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Dade that he is having an affair with a woman he met at his poetry class. As the school year ends, Dade attends a party hosted by the pretty
Jessica Montana and her awkward, less-pretty twin sister Francesca (whom everyone belittles by calling "Fessica"). Fessica attempts to seduce Dade, and Dade leaves the party. Outside, Dade meets Alex Kincaid, a 20-year-old marijuana drug dealer. It is love at first sight for Dade. Dade discovers Alex's name and where he works. He meets Alex, and under the pretense of securing some marijuana, the two teens take a trip into the countryside that evening to obtain drugs from a man named Dingo. Dade meets Dingo, an older man who grows marijuana, and members of Dingo's rock band (all of whom appear to be slackers and drug users). Dade finally feels like he is accepted by a group of 'cool' people.
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and closeted, Lucy is socially outgoing, confident, and cool. They become close friends as June turns into July. Pablo seeks out Dade for more sex, but Dade turns him down. Dade expresses that he wants a real relationship with Pablo, something Pablo is unwilling to give. In late July, Lucy and Dade use fake I.D.s to get into Cherry's, a gay bar. Dade sees Pablo there, but Pablo and Dade argue briefly and Dade leaves. After several weeks, Dade finally hears from Alex, who invites him to a party at Dingo's. They attend, and both Alex and Dade shave their heads on a whim. Later that night, Alex nonchalantly reveals he is gay; he is unconditionally accepted by Dingo and his friends. Alex and Dade kiss and Alex takes Dade home.
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barbecue before they leave for Europe. While his parents are gone, Alex stays with Dade. Alex, Jay, Lucy, and Dade spend much of their time drinking alcohol to excess, and Dade worries that Alex's late-night lifestyle is not very similar to his own. Alex convinces Dade to have a large party at the house. Dade becomes very drunk. He wakes at 5 A.M. to learns from the television news that Jenny Moore has been found. He sleeps again, and wakes to find Pablo in his room. Pablo breaks down and cries, but refuses to talk about his feelings with Dade. A terrible accident brings the novel to a sudden close and forces Dade to end his wonderful summer.
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Jenny despite the fact that he was drunk, and they try to unravel the meaning of Dade's dream. Dade also tells his parents he is gay. His father is uncertain what this means, but his mother accepts it. Alex takes Dade, Lucy, and Alex's
African American co-worker Jay to a large party hosted by Bert McGraw, a homophobe who is a friend of Pablo's. The presence of Alex, Lucy, and Jay cause Dade to be somewhat accepted by the other cool teens and jocks. Dade meets Pablo and they argue, which leads Pablo to become jealous of Alex.
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289:. For several years, Peggy has struggled with depression, and is taking a large number of antidepressants. She is increasingly alienated from her upper middle class lifestyle and family. Ned, too, is alienated from his family, and has begun taking poetry classes at a local community college. Dade is a loner whose only friend is Pablo Soto, a
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A few nights later, Alex takes Dade to his grandfather's grave where he learns more of Dade's history. This gives them a deeper connection, and they have sex on top of his grave, under the night sky. Alex and Dade continue to bond after that evening, while Pablo continues to harass Dade—seeking both
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The novel is told in the first person singular. All the narrative occurs in the present. The title comes from a line in the novel in which a young girl misquotes a line from an alternative rock band. The fictional band, Vas
Deferens, is the favorite band of the main character. One of their songs is
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found the novel "fascinating and dreamy...filled with characters who are extraordinary to a degree that the reader wants to know more, even about the most minor ones." The review praised Burd's use of language and metaphor, and called the work "the best kind of first novel—it's packed with insights
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Dade's parents reveal that they will be taking a three-week trip to Europe to try to repair their marriage. Pablo becomes increasingly desperate to be with Dade, even exposing his genitals to him at work. When Dade rejects him, Pablo spits on him. Dade introduces Alex to his parents at an awkward
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A few days later, Dade meets Lucy at a neighbor's barbecue party. Lucy is a 17-year-old lesbian from
California. She came out to her parents, who were upset with their daughter's sexual orientation. So they sent her to Cedarville to live for the summer. Where Dade is introverted, socially awkward,
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After a night of binge drinking by the family swimming pool, Dade has a dream (or possibly a hallucination) where he sees Jenny Moore, a nine-year-old girl whose disappearance has dominated the local television and radio news for weeks. Dade tells Lucy, who says she believes that Dade really saw
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The novel opens in the last days of high school, with Dade telling Pablo that he loves him. Pablo slaps him hard across the face until Dade retracts the statement. Dade is increasingly harassed at high school by jocks and by Judy
Lockhart, all of whom think he's gay. A short time later, Ned tells
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Dade
Hamilton is 18 years old and trying to enjoy the summer after his high school graduation. He has a part-time job at Food World, a local supermarket. Dade has come out gay to himself, but not anyone else. His father, Ned, sells luxury automobiles and his mother, Peggy, is an art teacher at a
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who is
Cedarville high school's star quarterback for the football team. Since they were 16 years old, Pablo and Dade have been having sex. But Pablo considers himself heterosexual, and has a girlfriend, Judy Lockhart. Pablo and Dade are friends, but Pablo doesn't spend much time with Dade and
274:: "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." The quote is taken from the essay "A Poet's Advice to Students," which appeared in the book
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A subplot in the novel involves the disappearance of nine-year-old Jenny Moore. The girl's disappearance creates tension for Peggy, Dade, Alex, and others. At times, the characters' concern for Jenny allows them to voice their own inner feelings to themselves and to others.
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as one of 11 novels for LGBTQ teens published in 2009 that had strong characters and candid writing, and concluded that it "beg to be invited into a surprising variety of classroom discussions..."
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while generally praising the novel, also criticized the work for being a "traditional coming-out-while-coming-of-age story," and found the missing-girl subplot unsatisfying. Both
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found that Burd "writes incisively about the anxiety of severing relationships and fleeing a dead-end town, a reality playing out daily across the
Midwest." The
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used in a TV commercial, and the girl misquotes the lyrics as "the vast fields of ordinary." The novel is prefaced with a quote from the poet and playwright
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sex and companionship, and verbally gay bashing him when he does not answer his text messages or cell phone calls.
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added the novel to its
Rainbow List 2010, a bibliography of young adult books which include significant gay,
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Welch, Rollie. "Nick Burd's 'The Vast Fields of
Ordinary' Is A Stand-Out Young Adult Novel This Year."
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that might have been carried around for years, just waiting to come out." Michael Cart, reviewer at
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named author Nick Burd to the "OUT 100," a list of 100 people who made important contributions to
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first published in 2009. The novel depicts the summer after high school graduation for a
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Gonzalez, Antonio. "Finalists announced for the 22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards."
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The novel depicts homosexual encounters (one review called these descriptions
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new best friend, and the two boys he is interested in dating (one a Latino
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The novel was widely reviewed, and received many positive comments.
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in the Children's and Young Adult Literature category, and was a
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appears to only see him as a provider of passive anal sex.
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by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise.
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finalist for LGBT Children's/Young Adult literature.
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listed it as one of the most notable books of 2009.
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437:Lambda Literary Foundation. March 16, 2010.
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61:Learn how and when to remove this message
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517:New York: Argophile Press, 1955, p. 13.
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16:2009 young adult gay novel by Nick Burd
553:Vizzini, Ned. "Inside the Outsiders."
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504:New York: Dial Books, 2009, p. 141.
671:Stonewall Book Award-winning works
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691:2009 LGBT-related literary works
622:Nick Burd video interview about
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203:star, the other a drug dealer).
154:Print (hardback & paperback)
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36:too long or excessively detailed
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681:LGBT-related young adult novels
483:"The OUT 100: Class of 2009."
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515:E. E. Cummings, A Miscellany.
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575:The Vast Fields of Ordinary.
502:The Vast Fields of Ordinary.
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251:On the basis of this novel,
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74:The Vast Fields of Ordinary
32:This article's plot summary
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624:The Vast Fields of Ordinary
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465:"Notable Books of 2009."
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353:School Library Journal
661:Gay male teen fiction
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224:Lambda Literary Award
676:American LGBT novels
651:2009 American novels
617:Nick Burd's Web site
447:"Rainbow List 2010."
220:Stonewall Book Award
636:PEN American Center
555:The New York Times.
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184:by American author
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686:2000s LGBTQ novels
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630:2012-10-03 at the
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329:Critical reception
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577:(Review)."
407:References
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127:Dial Books
365:Booklist,
186:Nick Burd
182:gay novel
123:Publisher
99:Nick Burd
628:Archived
581:Booklist
451:Booklist
379:See also
369:Booklist
341:Booklist
236:bisexual
228:Booklist
201:football
193:suburban
190:closeted
105:Language
356:listed
232:lesbian
197:lesbian
108:English
41:Please
34:may be
95:Author
323:PG-13
259:LGBTQ
177:is a
113:Genre
371:and
287:Iowa
160:ISBN
138:2009
487:Out
254:Out
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
