Steven Goldman
Politics & Prose
"Mitchell's serious yet cynical take on high school is poignant and funny. Steven Goldman's first young adult novel is a funny, original, and spot on coming-of-age story."
Kirkus Reviews
"Take one nudity - and violence-filled claymation film, a suddenly gay best friend and plenty of dry wit. Add a dollop of creative chapter headings and enjoy. Mitch's junior year suddenly goes off the rails when best friend David comes out one day.
Things spiral out of control from there, through believable angst and the absurdities of high-school politics. When Mitch turns in his arts film for an English paper (on a book he hasn't read), he finds himself accused of religious mockery, his teacher disappears and he acquires a popular girlfriend.
But the heart of this story revolves around renegotiating a friendship that no longer works the same way: If David is gay and Mitch and David do everything together, what does this mean for Mitch?
Mitch and David are nobodies in the school hierarchy, the perfect perspective for astute observations of their world, and Mitch's strangely flat affect enhances the subtle humor of his first-person narrative. Debut author Goldman, who clearly understands how teen boys think and speak, delivers an understated, genuine delight."
"Two Parties is amazing. It is beautiful, heartbreaking, and most important, real. The dialogue is perfect, the characters act like real teenagers, and the outrageous things they do often line up with real life.
It has been one of my favorite books of the year and I hope there are many more to come from this author."
Reviewer: Grace Dea, Teen Reviewer
"A side-splitting slice of male adolescence, this novel turns the spotlight on the ridiculousness that is the average, contemporary American high school experience, much as Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999) did a decade ago, but with funnier results.
Scrawny and slightly naive 17-year-old Mitchell's best friend comes out to him at lunch in the cafeteria, his younger sister railroads his not-so-social social life, he turns in a sort-of pornographic claymation film in lieu of an English paper, and somehow he finds popular Danielle encouraging him to go up her shirt.
The plot takes a backseat to gems of dialogue ("virginity.... Keeps your wrist muscles supple") and inner voice ("I imagine every student in my English class. If I only have erections for the females, I'm straight. It's really the only way to tell").
Combined with gags about the school administration, it all adds up to a story that's so funny and yet so realistic. As in most high schools, there is a lot of talk about beer, butts, and banging, but in his blasé cluelessness, Mitchell analyzes rather than glorifies such things (e.g., the make-out scene where he can't figure out where to put his hands). Readers should be prepared to laugh a lot, and to say "aw" at the tender resolution. A must-have for fiction collections."
- Rhona Campbell, Washington, DC Public Library
The Rainbow Project, a joint undertaking by the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Round Table and the Social Responsibilities Round Table, listed Two Parties on its Rainbow List as one of 34 outstanding books published in the last eighteen months featuring GLBTQ content. Check it out.
Articles featuring Steven and Two Parties
In The Boston Globe or on wirter Ellen Steinbaum's website.Find Two Parties at a local bookstore or buy it at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble or Borders.