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The Music of What Happens Kindle Edition
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherArthur A. Levine Books
- Publication dateFebruary 26, 2019
- Reading age14 years and up
- Grade level9 - 12
- File size11800 KB
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About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Product details
- ASIN : B07CNJCT3G
- Publisher : Arthur A. Levine Books (February 26, 2019)
- Publication date : February 26, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 11800 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 357 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #500,874 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Bill Konigsberg was born in 1970 in New York City. Expectations were high from birth -- at least in terms of athletics. His parents figured he'd be a great soccer player, based on his spirited kicking from inside the womb. As it turned out, the highlight of his soccer career was at Camp Greylock in 1978, when he was chosen for the Camp's "D" team. There were only four levels. Bill played alongside the likes of the kid who always showered alone, the chronic nosebleeder and the guy with recurrent poison ivy.
A B- student and adequate junior varsity athlete throughout high school, Bill was voted Most Likely to Avoid Doing Any Real Work In His Life by a panel of his disinterested peers. He proved them wrong with a series of strange-but-true jobs in his 20s - driver recruiter for a truck driving school, sales consultant for a phone company, and temp at Otis Elevators.
He worked at ESPN and ESPN.com from 1999-2002, where he developed a penchant for sharing too much information about himself. That character flaw earned him a GLAAD Media Award in 2002, for his column "Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays."
As a sports writer and editor for The Associated Press in New York from 2005-08, Bill once called his husband, who was at the time working a desk job, from the New York Mets dugout before a game. "I'm so bored," Bill whined. He slept on the couch for a week.
He wrote a novel called Audibles at Arizona State, and sold that novel to Penguin in 2007. His editor asked him to change the title so that it would appeal to people other than "football players who read." The resulting novel, Out of the Pocket, received strong reviews from his mother, father, significant other and one girl who had a crush on him in high school. It won the Lambda Literary Award in 2009.
His second novel, Openly Straight, hit the bookshelves in late May of 2013. He describes the novel as "Twilight-like, only without vampires and wolves and angsty teenage girls. Also, set in an all-boys boarding school in Massachusetts. Otherwise, it's like an exact replica." That novel won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, which made him an unbearable dinner companion for months thereafter.
His third novel, The Porcupine of Truth, was released in May of 2015. He chose to put a porcupine in the title because this is America, and no one here knows what a platypus is. The novel won the Stonewall Book Award and PEN Center USA Literary Award.
Next came Honestly Ben, a companion book to Openly Straight. He wrote it so people would stop yelling at him about Openly Straight's ending. Honestly Ben received three starred reviews and made lots of people swoon over Ben some more, which irks Bill to no end as Ben is loosely based on his husband, Chuck. No one seems to swoon over Rafe, who is loosely based on Bill. Harrumph, says Bill.
The Music of What Happens arrived in February of 2019. The Bridge came in September of 2020. Both of these novels are so Konigsbergian that someone other than him used the term "Konigsbergian" to describe them.
Destination Unknown followed in 2022. The novel was named after a song that hit number 42 in 1982. Close to the Top 40, but not quite. That song will now forever be associated with Bill Konigsberg. That seems just about right.
Bill currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Arizona is becoming known by some as "Desert Florida" because of its political looniness. Bill would like people to know that this is not his fault and that he loves Phoenix anyway. He has a husband who is clearly too good for him, and two Labradoodles, Mabel and Buford, who complete him.
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Top reviews from the United States
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It’s nice to see a book where characters feel real and conflict doesn’t feel forced for stories sake.
Spoilers ahead!!!
The fact that they touch on the topics they do and how they handle them was wonderful. It didn’t feel like an after school special nor was it just glossed over.
Another thing I liked was how Max mentioned his Amigos will say stuff and crack jokes that bother him but he shrugs them off. I can really relate, my straight friends and coworkers always crack jokes about how me and my BF must always be getting it on, as if us being gay makes us sex fiends. Then there is the Gaybff stereotype being addressed…
It’s nice to see these topics presented and shown as well as the author did. Sure they are small and seem harmless but the author did a great job of portraying that they do hurt. Same with friendly razzing like with the scene where the other amigos open up we find out even joking about someone being dumb… even if they act like it doesn’t bother them… sometimes it gets to them.
All in all this is a great read that covered some great topics. I would love for part 2 that shows what happens next but at the same time the story ended well and felt complete so I can be content if there is no more to be told.
Both boys are very different but little by little they get to know each other and become friends. Then they become more. But nothing in life is that simple and reality hits with punches that keep knocking them down. Luckily, they have eachother.
This book was good. Not only does it tell a cute love story of boys defying the odds but it bridges tougher topics like rape, race, and mental health. (There are definitely some triggering moments, so read with caution.) While the dialogue between all the friends was really over the top and annoying at times, the characters were overall likeable. I couldn't put the book down and read it in one sitting.
The classic YA trope is that Max is a jock, big and muscular, while Jordan is slender and graceful. The reversal of this trope is that both boys are out to their best friends – two other baseball players for Max, two snarky girls for Jordan. Coming out is not the issue here; coping with life is. These boys and their friends are a racially diverse crew, which allows the author to explore those realities in clever and meaningful ways through the kids’ often hilarious banter. These two triads of teenagers are miniature Greek choruses, giving Jordan and Max both sounding boards and sources for their personal pain.
The central plot arc is a grimy food truck that Jordan’s widowed mother Lydia is trying to resurrect in order to stave off losing their house. Max decides to sign on as a helper when he happens across the food truck while avoiding his mother, Rosa, who is on the warpath because of his staying out overnight the night before. Max sees working on a food truck as an escape from the tedious clerical job his mother has assigned him as punishment for his behavior; but he also is fascinated by Jordan, and hopes to get to know this creative, quiet kid better.
Parents are critical in this story, something I especially appreciate in YA fiction. That doesn’t mean that the parents are saintly or wise. Parental failure is key here, as well as parental love. Love is not a solution in this world. It is necessary, for sure, but it guarantees nothing.
Very early in the book Max narrates: “I came away realizing I had powers I didn’t know I had: I was a freakin’ warrior.” For all that this seems like an affirmation, the author and the narrative gradually bring us to the realization that this is a fallacy, a smokescreen designed to deny feelings that themselves would reveal something profoundly damaging. Both Max and Jordan are in denial, and neither one of them understands it. Being strong is what boys – even LGBT boys – are taught, and that gets in the way of self-understanding.
Jordan and Max are attracted to each other, but also see each other as alien creatures that they don’t understand and don’t know how to deal with. For much of the story, the boys circle each other, trying to figure out what they’re dealing with. This is handled charmingly and with great humor, as each boy brings his puzzlement back to his best friends for discussion and judgment. By the time any sort of overt physical interaction happens, they’ve already gone past their basic attraction to each other. I don’t mean it’s over, but that their friendship has evolved to the point where they are able to truly see each other. This, in the end, makes all the difference, and transforms Konigsberg’s book from a teen romance to a coming of age story that seems quietly Wagnerian in its emotional power.
No spoilers, but the first 80 percent of the book is the build up to a crescendo that brings both Jordan and Max’s back stories to a head. This is where the book’s title comes into play, weaving a line from a poem into a complex and poignant finale.
Jordan and his mom attempt to start running their food truck when Max happens to check the truck out. What he sees has him volunteering to help work on the truck for the summer and make it a successful business.
Now that's just a small part of the story but I hate spoilers. This book was so wonderful, that you should read it and find out for yourself what else happened. It was beautifully written. Konigsberg is one of my favorite authors for his ability to write these amazing characters that I get so caught up in. I find myself thinking about them long after the book is closed and wondering what else is happening in their lives.
I absolutely loved that Jordan and Max were there for one another during what was probably the worst days of each of their lives. If they had to go through things without one another, they may not have been able to.
I appreciate that Max immediately saw Jordan and not any of his flaws. This was a boy who thought very little of himself and Max helped him grow and change.
The parental roles were so significant in both of their lives and making them who they were. Jordan's more so than Max but Max deserved better than what he got from his father. He hid his pain thanks to his fathers influence.
As I read through this, it sounds more like a book report than a review. But to the point, I loved it and highly recommend this as well as his other books.
Top reviews from other countries
Historia: tiene una premisa muy clicle, con personajes que repiten una y otra vez lo mismo, no se ve una avance en su desarrollo. La narrativa es ágil; sin embargo los capítulos son muy similares entre si, no aportan nada a la trama y van de "problemas" que no transcienden en nada. ⭐⭐
Entretenido, pero hay mucho mejores.
Reviewed in Mexico on May 25, 2023
Historia: tiene una premisa muy clicle, con personajes que repiten una y otra vez lo mismo, no se ve una avance en su desarrollo. La narrativa es ágil; sin embargo los capítulos son muy similares entre si, no aportan nada a la trama y van de "problemas" que no transcienden en nada. ⭐⭐
Entretenido, pero hay mucho mejores.
Tem algumas partes do livro onde o autor relata violência sexual, pode gerar alguns gatilhos, não é nada muito vívido ou explícito, mas ainda assim acho importante deixar esse aviso.
Recomendo muito esse livro, um romance tranquilo e muito necessário.
Insgesamt also keine Leseempfehlung. Ich hoffe noch auf einen jungen schwulen Roman, der nicht den vollen Katalog woker Politik auf den Leser abladen will.
Les personnages sont attachants et l'histoire se lit vite et bien. Un bon moment de lecture.