Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
by Peter Cameron
YA fiction. 229 pp.
FSG. 2007.

flapcopy:

In re: James Sveck—eighteen-year-old New Yorker, charming, precocious, confused, doesn't quite fit in (doesn't really want to),

If: his future (i.e., college) seems completely meaningless, not to mention terrifying . . .

Then: he'll start anew (move to the Midwest?).

In re: James Sveck—misunderstood by a capricious mother, a self-absorbed father, a mordant older sister,

Et alia: his Teutonic therapist, his D-list celebrity grandmother, his unnervingly attractive art gallery colleague . . .

If: What one wants is enigmatic . . .

Then: Life can be hell.

But: as the summer gets hotter, James comes to recognize the wrenching truth of his emotions.

I read this book back in October. At this point, I don't remember much about it except that I wasn't all that impressed. I assume that it read pretty well, because I read it while I was in Vegas with Dec, but I really don't remember it so much.

Oh. I remember not liking the main character, but he is terribly socially awkward. Very in-his-head. Worth the Trip really enjoyed it, and I would agree that it is one of the most literary novels in queer YA lit, but I can't say that I would recommend the book.