Steven Goldman Books
What it's about
How do you sum up a novel?
I think if Mitchell Wells, the seventeen year old main character of the book,
had to describe his junior year in one line, he'd say something like:
"David is gay. He told me at lunch."
That catches a lot of it.
Of course the title, Two Parties, One Tux and a Short Film About the Grapes of Wrath pretty much sums it up too. The book is about two friends who go to a couple of parties (after one of which Mitchell leaves with the girl of his dreams, who turns out to be a bit of a nightmare), go to a prom (where Mitchell ruins a tux), and make a movie (that almost gets Mitchell expelled).
I wanted to call it Naked Clay: The
Unintended Consequences of Submitting a Short Animated Film Featuring Naked Clay
Figures Being Tortured in Various Ways As If It Were a Five Page Essay on Biblical
Themes in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Why I Am, Subsequently, Now
More Than Ready To Go To College, but no one else liked that title.
What they're saying about it
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
"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."
VOYA
"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." - Grace Dea, Teen Reviewer
School Library Journal
"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.
Combined with gags about the school administration, it all adds up to a story that's so funny and yet so realistic. 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 parternship between the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Round Table and the Social Responsibilities Round Table, listed Two Parties as one of 34 outstanding books published in 2009 featuring GLBTQ content. Check it out.
Articles featuring Steven and Two Parties
The Boston Globe
"Teen angst, captured in words" or on
writer Ellen Steinbaum's website.
From the Let'r Rip Blog
It's hard to make a slice-of-life school story like this one stick out among
all the other school stories out there, but your prose is light and has great flow,
your characters are both witty and adorably awkward by turns, and your portrayal...read more.
How To Buy It
TITLE: Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about The Grapes of Wrath
Publication Date: October 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1-59990-271-5
ISBN-10: 1-59990-271-0
Find it at a local bookstore or buy it at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or Borders.