An Inclusive Reality: My Most Excellent Year

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger is a refreshing read, a feel good story narrated in an engaging manner, guaranteed to elicit some laughs. Told through a series of journal entries, e-mails, and letters, the novel follows the lives of three high school students: the avid and obsessive Red Sox fan T.C., his "brother" Augie who has a flare for live theatre, and new student and daughter of the Mexican ambassador Alejandra. Each member of this eclectic trio relates the events of his/her freshman year as they deal with first loves, following dreams, and expanding the notion of family.

This novel is truly a breath of fresh air after reading so many novels dealing with the dark side of humanity and the screwed up lives of teens. The novel presents an alternate picture of high school reality, one in which students basically get along and teens have good relationships with their parents. It also presents a picture of what an inclusive society might look like. The novel blurs boundaries. T.C. and Augie are recognized by all as brothers as the two merged their families. However, the two are not biologically brothers. T.C. is white and the son of Pop while Augie is Asian and the son of Mom and Dad. Yet, the two families are for all purposes one. They do holidays together and vacations, and each boy has a bed and wardrobe at each house. Later in the novel, T.C. befriends a 6-year-old deaf child who gradually melts into the family also. Furthermore, Augie is gay and no one cares. His father at one point states, "Has this generation finally made [the I'm gay conversation] superfluous?" In our society, not yet. But in My Most Excellent Year, Augie is gay without the stereotyping or the angst often caused by other people's negative reactions. Everyone already knew anyway and he is able to be himself. He can still excel at soccer, swimming, and lacross and run the school musical. He is not ostracized from the jock world simply because of his sexual preference.

Kluger presents a picture of what an inclusive reality that accepts people and that is not defined over and against the other but rather alongside the diversity could look like with out falling into mere idealism. The novel is not naive. It merely suggests that superficial differences that often create pain and difficulty for those who are often seen as outcasts or odd need not be an unchangeable reality. A little open-mindedness and willingness to accept people as they are, to revel in the diversity, has enormous consequences on inter-personal relationships and, hopefully, on society as a whole.

If you want of taste of Steve Kluger as an author, check out his website at http://www.stevekluger.com/index.html. It will give you a taste of what this book is like.