The Vast Fields of Ordinary
Encyclopedia
The Vast Fields of Ordinary is a young adult gay novel
by American
author Nick Burd first published in 2009. The novel depicts the summer after high school graduation for a closeted
suburban teenage boy, his openly lesbian
new best friend, and the two boys he is interested in dating (one a Latino
football
star, the other a drug dealer). The Vast Fields of Ordinary is Burd's debut novel
.
The book won the American Library Association
's Stonewall Book Award
in the Children's and Young Adult Literature category, and was a Lambda Literary Award
finalist for LGBT Children's/Young Adult literature. Booklist
added the novel to its Rainbow List 2010, a bibliography of young adult books which include significant gay
, lesbian
, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning content. The New York Times
listed it as one of the most notable books of 2009.
On the basis of this novel, Out
named author Nick Burd to the "OUT 100," a list of 100 people who made important contributions to LGBTQ
culture and politics in 2009.
. All the narrative occurs in the present. The title comes from a line in the novel in which a young girl misquotes a line from an alternative rock
band. The fictional band, Vas Deferens, is the favorite band of the main character. One of their songs is used in a TV commercial
, and the girl misquotes the lyrics
as "the vast fields of ordinary." The novel is prefaced with a quote from the poet
and playwright
E. E. Cummings
: "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." The quote is taken from the essay "A Poet's Advice to Students," which appeared in the book E. E. Cummings, A Miscellany.
Dade Hamilton is 18 years old and trying to enjoy the summer after his high school graduation. He has a part-time job
at Food World, a local supermarket
. Dade has come out
gay
to himself, but not anyone else. His father, Ned, sells luxury automobiles and his mother, Peggy, is an art teacher
at a local Roman Catholic parochial school
. They live in Cedarville, a fictional city in the Midwestern United States
. For several years, Peggy has struggled with depression, and is taking a large number of antidepressant
s. She is increasingly alienated
from her upper middle class
lifestyle and family. Ned, too, is alienated from his family, and has begun taking poetry
classes at a local community college
. Dade is a loner
whose only friend is Pablo Soto, a Mexican American
who is Cedarville high school's
star quarterback
for the football
team. Since they were 16 years old, Pablo and Dade have been having homosexual intercourse. But Pablo considers himself heterosexual, and has a girlfriend, Judy Lockhart. Pablo and Dade are friends, but Pablo doesn't spend much time with Dade and appears to only see him as a provider of passive anal sex
.
The novel opens in the last days of high school, with Dade telling Pablo that he loves him. Pablo slaps him hard across the face until Dade retracts the statement. Dade is increasingly harassed at high school by jocks and by Judy Lockhart, all of whom think he's gay. A short time later, Ned tells Dade that he is having an affair with a woman he met at his poetry class. As the school year ends, Dade attends a party hosted by the pretty Jessica Montana and her awkward, less-pretty twin
sister Francesca (whom everyone belittles by calling "Fessica"). Fessica attempts to seduce Dade, and Dade leaves the party. Outside, Dade meets Alex Kincaid, a 20-year-old marijuana drug dealer
. It is love at first sight for Dade. Dade discovers Alex's name and where he works. He meets Alex, and under the pretense of securing some marijuana, the two teens take a trip into the countryside that evening to obtain drugs from a man named Dingo. Dade meets Dingo, an older man who grows marijuana, and members of Dingo's rock band (all of whom appear to be slacker
s and drug users). Dade finally feels like he is accepted by a group of cool
people.
A few days later, Dade meets Lucy at a neighbor's barbecue
party. Lucy is a 17-year-old lesbian
from California
. She came out to her parents, who were upset with their daughter's sexual orientation
. So they sent her to Cedarville to live for the summer. Where Dade is introverted
, socially awkward, and closeted
, Lucy is socially outgoing, confident, and cool. They become close friends as June turns into July. Pablo seeks out Dade for more sex, but Dade turns him down. Dade expresses that he wants a real relationship with Pablo, something Pablo is unwilling to give. In late July, Lucy and Dade use fake I.D.s
to get into Cherry's, a gay bar
. Dade sees Pablo there, but Pablo and Dade argue briefly and Dade leaves. After several weeks, Dade finally hears from Alex, who invites him to a party at Dingo's. They attend, and both Alex and Dade shave their heads on a whim. Later that night, Alex nonchalantly reveals he is gay; he is unconditionally accepted by Dingo and his friends. Alex and Dade kiss and have sex under the night sky. Alex and Dade continue to bond, while Pablo continues to harass Dade—seeking both sex and companionship, and verbally gay bashing
him when he does not answer his text messages
or cell phone
calls.
After a night of binge drinking
by the family swimming pool, Dade has a dream (or possibly a hallucination
) where he sees Jenny Moore, a nine-year-old girl whose disappearance has dominated the local television and radio news for weeks. Dade tells Lucy, who says she believes that Dade really saw Jenny despite the fact that he was drunk, and they try to unravel the meaning of Dade's dream. Dade also tells his parents he is gay. His father is uncertain what this means, but his mother accepts it. Alex takes Dade, Lucy, and Alex's African American
co-worker Jay to a large party hosted by Bert McGraw, a homophobe
who is a friend of Pablo's. The presence of Alex, Lucy, and Jay cause Dade to be somewhat accepted by the other cool teens and jocks. Dade meets Pablo and they argue, which leads Pablo to become jealous of Alex.
Dade's parents reveal that they will be taking a three-week trip to Europe
to try to repair their marriage. Pablo becomes increasingly desperate to be with Dade, even exposing
his genitals to him at work. When Dade rejects him, Pablo spits on him. Dade introduces Alex to his parents at an awkward barbecue before they leave for Europe. While his parents are gone, Alex stays with Dade. Alex, Jay, Lucy, and Dade spend much of their time drinking alcohol to excess, and Dade worries that Alex's late-night lifestyle is not very similar to his own. Alex convinces Dade to have a large party at the house. Dade becomes very drunk. He wakes at 5 A.M. to learns from the television news that Jenny Moore has been found. He sleeps again, and wakes to find Pablo in his room. Pablo breaks down and cries, but refuses to talk about his feelings with Dade. A terrible accident brings the novel to a sudden close and forces Dade to end his wonderful summer.
A subplot in the novel involves the disappearance of nine-year-old Jenny Moore. The girl's disappearance creates tension for Peggy, Dade, Alex, and others. At times, the characters' concern for Jenny allows them to voice their own inner feelings to themselves and to others.
The novel depicts homosexual encounters (one review called these descriptions PG-13), marijuana smoking, underage
consumption of alcohol
, and hangover
s. Most of the teenagers in the novel smoke cigarettes constantly.
, was highly laudatory: "...Burd is a terrific writer with a special gift for creating teenage characters who are vital, plausible, and always engaging (even when they're being mean and menacing). His take on the complications in Dade's life is sophisticated and thoughtful, especially on the ambiguities of that 'relationship' with Pablo, while his limning of the growing friendship with Alex is deeply satisfying, never striking a discordant emotional note." A review in The Plain Dealer found that Burd "writes incisively about the anxiety of severing relationships and fleeing a dead-end town, a reality playing out daily across the Midwest." The School Library Journal
listed The Vast Fields of Ordinary as one of 11 novels for LGBTQ teens published in 2009 that had strong characters and candid writing, and concluded that it "beg[s] to be invited into a surprising variety of classroom discussions..."
Some reviews of the book were critical however. Booklist, while generally praising the novel, also criticized the work for being a "traditional coming-out-while-coming-of-age story," and found the missing-girl subplot unsatisfying. Both Booklist and The Plain Dealer felt the novel's conclusion was perfunctory.
Gay novel
A gay novel deals with homosexual love between men. Novels that deal with homosexual love between women are usually referred to as lesbian novels....
by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author Nick Burd first published in 2009. The novel depicts the summer after high school graduation for a closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
suburban teenage boy, his openly lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
new best friend, and the two boys he is interested in dating (one a Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
star, the other a drug dealer). The Vast Fields of Ordinary is Burd's debut novel
Debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...
.
The book won the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
's Stonewall Book Award
Stonewall Book Award
Sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association , the Stonewall Book Award is for LGBT books...
in the Children's and Young Adult Literature category, and was a Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
finalist for LGBT Children's/Young Adult literature. Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
added the novel to its Rainbow List 2010, a bibliography of young adult books which include significant gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning content. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
listed it as one of the most notable books of 2009.
On the basis of this novel, Out
Out (magazine)
Out is a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any gay monthly publication in the United States. It carries itself in a similar editorial manner to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was published by PlanetOut Inc...
named author Nick Burd to the "OUT 100," a list of 100 people who made important contributions to LGBTQ
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
culture and politics in 2009.
Plot synopsis
The novel is told in the first person singularGrammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
. All the narrative occurs in the present. The title comes from a line in the novel in which a young girl misquotes a line from an alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band. The fictional band, Vas Deferens, is the favorite band of the main character. One of their songs is used in a TV commercial
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
, and the girl misquotes the lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
as "the vast fields of ordinary." The novel is prefaced with a quote from the poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
E. E. Cummings
E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...
: "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." The quote is taken from the essay "A Poet's Advice to Students," which appeared in the book E. E. Cummings, A Miscellany.
Dade Hamilton is 18 years old and trying to enjoy the summer after his high school graduation. He has a part-time job
Employment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
at Food World, a local supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
. Dade has come out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
to himself, but not anyone else. His father, Ned, sells luxury automobiles and his mother, Peggy, is an art teacher
Art education
Art education is the area of learning that is based upon the visual, tangible arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings...
at a local Roman Catholic parochial school
Parochial school
A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrower sense, a parochial school is a Christian grammar school or high school which is part of, and run by, a parish.-United Kingdom:...
. They live in Cedarville, a fictional city in the Midwestern United States
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
. For several years, Peggy has struggled with depression, and is taking a large number of antidepressant
Antidepressant
An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...
s. She is increasingly alienated
Social alienation
The term social alienation has many discipline-specific uses; Roberts notes how even within the social sciences, it “is used to refer both to a personal psychological state and to a type of social relationship”...
from her upper middle class
Upper middle class
The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle...
lifestyle and family. Ned, too, is alienated from his family, and has begun taking poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
classes at a local community college
Community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...
. Dade is a loner
Loner
A loner is a person who avoids or does not actively seek human interaction or prefers to be alone. There are many reasons for solitude, intentional or otherwise, and "loner" implies no specific cause. Intentional reasons include spiritual and religious considerations or personal philosophies...
whose only friend is Pablo Soto, a Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
who is Cedarville high school's
Secondary education in the United States
In most jurisdictions, secondary education in the United States refers to the last six or seven years of statutory formal education. Secondary education is generally split between junior high school or middle school, usually beginning with sixth or seventh grade , and high school, beginning with...
star quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
for the football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team. Since they were 16 years old, Pablo and Dade have been having homosexual intercourse. But Pablo considers himself heterosexual, and has a girlfriend, Judy Lockhart. Pablo and Dade are friends, but Pablo doesn't spend much time with Dade and appears to only see him as a provider of passive anal sex
Anal sex
Anal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...
.
The novel opens in the last days of high school, with Dade telling Pablo that he loves him. Pablo slaps him hard across the face until Dade retracts the statement. Dade is increasingly harassed at high school by jocks and by Judy Lockhart, all of whom think he's gay. A short time later, Ned tells Dade that he is having an affair with a woman he met at his poetry class. As the school year ends, Dade attends a party hosted by the pretty Jessica Montana and her awkward, less-pretty twin
Twin
A twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...
sister Francesca (whom everyone belittles by calling "Fessica"). Fessica attempts to seduce Dade, and Dade leaves the party. Outside, Dade meets Alex Kincaid, a 20-year-old marijuana drug dealer
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
. It is love at first sight for Dade. Dade discovers Alex's name and where he works. He meets Alex, and under the pretense of securing some marijuana, the two teens take a trip into the countryside that evening to obtain drugs from a man named Dingo. Dade meets Dingo, an older man who grows marijuana, and members of Dingo's rock band (all of whom appear to be slacker
Slacker
The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....
s and drug users). Dade finally feels like he is accepted by a group of cool
Hip (slang)
Hip is a slang term meaning fashionably current and in the know. Hip is the opposite of square or prude.Hip, like cool, does not refer to one specific quality. What is considered hip is continuously changing. The term hip is said to have originated in African American Vernacular English in the...
people.
A few days later, Dade meets Lucy at a neighbor's barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
party. Lucy is a 17-year-old lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. She came out to her parents, who were upset with their daughter's sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
. So they sent her to Cedarville to live for the summer. Where Dade is introverted
Extraversion and introversion
The trait of extraversion-introversion is a central dimension of human personality theories.Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and interested in seeking out external stimulus. Introverts, in contrast, tend to be introspective, quiet and less sociable. They are not necessarily loners but...
, socially awkward, and closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
, Lucy is socially outgoing, confident, and cool. They become close friends as June turns into July. Pablo seeks out Dade for more sex, but Dade turns him down. Dade expresses that he wants a real relationship with Pablo, something Pablo is unwilling to give. In late July, Lucy and Dade use fake I.D.s
Identity document forgery
Identity document forgery is the process by which identity documents issued by governing bodies are copied and/or modified by persons not authorized to create such documents or engage in such modifications, for the purpose of deceiving those who would view the documents about the identity or status...
to get into Cherry's, a gay bar
Gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities...
. Dade sees Pablo there, but Pablo and Dade argue briefly and Dade leaves. After several weeks, Dade finally hears from Alex, who invites him to a party at Dingo's. They attend, and both Alex and Dade shave their heads on a whim. Later that night, Alex nonchalantly reveals he is gay; he is unconditionally accepted by Dingo and his friends. Alex and Dade kiss and have sex under the night sky. Alex and Dade continue to bond, while Pablo continues to harass Dade—seeking both sex and companionship, and verbally gay bashing
Gay bashing
Gay bashing and gay bullying is verbal or physical abuse against a person who is perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender . Such abuse is used also to bully heterosexual persons and persons of non-specific or unknown sexual orientation.A "bashing" may be a specific incident, and one...
him when he does not answer his text messages
Text messaging
Text messaging, or texting, refers to the exchange of brief written text messages between fixed-line phone or mobile phone and fixed or portable devices over a network...
or cell phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
calls.
After a night of binge drinking
Binge drinking
Binge drinking or heavy episodic drinking is the modern epithet for drinking alcoholic beverages with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time. It is a kind of purposeful drinking style that is popular in several countries worldwide,...
by the family swimming pool, Dade has a dream (or possibly a hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
) where he sees Jenny Moore, a nine-year-old girl whose disappearance has dominated the local television and radio news for weeks. Dade tells Lucy, who says she believes that Dade really saw Jenny despite the fact that he was drunk, and they try to unravel the meaning of Dade's dream. Dade also tells his parents he is gay. His father is uncertain what this means, but his mother accepts it. Alex takes Dade, Lucy, and Alex's African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
co-worker Jay to a large party hosted by Bert McGraw, a homophobe
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
who is a friend of Pablo's. The presence of Alex, Lucy, and Jay cause Dade to be somewhat accepted by the other cool teens and jocks. Dade meets Pablo and they argue, which leads Pablo to become jealous of Alex.
Dade's parents reveal that they will be taking a three-week trip to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to try to repair their marriage. Pablo becomes increasingly desperate to be with Dade, even exposing
Indecent exposure
Indecent exposure is the deliberate exposure in public or in view of the general public by a person of a portion or portions of his or her body, in circumstances where the exposure is contrary to local moral or other standards of appropriate behavior. Indecent exposure laws vary in different...
his genitals to him at work. When Dade rejects him, Pablo spits on him. Dade introduces Alex to his parents at an awkward barbecue before they leave for Europe. While his parents are gone, Alex stays with Dade. Alex, Jay, Lucy, and Dade spend much of their time drinking alcohol to excess, and Dade worries that Alex's late-night lifestyle is not very similar to his own. Alex convinces Dade to have a large party at the house. Dade becomes very drunk. He wakes at 5 A.M. to learns from the television news that Jenny Moore has been found. He sleeps again, and wakes to find Pablo in his room. Pablo breaks down and cries, but refuses to talk about his feelings with Dade. A terrible accident brings the novel to a sudden close and forces Dade to end his wonderful summer.
A subplot in the novel involves the disappearance of nine-year-old Jenny Moore. The girl's disappearance creates tension for Peggy, Dade, Alex, and others. At times, the characters' concern for Jenny allows them to voice their own inner feelings to themselves and to others.
The novel depicts homosexual encounters (one review called these descriptions PG-13), marijuana smoking, underage
Legal drinking age
Laws about the legal drinking age cover a wide range of issues and behaviours, addressing when and where alcohol can be consumed. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different to the age when it can be purchased. These laws vary among different countries and many laws have...
consumption of alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
, and hangover
Hangover
A hangover describes the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages. The most commonly reported characteristics of a hangover include headache, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, dysphoria, diarrhea and thirst, typically after the...
s. Most of the teenagers in the novel smoke cigarettes constantly.
Critical reception
The novel was widely reviewed, and received many positive comments. The New York Times found the novel "fascinating and dreamy...filled with characters who are extraordinary to a degree that the reader wants to know more, even about the most minor ones." The review praised Burd's use of language and metaphor, and called the work "the best kind of first novel—it's packed with insights that might have been carried around for years, just waiting to come out." Michael Cart, reviewer at BooklistBooklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
, was highly laudatory: "...Burd is a terrific writer with a special gift for creating teenage characters who are vital, plausible, and always engaging (even when they're being mean and menacing). His take on the complications in Dade's life is sophisticated and thoughtful, especially on the ambiguities of that 'relationship' with Pablo, while his limning of the growing friendship with Alex is deeply satisfying, never striking a discordant emotional note." A review in The Plain Dealer found that Burd "writes incisively about the anxiety of severing relationships and fleeing a dead-end town, a reality playing out daily across the Midwest." The School Library Journal
School Library Journal
The School Library Journal is a monthly magazine with articles and reviews for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with a focus on technology and multimedia. Reviews are included for preschool to 4th grade,...
listed The Vast Fields of Ordinary as one of 11 novels for LGBTQ teens published in 2009 that had strong characters and candid writing, and concluded that it "beg
Some reviews of the book were critical however. Booklist, while generally praising the novel, also criticized the work for being a "traditional coming-out-while-coming-of-age story," and found the missing-girl subplot unsatisfying. Both Booklist and The Plain Dealer felt the novel's conclusion was perfunctory.
External links
- Nick Burd's Web site
- Nick Burd video interview about The Vast Fields of Ordinary, hosted by the PEN American CenterPEN American CenterPEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...