The Vast Fields of Ordinary
by Nick Burd
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nick BurdEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2009-05-14
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 309
Publisher: Dial
Book Reviews of The Vast Fields of Ordinary
Book Review: Can a book warm your heart and break it at the same time?
Summary: 5 Stars
This book opened with an epigram by e.e. cummings:
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
When I read that, I eagerly anticipated the actual story even more. And Nick Burd did not disappoint. I read this entire 309-page book in a few hours and was very sad when it was finished because it resonated with me so much.
It's the last summer before college for Dade Hamilton. He cannot wait to leave his stifling hometown and his parents' disintegrating marriage for what he imagines will be the idyll of college. Plus there's the matter of his sort-of boyfriend not wanting to acknowledge his existence most of the time, and a misfit from high school spread a rumor that Dade put the moves on her at a party. And then Dade meets Alex, the "dreamy loser" who makes him realize that he is worthy of being loved and living the life he wants to.
Nick Burd accurately captures the post-high school angst of his characters, the conflicts they have with wanting to fit in and be "normal" as well as wanting to live their lives the way they want. Dade is a complex character and Burd allows him and those around him to be both appealing and flawed. What I liked so much about the book is that Burd wasn't willing just to tie everything up with a neat bow at the end.
I don't read a lot of YA fiction but this, along with Peter Cameron's Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, are two remarkable books worth reading.
Summary of The Vast Fields of Ordinary
It?s Dade?s last summer at home. He has a crappy job at Food World, a ?boyfriend? who won?t publicly acknowledge his existence (maybe because Pablo also has a girlfriend), and parents on the verge of a divorce. College is Dade?s shining beacon of possibility, a horizon to keep him from floating away.Then he meets the mysterious Alex Kincaid. Falling in real love finally lets Dade come out of the closet?and, ironically, ignites a ruthless passion in Pablo. But just when true happiness has set in, tragedy shatters the dreamy curtain of summer, and Dade will use every ounce of strength he?s gained to break from his past and start fresh with the future.
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