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“Saints of Augustine” by
P. E. Ryan (HarperTeen, 9780060858100, $16.99)
In his excellent first book for young adults, novelist P. E. Ryan tackles a
rarely-seen subject: friendships between young guys. He makes clear how
necessary such friendships are, and he shows that too many important things can
go unsaid when those friendships falter. Ryan follows two former best friends
during their last high school summer in sticky St. Augustine, Florida; both are
working summer jobs, and each one is going crazy at home dealing with family
stuff he can’t talk about with anyone.
Charlie is a basketball player whose dreams of turning pro are more pleasant
fantasy than realistic career path. Since his mother’s sudden death a year ago,
he’s become his family’s breadwinner, and he watches daily as his dad withdraws
further into depression and drinking. With no one to unload to, Charlie is ready
to self-destruct, and the pressures of dating his first serious girlfriend are
making life even more complicated. Charlie has fallen in with bad-news friends
who have gotten him into pot, and just as everything becomes too much for him to
handle, they’ve decided to collect on the debts he owes them.
Sam is the former best friend who cut Charlie off more than a year before, and
he has problems of his own: his parents split up for mysterious reasons, and now
his dad has gone AWOL while his mom is dating a loud-mouth jerk with a talent
for getting under Sam’s skin. No one wants to hear what Sam has to say--least of
all himself--but it’s becoming harder for him to ignore the truth: Sam knows
that he’s gay, and that he shut Charlie out because he was afraid of how his
friend would react. But in the brave new world of growing up, Sam is beginning
to wonder whether honesty, with all its lumps and bruises, might not be a better
policy for everyone involved.
“Saints of Augustine” alternates between the two boys’ viewpoints, giving each a
chance to fill in his own details and bewildered questions about their past
friendship, how it crashed and burned, and how everything has been broken ever
since. Ryan’s writing is quick, funny, and instantly engaging. Despite the heavy
subjects the boys deal with, their shared story is hopeful rather than
depressing, and their personalities really shine as they struggle to reconnect.
(Ryan also uses the clever device of pulling out a quote to begin each chapter;
it’s a trick that lightens the overall tone and encourages compulsive reading.)
This book is a strong and satisfying young-adult novel along the lines of other
recent stories about the perils and possibilities of teenage guy-hood, books
like Laurie Halse Anderson’s
Twisted and Brian Sloan’s wise and funny
A Tale
of Two Summers. It will have instant appeal for guys and girls looking for
honest, relevant stories that deal seriously with friendship and family issues
without tossing off overly simple answers. It’s teen drama written well and with
a good heart.
Recommended for readers ages 13 and older; includes unglamorous descriptions of
alcohol and drug use.
Review by
Mark David
Bradshaw,
July 11, 2007
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