Opening on a truly horrendous prom night for our narrator Dade, Nick Burd’s first novel, The Vast Fields of Ordinary, never quite lives up to the promise of its vivid first scene: Dade is in the bathroom, hiding from the fact that Pablo, the boy he loves, is currently out on the dance floor with his girlfriend, unwilling to acknowledge their relationship.
Burd’s novel takes place over the summer before Dade leaves for college, as he tries to figure out what he wants out of life and a relationship. Most of the narrative deals with Dade’s burgeoning relationship with Alex Kincaid, an older boy who is a part-time drug dealer. Pablo, however, becomes angry and aggressive in the face of Dade moving on.
The way Burd depicts Pablo is the true problem here: Pablo becomes a caricature of the tortured closet case. This portrayal is even more uncomfortable when paired alongside Dade and Alex’s quite romantic and more healthy relationship. Worse still is Pablo’s ultimate fate, which is not only grisly and more likely to be found in a much older and less enlightened book, but used by Dade as a fairly narcissist way to reflect on his life. The real shame is that Burd’s writing is superb and artful, he does a great job capturing the feeling of the last summer before college. The rest of the story and characterization, however, just don’t work.
Recommended only as a supplemental purchase for libraries with large collections.
Reviewed by, Angie Manfredi
Head of Youth Services
Los Alamos County Library System
