holds. (10.61)
Think of all the hands you touch in your lifetime. Now think of the rare hands you touch that make you feel like this.
Quote #6
To our left, a posse of Joy Scouts takes guitar lessons from a retired monk. (We used to have a troop of Boy Scouts, but when the Boy Scouts decided gays had no place in their ranks, our scouts decided the organization had no place in our town; they changed their name and continued on). (10.62)
What does it say about gender roles in Paul's town that boys are willing to participate in an organization called Joy Scouts? And does this passage imply that most towns are not like Paul's?
Quote #7
"So you dump me. You badmouth me. Then a couple of weeks later you're in the halls playing tonsil hockey with Mary Anne McAllister, telling everyone that I'd tricked you into liking guys. Now what? It didn't work with Mary Anne or Cyndi or Joanne or whoever else, so you've decided to come back to my side again?" (12.27)
Even Paul gives Kyle a bit of (unintended?) pressure about his sexuality, implying that the "other side" didn't work for him, so now he can finally accept that he's gay.
Quote #8
I know some people think liking both girls and guys is a cop-out. Some of Infinite Darlene's biggest rivals save their deepest scorn for the people they call "dabblers." But I think they're totally full of garbage. I don't see why, if I'm wired to like guys, someone else can't be wired to like both girls and guys. (12.57)
How does this passage contradict Paul's statement in the previous quote?
Quote #9
Kyle could take lessons from Jasmine—she'll fall for anybody, guy or girl. The hitch is that the person has to be on the rebound from a serious break-up. Something about this fragile-yet-vindictive state entrances her. (13.37)
What could make someone choose partners who have recently gone through a breakup? Isn't that just setting yourself up for disappointment?
Quote #10
He is shuddering and shaking and gasping. He has kept all this white noise inside him, and now some of it is coming out. His face is newborn raw, his arms wrap around his body. I move over to him and hug him tight. I tell him that he's brave. (24.76)
Paul's description of Tony's face as "newborn raw" could be taken in two ways. The more literal interpretation is that he's crying as hard as a newborn, so his face is the same shade of red, but the figurative reading is that the relief on Tony's face is so visible it's like he's shed his skin.