Doing It by Melvin Burgess

It would seem like all cult favorite teen shows, like My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks, kick the bucket after their first season. ABC’s Life as We Know It succumbed to the same fate, but fans of the series will always have the book the show was based on to enjoy. Doing It by Melvin Burgess follows the lives of three teenage boys who happen to be focused on one thing: sex. British author Burgess creates likeable characters in pretty boy Dino, serious and shy Ben, and neurotic Jonathan. It would seem like sex is the only thing on their minds, but readers soon learn that these young men have much more than that to worry about.

Adolescent male readers will rejoice in characters they can relate to and will enjoy reading about; adolescent female readers will love delving into the male psyche to find out what they are really like on the inside. Dino is a good-looking lothario who seems like he is only trying to get his girlfriend Jackie to sleep with him, Jackie being the only girl at their school that is his equal, and therefore who he wants to lose his virginity to. He comes off shallow, but his true colors appear once his parents begin divorce proceedings and he really just needs good friends. Enter Ben and Jonathan, what the British would call his true mates, who have their own problems that they aren’t as willing to talk about. Ben thinks he is living every schoolboy’s fantasy with his affair with a teacher, but discovers the reality of the situation is scary, and ultimately sad. Jonathan is terrified of what people will say if he starts dating the school’s “fat girl” Deborah, but happens to be completely enamored by her. While Jonathan and Deborah’s relationship progresses, so does Jonathan’s neurosis that there might be something wrong with him down below.

While the novel tends to focus mostly on Dino, Ben & Jonathan, Burgess also presents the point of view of the women in their lives: indecisive Jackie, warm-hearted Deborah, intolerant Sue and disingenuous Zoë. The girls’ outlook on the boys only enforces how spectacularly off base both sexes are about each other. Burgess creates a fresh, funny and sometimes raunchy outlook on the adolescent world. Teens will not only enjoy following the lives of these young men, but also relish in the aspects of British culture that permeate the novel. To an American teen, Burgess’ Britain would seem like a different world at first, but they will soon find out they have more in common with these teens across the ocean than they originally may have thought.

Regarded as the “Godfather of young adult fiction,” Burgess has won several awards: Junk was awarded a Carnegie Medal, Bloodtide won The Lancashire Children’s Book Award, and Doing It received the LA Times Best Young Adult Book of the Year award. As Doing It proves, Burgess has created a reputation for writing quality young adult fiction that pushes boundaries and isn’t shy about presenting what teens are really going through.

[Photo: barnesandnoble.com]