DONORBOY by Brendan Halpin, Random House/Villard, August 2004, paperback, ISBN: 1-4000-6277-2
"They open and close you
Then they talk like they know you
They don't know you
They're friends and they're foes too
Trouble child
Breaking like the waves at Malibu."
--Joni Mitchell, "Trouble Child"

The teenage daughter:

"Okay, so here we go with my grief journal.
"Jesus, that's mad corny. 'My grief journal.'--What are you doing Ros? Oh, I'm just writing in my grief journal. Okay, grief journal, grief journal, mad corny, mad libs, mad stupid, mad at the world (are you paying attention, Denise? Make sure to ask, why do you think you wrote mad at the world there?) I don't know, genius, maybe because my parents are dead and my dad is some dork and not Kurt Cobain or Bono or even that Everybody Loves Raymond dork or anything else I used to imagine, he's just a regular nonfamous dork like any dad, and I have absolutely no idea on earth why he would want me to live with him. I want to live with Aunt Karen, I want to die like Mom. And Mommy.
"No, Denise, not really. I mean, I don't particularly feel like living now, because it seems really pointless, but I don't really feel like doing anything as big a deal as killing myself, and probably you don't want to hear this, Denise, but I don't really want to die a virgin, even though there's nobody I really...sorry, IM from Sasha, probably I should do this in a real journal instead of on the computer and it did cross my mind to say, 'I have to go write in my grief jrnl :-[' but I was too embarrassed, it's too--see now when they ask what's hard about having two moms, probably the hardest thing is that when something is really really gay, like a grief journal, you can't say it's really gay, because that's like dissing my mom, who's dead..."

The sperm donor (who is suddenly the practicing father of the teenage daughter):

"MINIDISC #72: RECORDED 11/13/04
...It is now one a.m. I don't know where my child is. I am vacillating between anger and terror, and right now anger seems to have the upper hand. Why is she doing this to me? I mean, I certainly try, I bought all the [vegetarian] burritos, I stuck up for her in [school disciplinary] meetings, and I feel like I get this kind of a kick in the teeth in response. "Shit! "(thumping sounds) "That series of thumps, by the way, was the sound of me punching the couch. It was quite unsatisfying and made me feel silly. "I am going to die if anything happens to her. I will kill myself if Karen and possibly Ros' grandmother and Uncle Mike don't do it for me. I suspect she is probably fine, probably at some party again, and I'd really like to go out and drive around walking distance from Sasha's house looking for parties, but then if she came here, she...but of course it is Sasha's house they are going to be sneaking [back] into. "Can I really go haul her out of a party? Didn't someone's father do that in Weird Science? or Sixteen Candles? Some John Hughes movie, anyway. I suppose that would make her a social pariah, with the popular kids pointing and laughing and eventually electing her prom queen and dumping pig blood on her. "Then again, I do recall about eight years ago that a girl died of alcohol poisoning while the other partygoers stepped over her at a party like this.
"Then again, most kids who go to parties don't end up dead, they just end up drunk.
"All right, I can't just sit here waiting for the phone to ring. I am getting into the car."

Sean Cassidy (No, not Shaun Cassidy.) was asked to make a donation fifteen years ago and now he has made the life-altering decision to assume the parenting of the 14-year-old daughter who has never before met him.

Brendan Halpin had all the opportunities in the world to play this scenario for cheap, silly laughs like, for example in Three Men and a Baby. Instead, the author chose the much more difficult path of creating a smart funny touching story about both the girl who is dealing with the tragic loss of the lesbian parents who have raised her while also dealing with typical adolescent concerns involving school, drugs, friendships and her own sexuality, and the thirty-something public-interest attorney who believes his successful life and career is missing something he hopes will be found in taking advantage of what fate has dropped in his lap.

"Has the dawn ever seen your eyes?
Have the days made you so unwise?
Realize and you are.
Had you talked to the winds of time,
Then you'd know how the water rhyme,
Taste of wine,
How can you know where you've been?
In time you'll see the sign
And realize your sin.
Will you know how the seed is sown?
All your time has been overgrown,
Never known.
Have you walked on the stones of years?
When you speak, is it you that hears?
Are your ears full?
You can't hear anything at all."
--Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, "The Stones of Years"

Yes, Tarkus--for which I had to Google the lyrics and which no, I haven't heard since high school--is the butt of a running joke in DONORBOY. The book is loaded with all sorts of sarcastic allusions to relics and revered symbols of American mass-culture.

(The one that plays an important role and was totally new to me in my sheltered California vegetarian world is turducken [tur.DUK.un] which I suppose the rest of you already know consists of a boneless turkey that is stuffed with a boneless duck that is stuffed with a boneless chicken.)

The story is told entirely through various forms of contemporary communication: emails, text messages, IMs, journal entries, and a few old-fashioned letters. Published as an adult title, it is as much Sean's story, journey, and growth as it is Rosalind's.

When things aren't going well for the pair their loneliness is palpable. But in those sparkling moments when the pair unwittingly act in tandem--when you can see where this bright-but-rebellious kid got half her genes--you find yourself cheering loudly for the unlikely relationship to succeed.

A story that probes the act of grieving and the acts of parenting and being parented, DONORBOY is a delight to read.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com ( )

A great look at 'family' in today's world. ( )

reminds me a lot of Feeling Sorry for Celia b/c the format for both is all emails/letters/transcripts. The book is about a girl whose moms (lesbians) die and she ends up with her father who has never been involved in her life until now (he was a sperm donor, hence the title). I laughed a lot while reading this book. ( )

I can't believe I enjoyed a book written mostly as emails and a journal. But it's that good. And funny. ( )

The whole story is told through emails, text messages, or voice recording. Very original text. The author does a fantastic job of giving each character a clear voice and identity. ( )