A Boy at the Edge of the World

Describing the life of Daniel Garneau, A Boy at the Edge of the World is an intense, fast=paced, at times ridiculous story about a boy who is gay and living in Canada. A coming-of-age novel, Yeh writes in a chopped, non-linear narrative style which aims to showcase the chaos that is life, and of course, Daniel's life. Daniel himself was quite a likeable character. I found him to be raw, honest and trying to figure out who he actually is.

Although I wouldn't quite say there was a 'main' plot, this book is written more 'slice-of-life' and you, as the reader, are embarking on a journey of Daniel and a cast of awesome and crazy characters, as they go through life. The cast of characters have an incredible chemistry, and thus, this novel is character driven and focuses on character development. As for the ridiculous, the novel concentrates on Daniel, his friends, his family and ultimately, have strange dinner conversations, strange experiences overall; but it makes for a hilarious story. Although, Yeh does not gloss over the shocking, and does quite well in respectfully writing about those scenes and the aftermath.

Although, I would say this book would not be for everyone; it is a great read and I recommend branching out and immersing oneself in this world.

A Boy at the Edge of the World is a novel by David Kingston Yeh, detailing the life of Daniel Garneau, the oldest of triplets. The story takes us from Daniel’s senior year, right up to his fifth year of university as he trains to be a medic, in a slice of life format.

I knew I was going to love this book from the first couple of paragraphs. Daniel comes out to his best friend Karen, a popular and sarcastic girl, who I instantly adored. I’d just finished reading The Art of Escaping, where everyone was very twee and nice, and it was a fantastic relief to start reading incredibly bitchy characters who I loved.

This book doesn’t hold back. There is a rape scene early on in the story that shows the danger in the gay community of drug taking, and there are explicit sex scenes between all sorts of people. There are threesomes, and public handjobs, and the three Amigas (don’t ask), and bathhouses. There are drugs, and suicide attempts, and grandma’s masturbating in the front room. It’s a delicious fucked up story, and I enjoyed every minute.

What was a breath of fresh air was that nothing ‘bad’ happened. Of course, there are low points, Daniel’s brother Liam is severely depressed, Marcus falls off the balcony, Daniel’s grandmother has Alzheimer’s. But there’s no death, no Aids, no fucked up trauma. As someone who reads A Little Life every summer like a rite of passage, I am used to reading gay stories where awful terrible things happen. This book is honestly a relief.

I also loved the short choppy way that Yeh writes. It’s much like my own writing, with random snippets of events and conversations, so I slipped easily into the book. I can see how other readers might not like this, but I really enjoyed it, as I didn’t have to read pages of exposition, I could just get right into the story.

I honestly have no complaints with the book. I loved every moment I was reading it, adoring Daniel, Pat, Liam, Blonde Dawn, Karen, David, and all the other host of characters. It was a completely mental book, with descriptions of cock rings at the dinner table, and performances in pig intestines. I don’t think that the blurb does it justice, but by god, was this an excellent story.

Thank you to Netgallery for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Boy at the Edge of the World
David Kingston Yeh
Book Review | 📚📚📚📚 4/5

A fun and fast-paced read about one guy’s life through most of his 20s. Oh, and he happens to be gay and he happens to live in Canada.

Why I was interested in reading this book:
I don’t read a lot of fiction that follows the coming of age of someone. But there was something in the blurb that sounded sincere and honest that compelled me to check it out.

My assessment:
At first, I thought, “Oh, no. A fluffy story about another Millennial guy trying to find a boyfriend.” But, I really liked the main character. Perhaps because he seemed to be honest and truly trying to discover life, I liked him and empathized with his journey. There were two other things that I really liked about this book:

1) The book is filled with Canada-centric references. Living in the USA, I take for granted that everyone knows the cultural and geographic references of most books I read. With this book, I learned a lot about Canadian pop culture: food, music, sports, geography. I actually found the author’s Facebook page and he has been posting actual photos of places described in the book along with referenced quotes. That was pretty cool.

2) What I also very much enjoyed was that the book was non-stop filled with diverse characters. However, Yeh wrote about them matter of factly – very few labels. He never came out and said, “the lesbian” or “the F2M” or “the Jew”. Instead, he simply he would include a reference point or action that might suggest how each character might be different – but not really using it as a descriptor. That was very well done and I thought it was a good model for other authors to take note. It really promoted inclusion in comparison to diversity.

There were several parts of the book where I believe the author created unintentional red herrings. He would be deliberate about some repeated details that it seemed like they were foreshadowing an issue to arise. Unfortunately, those were missed opportunities. There were a few moments that Yeh could have come back and made some of those prophecies or wishes be fulfilled to add more tension tension in the story that was lacking throughout.

Overall, it was well written and, again, a story in which the reader can empathize with many of the characters – primary and secondary.

Story of the human condition:
Each of Yeh’s characters had a strong personality that was well-flushed out. They were real people. Even if a personality seemed far fetched or extreme, it was relatable or identifiable. There was so much focus on the sweet or positive, I do think that the tensions would have developed the story into one that was more compelling and filled with tension than that of “a day in the life”.

TAGS:
#David Kingston Yeh #review-book #bookreview #TuggleGrassBlues #TuggleGrassReviews

DISCLAIMER: I received this book via Netgalley for the purposes of a review. I requested this book because it seemed to fall into my wheelhouse of what I am most interested in to read. This review can also be read on my GoodReads page.

I have to say that I really did enjoy reading this book. It was fun, not too hard to read, and now I also know more Canadian slangs. Daniel is living his life full of surprises and he never lacks of things to get done. I didn’t quite expect him to end up with the boyfriend he currently has, which I will not get into more because I don’t want this to be a review that contains spoilers.
I can say, I am waiting for a sequel because I need to find out what happens with these lovely characters next!

I really liked this book. It could be looked at as a 'slice of life' but through all the chaos and turbulence, Daniel's coming out and coming of age-- explores the many layers of self acceptance and reconciliation with the past that haunt many people throughout life.

In spite of family and friends that totally support Daniel, he struggles with an overwhelming disconnect that affects all his relationships. I love how author David Yeh tells this story and takes us along Daniel's journey of love and loss, searching to find himself. Yeh cleverly reveals Daniel's growth (or maturing) without hitting us in the face with it. It happens gradually as the story unfolds. The difference in how Daniel sees and experiences things at the beginning compared to where he is at the end of the book, shows the tremendous changes that happen as people move through the unforeseen circumstances of life.

The people in Daniel's life are an eclectic bunch of characters, richly drawn by Yeh-- adding so much depth and diversity to the story. I thoroughly enjoyed them and the challenges and impact they placed on Daniel's journey.

I found A Boy at the Edge of the World to be a fascinating and engaging experience; full of life's truths and the appreciation for the fact that every person's journey is very different and an exciting story to tell.

I received an ARC copy of this wonderful book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Super relatable coming of age tale. A fast and entertaining read. Highly recommend. Look forward to future works from this author.

The Boy at the Edge of the World is so entirely everything that I might cry flipping through it and trying to tell you why you should read it. I missed these people SO much when this ended. I couldn't get them out of my head. It felt like I'd lived lifetimes with them, and in some sense I had. It's a romance adventure through a young man's exploration after university. He goes through phases and flings and family hilarity and heartache and a happily-ever-after that fills my heart to the brim! Ugh, LOVE!!! Also it made me NEED to go to all these places in Toronto. (It's set in Canada) It doesn't seem like it, but I am playing it veeery lowkey about this book. My feelings run DEEP.

So deep that I included it in my Love in Panels 2018 favourites, (here: http://www.loveinpanels.com/prose/andreas-best-of-2018) and literally still think about going to Canada purely based on the stories in here. I wish I could give it like ten times more stars!!!