Swing

i only really like this book because i really really like jazz

Summary: A trio of high school students make their way through growing up, romance, jazz, and racism. 

As I have been reading the Harry Potter books to my kids, I have been reminded that one of the things I do not like about young adult literature is the poor decision-making of real young adults. It is not that only teens make poor decisions, but that part of being a teen is that the consequences of our decisions are opaque to us. What seems like a good idea often isn't. Still, with less experience of the world, and less capacity for communication and emotion processing, there is also less understanding of how our decisions impact others.

Swing (not a follow-up to Solo as I thought it was) is about three teens. It is primarily told through the voice of Noah, the only child of a couple who also manages a hotel. Noah's best friend is Walt, who wants to be called Swing. Swing is both obsessed with baseball and jazz. He is not very good at baseball, but he works hard and keeps practicing, trying to get onto the team as a junior. The third member of the trio is Sam, and Noah has been in love with her since the third grade but cannot tell her. Much of the book is about Noah's attempt to find a way to talk to Sam about his affection for her. Meanwhile, she is dating Cruz, the star baseball player at their high school, who is trying to pressure Sam into sex.

There is an undercurrent of jazz throughout the book, which is accented by this being a novel in poetry. This is the first poetic novel that I have read first in print. Solo and Brown Girl Dreaming I listened to in audio before going back to the print. I have not listened to the audiobook version of Swing, but this feels to me, other than missing the musical aspects of the book, like a book that should probably be read more than heard. Visually, there is a need to see the print for how the book handles conversations. I am sure there are different voices in audio, but in print, there are italics and the arrangement of print to show who is speaking. The poetic form lends itself to a spare storytelling style that also fits well with the book.

Much of the book is a classic young adult story. Teens try to understand themselves and those around them; there are attempts to communicate love and other things, planning for a party when parents are out of town. I am not going to give anything away, but there are a lot of complaints about the ending because the story takes a turn out of the light romance mode that it has been in through most of the book, to tell a different story. I have to agree that while there are hints all along about the story's direction, I wanted more time with the changing storyline. The book ends without as much resolution as I would like. But I do not think that the story was wrong to have made that change. The change makes sense in the context of the book and the broader world it is speaking to. And I think it also is true to Alexander's history as an author and storyteller.

He gave the male characters too many traits and interests and the lone female character, and love interest, was not given any traits or personality. After 5 of his books, I would say he struggles with writing female characters well. There was too much going on here and it took a long while to get over the initial silliness of proving how different Walt & Nate are and settling into a story. The abrupt turn at the end seemed to shock people. I saw it coming but it still felt unearned and the brother's character was unexplored. Think if PTSD/war/race trauma was where he wanted to go, then he needed to weed out at least one other element, either baseball, jazz, or the relationship advice/woohoo women. I'm not sure what kids are hanging in past the first few chapters to read this.