Navigating the Darwin Straights

Adult/High School-Engaging from the get-go, this book maps the journeys of Jordy McNeil, a short computer geek relocated at age 14 to a "one-computer town," where he lives with his lesbian mom and her new lover, dodges redneck fists, and learns resilience. He falls for Reba, and after she comes out, he acts as her boyfriend until graduation, when she flees town. Hurt and listless, Jordy heads for California, where he works for an old friend of his mother's who's starting a software company on a shoestring. Paid mainly in shares, Jordy finds himself rich at age 20. Still, his life seems hollow. After time in a hilarious send-up of a New Age retreat and in Latin America, Jordy finds what seems to be his purpose: volunteering as the head of Cyberplace, a walk-in computer lab for Seattle's disenfranchised youth. He particularly cherishes his burgeoning friendship with Spider, a 17-year-old gang member who is shot while talking on the street with Jordy. Devastated and feeling responsible, Jordy banishes himself to Maine. Months later, his "stepmother" Pat finds him near physical and emotional collapse and nurses him back to health. Though much happens and locations shift constantly, Forbes's book never feels rushed. Nor does Jordy's "quest for enlightenment" come off as naive. His self-examinations-wonderfully detailed in a series of e-mails to Pat-make the young man a sympathetic character.-Emily Lloyd, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

If the theory of natural selection holds true, it never went down as easily as it does in this novel, an account of a young man's struggle to make a meaningful life for himself. Meet Jordy McNeil, the repeatedly demoralized but always persistent protagonist of Forbes's (Alma Rose) newest offering. As if adolescence weren't hard enough, Jordy is undersized, a computer nerd and the son of an openly lesbian mother. Fed up with Oregon and a love gone wrong, Jordy's mom decides to move back to her small Western hometown of Kilgore, introducing Jordy to his religious grandparents and redneck uncle. Jordy falls hard for a beautiful classmate, Reba--only to discover when she announces she is gay that her interest in him is as a confidant. Jordy survives high school and takes a job as a computer programmer in a small California company, existing mostly on hope and unrequited love. When the company is bought out, he becomes an overnight tycoon at age 20, with more money than he can spend and no one to share it with. Giving up his cubicle, Jordy begins a voyage of discovery, searching out the seamy side of Mexico, the gang-ridden streets of Seattle and isolation in upstate Maine. Filled with uncanny insight and surprising depth, Forbes's witty, succinctly told tale will delight readers. Jordy is an eminently likable protagonist, and it's a pleasure to accompany him on his journey. (Mar. 15)Forecast: Forbes has previously scored with queer lit and sci-fi. This time she should find an enthusiastic audience among open-minded members of the dot-com generation who are looking for a spiritual and philosophical jolt.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

In Forbes' fourth book, luck is as much of a character as adolescent Jordy McNeil and his lesbian single mom, Donna. But Jordy's luck isn't the best: fatherless, he's known nothing but poverty, and he's shorter than anyone his age. Then, just when he's finally figured out how to deflect schoolboy bullies, and just when Mom graduates college, gets a good job and better housing, she packs them into the first car they've owned and returns to her fundamentalist family in Kilgore, "a boarded-up dust trap of a town." Grandma sees Donna as a hell-bent sinner with or without her college degree, so it's no Hallmark homecoming. Jordy has few survival skills in a school where conversations revolve around horses, cattle, and hunting, so he leaves and eventually embarks on a high-tech career. With full pockets but an empty future, he lands in Seattle, a chance victim of a shooting who must overcome disillusionment as he struggles once again to make a new place for himself in the world. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

This coming-of-age novel features narrator Jordan; his lesbian single mother, Donna; and Pat, a character from Forbes's first book, Alma Rose. After living in Portland, OR, for many years, Donna wants to start over again in her rural hometown of Kilgore, where her gentle, understanding son, who is far more interested in computer codes than sports, can get to know his grandparents. Jordan falls for an intelligent, nonconformist girl in school and soon learns that she prefers other girls. Because he is attracted to others who end up coming out as gay, he wonders if this will be a pattern. Bypassing college, he moves up the ladder at an Internet startup company, all the while staying in touch with his mother and her partner, Pat, primarily via e-mail. Then he goes on to a project in Seattle that changes his life forever. Once reliant upon computers, Jordan stops communicating altogether by e-mail or phone, cutting himself off from everyone. Forbes's writing is steady and her characters ordinary and plainspoken. Although the story line stretches credulity in spots, this is an engrossing novel about courage and family.DLisa Nussbaum, Dauphin Cty. Lib. Sys., Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.