Posts Tagged ‘realism’
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
Every couple of days, I google “Jonathan Langford No Going Back” just to see what’s out there. It’s kind of a game to see if I can locate something that Google Alert hasn’t already told Chris Bigelow (my publisher) about. Usually I don’t find anything. But today there was a link to a review in the Spring 2010 GLBTRT Newsletter, a publication of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Round Table of the American Library Association. Here’s what it said:
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Tags: American Library Association, coming-of-age novel, gay, Jonathan Langford, libraries, Mormon, No Going Back, non-Mormon readers, realism, Reviews of No Going Back, Young Adult fiction
Posted in Reviews of No Going Back | 4 Comments »
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
A few days ago, I had occasion to talk to a long-time friend (non-LDS, gay, and a literature professor) about his reaction to No Going Back. What, he asked, was the significance of the title, in my opinion? Which led to possibly a longer answer than he had anticipated…
I suppose I should include a spoiler alert here. So, here goes. If you keep reading, you’ll find out about things that happen toward the end of the book. Selah.
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Tags: coming out, coming-of-age novel, gay, high school, Jonathan Langford, literature, No Going Back, reader comments, realism, Rex Goode, Ty Mansfield
Posted in Homosexuality and Mormonism, No Going Back Issues | 2 Comments »
Friday, March 26th, 2010
It’s always interesting seeing what non-Mormon readers of No Going Back have to say about the book. For one thing, it includes an awful lot of Mormon detail. Since I never imagined that it might have a large non-Mormon audience, I didn’t go to any trouble to explain that detail. No real accommodations for any readers who don’t happen to be Mormon.
At a more basic level, I’ve wondered if non-Mormons would even be able to identify with the characters and their motivations. Sure, there’s a lot of universality to the basic conflicts in the book. Every teenager struggles with issues of identity and peer pressure. Every married couple struggles with issues of communication and priorities. But that doesn’t necessarily make the particulars of one person’s conflict easy to identify with on the part of readers whose lives are very different.
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Tags: gay, Jonathan Langford, literature, Mormon, Mormon Literature, No Going Back, non-Mormon readers, reader responses, realism, Reviews of No Going Back
Posted in Mormon Literature, No Going Back Issues, Reviews of No Going Back | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Here are some questions I recently answered for a journalist related to No Going Back and my experiences in writing it.
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Tags: gay, Interviews, Jonathan Langford, Mormon, No Going Back, reader responses, realism, research, writing process
Posted in No Going Back Issues, Thoughts on Writing | No Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
One of my main motivations in writing No Going Back was to stimulate discussion, both about the book itself (hey! I’m an author, I like feedback; live with it) and about the topics it addresses.
Over Christmas break, I drafted a set of questions that I thought might help prompt interesting discussions among readers of my book. Sadly, the notebook where I wrote down my ideas disappeared… So here’s Take 2 at some “official” No Going Back discussion questions. Please feel free to post responses, additional suggested questions, etc. (more…)
Tags: blogging, Book Discussions, coming-of-age novel, gay, homosexuality, Jonathan Langford, Mormon, No Going Back, reader comments, realism
Posted in Book Discussions, Homosexuality and Mormonism, No Going Back Issues | 2 Comments »
No Going Back — Young Adult Novel?
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010A somewhat different version of this column, oriented more toward broader questions related to the YA literature genre in the Mormon market, is posted at A Motley Vision website under the title “Some Definitional Thoughts About YA (Mormon) Fiction.”
Who’s the intended audience of No Going Back? In particular, does No Going Back fit the definition of a young adult (YA) novel? That’s proved to be a tricky question.
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Tags: American Library Association, coming-of-age novel, Jonathan Langford, Marketing, Mormon, No Going Back, non-Mormon readers, publicity, reader comments, reader responses, realism, Reviews of No Going Back, teenagers, Young Adult fiction
Posted in No Going Back Issues | No Comments »