Top Ten

Top Ten

YA fiction
Just friends when alluding to a nonromantic male/female
relationship is one of my least favorite oxymorons, especially when
teens are involved. The idea that a bond that doesn't involve hooking
up is somehow lesser than is ludicrous. At a stage in life full of
bodily change, hormonal transformation, self consciousness, mental and
psychological evolution--not to mention the pressure for
performativity perfection--platonic friendships can provide a zone for
depth, risk taking, and self awareness. Katie Cotugno's Top Ten
provides a vivid example of this.
Gabby and Ryan are a highly unlikely pairing. He's the party
hearty and wildly promiscuous and popular ice hockey star who lives
for weekends. She's the nerdy shy girl who would much rather be
reading than attending any kind of event involving lots of strangers.
In fact she has clinical anxiety. Naturally they don't move in the
same orbits. He's their school's golden boy. She sees herself as the
weirdo who doesn't fit in. Anywhere.
Then one Friday night Gabby's big sister, Celia, throws a
party. Gabby sees Ryan puking in her toilet and takes pity on him.
She's quite surprised when he remembers her invitation to her family's
weekly Monopoly game and actually shows up. Though their best
friendship has its ups and downs and sometimes is on the verge of
fizzling out, they remain present for and knowing of one another. He
knows how to tone down her social anxiety panic attacks. She
perceives better than even his parents the danger that his string of
concussions represents.
One of the most commendable things Cotugno does in her narrative
is to remind readers of the dangers to athletes in contact sports of
repetitive head injuries. Ryan's divorced dad, a former ice hockey
player, is always preaching that real men get back on the ice and play
through the pain. Coaches and refs seem pretty clueless. Ryan
believes that a hockey scholarship is the only access he has to
college. But he's getting scared. Headaches, blurred vision, and
forgetfulness seem to be increasing even in the off season.
Beginning with a graduation party and organized by the ten top
events of Gabby and Ryan's high school years, Top Ten introduces teen
readers to an engaging duo navigating some of the same stresses and
joys they may be encountering in their own lives. An affordable
paperback, it can be a most enjoyable beach read.
On a purrrsonal note, in undergraduate college a very nonromantic
relationship was one of the favorite aspects of the four years. My
school was wonderful, but far from perfect. A lot of the dorm
students had this Noah's Ark obsession with pairing everyone up two by
two. The pack of 18-22-year-old yentas was particularly fond of
"fixing up" higher profile students. Like me. Discovering a life
mate didn't fit anywhere on my to do list. I just wanted to get my
education while enjoying the full residential college experience and
honing my leadership skills. Mating could wait for the real world.
It turned that a classmate wanted to further his political ambitions
and had no time for the birds and bees stuff. I made him a
proposition: if we performed a romantic but chaste relationship
people would be satisfied and leave us alone. We pulled that off
quite successfully til graduation. Our real friendship was lively and
many faceted ranging from deep discussions to out and out practical
joking. I once filled his whole dorm bed with full water balloons
that drenched him when he got into bed. The book evoked fond memories
of this very special covert friendship. (Jules)
We haz the big studio window open with a screen for the first time
since last autumn. I am enjoying the breezes. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to my former friend.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



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