Out of the Pocket

Today I want to recommend a book that is really amazing: Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg. Out of the Pocket Quotes are in (brackets)Bobby Framingham is the star quarterback at the Durango High School football team, extremely talented and nobody has a doubt he'll be a successful pro one day. He has nice parents, friends and teammates and everything would be wonderful - if he didn't know he is different in a way that might destroy everything he's living for and dreaming about: Bobby is gay.Bill Konigsberg has written a novel about coming of age and coming out that is far more than the typical "I'm gay and unfortunately I'm a brilliant jock as well" story.There are no parents who disown their son, no coaches who threaten to kick him out of the team, no long term friends who kick his butt when he tells them. And most of the teammates are ok with it as well. It is a story that describes in an often funny, touching and very compelling way that being gay is still trouble - even when you are supported by most of the people you care for. You still are isolated at a point and have the feeling everything is too much to bear.Not because everybody turns against Bobby but mainly because it still is a big thing when a young man - a star quarterback by all means! - is discovered to be gay. Bobby is drawn into focus, whether he likes it or not.What makes this story so unique is the subtle changes between Bobby and all the people who are his friends, family and teammates. Yes, there are some who aren't cool with it, but most of them can handle it. But nonetheless being gay changes the attitude between Booby and everybody he knows. And if it is only the time people need to come to terms with the news: It hurts and Bobby feels utterly alone. Not only pure hatred and big drama but also this "gay thing " at all being such an issue is hurting and out of place. Konigsberg shows this masterfully all the time i.e. with a scene, when Bobby is interviewed after a game:(The reporters were silent. Maybe what I'd said wasn't what they'd expected, I don't know. The same guy who had asked me before the game about being a gay quarterback spoke."So how was it, being openly gay and quarterbacking a team to the championship game?"In the ensuing silence, I could feel the tension. First lines for newspaper stories across the area and even the country were being devised as I spoke."I don't know. Sort of being an openly straight quarterback, but with a lot more media attention on me, " I said.)Not only the plot but especially the characters make this story so outstanding and vivid. Every friend, Bobby's parents, the coach: The depth of them is amazing, everybody is an individual, you can tell who "speaks" just by the different phrasing Konigsberg uses for all of them.As a woman I especially appreciated the women appearing: His mother who isn't described stereotyping at all: She neither is the mother hen supporting Bobby as much as she should nor is she the dragon who drives her son out of the house as soon as she finds out he is gay. She is a warm, caring person but still has troubles to get used to a gay son. And considering all circumstances you can understand it, you know why she is troubled, fearful and yet loves her son unconditionally.And there is Carrie: Adorable, funny, big mouthed Carrie, who everybody considers to be Bobby's girlfriend, though they never really dated. At the very beginning of the book - Bobby isn't out yet - they meet in their favorite diner and Carrie starts to discuss their relationship.(She started talking loudly about her virginity."It's still here," she said, wrapping strands of her dark hair around her index finger. "And it doesn't want to be. It wants to move to Hawaii and retire, drink pina coladas under a palm tree, and get catered to by muscular Samoan boys in short shorts.") Have you ever read an announcement: "Hey, I want to have sex" that was more hilarious? I haven't by a long shot. And one of my favorites:(Carrie was there. She hated football but sometimes she came to my games. She came up behind me and placed her chin on my neck. "That was one of the finest basketball games I've ever seen," she said. I turned to her and smirked."Hockey," I corrected."Look, I may be white, but the name-calling is totally out of place," she said, kissing me on the cheek and heading out toward her car. She's so weird. I love her.)So everything about this book is amazing, a book I wasn't able to put down and stop reading before I reached the very end. In case you understand anything about football you might enjoy the book even more, I'm sure I missed some metaphores because I don't know anything about football besides the quarterback must be some really important guy for this game and that being in the pocket seems to be safer than being out of the pocket.I hope Mr. Konigsberg will publish another book soon.Just for the record: I'm not alone judging this book to be a very great one: Out of the Pocket won the Lambda Literary Award 2009.

I'll say that my own review of "Out of the Pocket" was influenced by a review posted here by Zach - a gay high school athlete whose own take on this book was really interesting and helpful for me.This YA novel about Bobby Framingham, a star high school quarterback coming out and dealing with the consequences, is refreshingly different from many I've read. It does not focus on a romance - although there is one suggested. I was so pleased that it is totally PG rated (except for the general disgusting behavior of teenage boys).This book gets you inside the head of a really good kid - who is a star and popular and all that - but not full of himself; truly a gentle, caring thoughtful young man. His personal efforts to embrace his gay self are turned upside down in a plot twist that felt very real for me, as painful as it was. This betrayal throws Bobby off track, as he watches his perfect ordered world begin to crumble.I love YA books where families matter - and Bobby's complicated relationship with his parents is excellently drawn, and becomes one of the several catalysts in the book's ongoing narrative. But his relationships with his friends - the devotion of sports teams to each other and their coach; his friendship with Carrie, the girl who - in a typical world - would have been his girlfriend; are what make this book feel so authentic.What is really appealing to me about this book is that it's all about Bobby - whatever else is happening around him, we learn about how everything touches and changes him - his thinking, his behavior, his perspective on the world. We feel his pain and confusion; we share in his happiness and growing maturity.Do read Zach's three-star review - it's a positive review, but offers insights that, as an old gay man (in spite of my two teenagers at home) I cannot. But read the book. It's worth it.

For me the story captures the problems of being outside your comfort zone. There are no murders, no sex and nobody gets thrown out of anywhere. So is it dull, boring or over long? Not for me. It deals with issues not with drama. II would hope that for young people things have moved on from The Soccer Field is Empty. That was the grim world of my youth. Being Gay or coming out should not be something we write books about, it should be just as much a part of growing as any other relationship. In other words incidental.

It's not bad. You should probably know something/care about American Football to love the book. I do not, and I was reading it for the social plot-line, which redeems it a bit for me. I admit that I skipped a LOT of the sport-related parts, because they seem somewhat endless. But if you are into reading about that, THIS IS YOUR BOOK.

and quite well done in that it didn't make me hate the world, but if you're not interested in football, it does have its lengths.I liked Bobby and his parents, and Austin, and Rahim and the coach, but a few things (like the scene on the beach at night with Bryan) didn't make sense to me at all (just the logistics of it - why did B show up there in the first place?). It all feels a lot more American than I am comfortable with, but if you fastforward the game scenes it was still an enjoable read.

This story of a gay sportsman feeling his way towards achieving his desires is well told by somebody who knows the feelings and the industry. Excellent character studies.

It was a delightful read. I think, I am officially a fan of Bill Konigsberg. I loved all of his book. I couldn't put this book down.It is a coming of age story of Bobby, who is star quarterback, who happens to be gay and as you might have guessed it, being gay and being in sports don't go in hand to hand. So, the story is about Bobby and his struggle in the team when he comes out. But, it is much more than that, it is funny, emotional and delightfully good.Characters are strong and funny. Secondary characters are also so good that I would like to read book about them. Here, Carrie was one of those characters. I loved her more than Bobby. Loved her frankness and eccentricity to the core. I LOVE CARRIE!.I couldn't point any bad thing in this book. I loved everything (oh, wait ! I disliked the fact the Bobby took a revenge on Finch. I know what Finch did, outing Bobby without his permission in local newspaper, was wrong but I don't like petty revenges).