Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, February 2013) is a love song, and a lifeline, to every kid who has ever dreamed of Broadway while navigating the mean streets of Hometown, USA.
Its star, eighth-grader Nate Foster, is too theatrical for his suburban Jankburg, Pennsylvania world, causing him to be bullied for the perception that he is gay (and not just at school). His golden-child older brother mocks and his conservative father tells Nate that he is praying for him. Nate’s mother counsels him to try to blend in and asks if he’s being bullied, but Nate knows she has her own issues, adult issues and serious ones. And while the bullying is obviously taking its toll, this isn’t really a book about bullying. It’s a book about dreams, and being brave, and finding where you belong if it isn’t where you were born. It’s about knowing that sometimes it’s not you, it’s them, even when it seems like a whole town of thems. As Nate himself says early on in the book, “Life hasn’t always been easy (my first word was ‘Mama,’ and then ‘The other babies are teasing me’), but at least I’m singing my way through eighth grade, pretending my whole existence is underscored.” And that is how Better Nate Than Ever reads, as if it is the textual equivalent of a musical comedy, where the threats are smoothed out, the laughs are timed for perfection, and the numbers are big, but there are life lessons and heartbreak in between the comedic moments, building to the big, hopeful finale.
Nate, with the help and encouragement of his best friend Libby, hatches a crazy plan to sneak into New York City to audition for the new Broadway musical E.T.: The Musical. And it’s a plan that just might work. He’ll take the bus into the city, find his way to the audition, audition, and make it back to Port Authority for the return bus in plenty of time to be back in Jankburg before his parents get back from their romantic trip. But as is often the case with life, and middle grade novels, and musical comedies, things don’t go as planned. In part because Libby and Nate didn’t think through what would happen if he actually succeeded, if the audition went well.
Federle’s experience in the theater adds insight into the process and business of auditioning for a Broadway show, and adds hysterical, awkward details to all the ways naive Nate blunders his way through the audition and through New York City as a whole. Musical theater references abound as part of the lore of Broadway and the natural soundtrack of Nate’s life. And Nate and Libby even use musical theater flops as their improvised curse words. If Nate’s voice seems a little too mature here and there, and if Nate navigates the big city a little too easily or seems oblivious to the very real danger more mature readers will worry is lurking around every corner, well, it feels like the naive and somewhat oblivious point of view of starry eyed Nate experiencing his first time in NYC — and the way of musical comedy.
But if the first half is mostly comedy and magical musical theater hopes, the second half brings in moments of true growth for Nate and the reader as Nate’s estranged aunt is drawn into his escapades, and her backstory and world add a dose of reality for all those hopefuls at home. And by the time Nate’s mother arrives to retrieve him, he’s come to some revelations of his own. Nate grows in this book, and he matures, and readers take that trip with him. And much like with musical theater, they may not realize it until sometime later when a line or a scene pops into their heads. Because Nate starts out unsure of his sexuality (though it feels a little like denial), but by the end of the book he is realizing that outside of his claustrophobic hometown there are places where two boys can kiss without anyone hitting them. He even allows himself moments of age-appropriate attraction. And beyond his sexuality, he starts out aware of, but not really facing, issues in his family and ways he is being less than honest with his best friend. But after facing the challenges and lessons in the city, he can face his life back home and his relationships with more clarity.
Better Nate Than Ever is like the musical numbers it worships — sometimes funny, sometime serious, always from the heart — a series of love songs to being thirteen and different and gay in a small town, in a small world, when you yourself seem small but have big dreams. It’s as much an ode to NYC as to the theater. And, much like Nate himself, it occasionally stumbles or hits an awkward note, but the overall show is worth the price of admission.
2 comments for “Worth the Price of Admission: Review Of Better Nate Than Ever”