John Galardi is a loner, unable to express his feelings except in the pages of his zine, "Bananafish." He finds inspiration in another zine, "Escape Velocity," created by Marisol Guzman, a self-proclaimed "rich spoiled lesbian private-school gifted-and-talented writer virgin." Her sharp observations make John laugh out loud and he decides he must meet this witty author. By planting himself in Tower Records the day she drops off the latest issue, John manages to arrange a coffee date that extends over several Saturday mornings. They discuss everything from John's inability to feel and his parent's divorce to Marisol's problems with her suffocating adoptive parents. When Marisol casually tells John that she likes him, he is flabbergasted: "Honest to God a shiver ran through my body... Nobody ever said that they liked me. Ever. Not even [my friend] Brian, who probably actually doesn't." After a disastrous "just friends" junior prom date and a weekend zine conference spent together, John realizes that his feelings for Marisol are more than platonic. And Marisol, who is exploring her identity as a young lesbian, has no idea how to let John down gently without losing her new best friend.

Like Barbara Wersba's Whistle Me Home, Hard Love tackles the delicate issue of unrequited love between a straight and gay teen. But what sets this novel apart from similarly themed books is Wittlinger's choice to present the story from John's straight male point of view. Funny and poignant first-person narration will engender empathy for John as he attempts to connect with his emotionally distant parents and an understanding of how his need for their affection has manifested itself in romantic feelings for a girl he knows is unavailable to him. Hard Love is a thoughtful and on-target addition to the growing canon of gay and lesbian coming-of-age stories. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert


From Publishers Weekly
PW said of this novel about the complex friendship between high school friends, "The awkwardness of awakening sexuality, a growing preoccupation with identity and crossing the line from friendship to more are themes here with which teens will readily identify." Ages 12-up. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-Teen angst is always a popular route for young adult literature, and Wittlinger has successfully created an intense example here. John is a high school junior whose difficult family life has left him feeling lost and confused. He discovers the world of "zines," homemade magazines written and published by people like himself. Soon John meets another zine writer, Marisol, a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee Cambridge, Massachusetts, rich spoiled lesbian private-school gifted-and-talented writer virgin looking for love." These mismatched teens discover that they are kindred spirits, and a close friendship develops. Unfortunately, John finds himself falling for Marisol, who cannot return his love. Together, they discover many truths about themselves and their families. Familiar motifs are part of this story-love, sex, the prom, fights with parents-but Wittlinger's telling and rich characters make them new and different. The dialogue and situations are well crafted, and the story, while a bit melodramatic, is engaging. The world of zine writing is real, and teens reading Hard Love may find themselves inspired to go out and pick up a few, and perhaps begin discovering their own creative talents. This is a smart addition to YA collections and a good recommendation to readers who may be feeling outside the norm.Dina Sherman, Brooklyn Children's Museum, NY Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-John, "a witty misanthrope," meets and falls for zine writer Marisol, a "rich spoiled lesbian private-school gifted-and-talented writer virgin looking for love." A bittersweet tale of self-expression and the struggle to achieve self-love. (July) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
John's world is not perfect. His mother hasn't touched him in six years, his father loathes their weekly dinners, and his one friend has gotten a girlfriend. John's one pleasure is reading zines, especially "Escape Velocity," written by a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee lesbian" named Marisol. John and Marisol become friends, but when he falls in love with her, he learns that love can be very hard indeed. Mark Webber's youthful voice projects all of John's turbulent emotions clearly. The characters' voices are distinct and easily understood in a strong story suitable for older teens. B.F. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
John spends weekends with his fair-weather, playboy father and the rest of the week with an emotionally fragile mother, who hasn't touched him since his father left them. She would rather let a jar shatter on the floor than brush against her son's fingers. Although he believes himself to be "immune to emotion," he reveals his loneliness and alienation in his zine, Bananafish. When he forces a meeting with Marisol, a testy, gifted, and talented senior, who is the author of his favorite zine, Escape Velocity, he finds exactly what he hoped for--a kindred spirit. This unique, magical, and sometimes awkward friendship leads to love, at least for John. The feeling is not mutual; Marisol is a lesbian. Through warmth and connection, wreckage and pain, lies and truths, and a whole lot of writing back and forth, John discovers he has feelings after all. Theme, plot, conflict, pacing--everything works in this extraordinarily sophisticated, multilayered book. John's voice is an exceptional balance of wry, caustic wit and aching vulnerability. Both John and Marisol are interesting and deeply attractive young people, replete with quirks, flaws, and complex emotional content. Even minor characters on the edges of the story are wonderfully crafted and convincing. Teenagers should be prepared to laugh, wince, rage, weep, and heave at least one deep sigh when they read this meaningful story. Highly recommended for high school readers. Holly Koelling


From Kirkus Reviews
Changing typefaces, canted blocks of text, and occasional pale background collages give this star-crossed romance a hip look, without compromising legibility. After 16 years of studied disinterest in the opposite sex, John falls hard for Marisol, who, in one of life's little ironies, is thoroughly, proudly out of the closet. Having encountered each other through their self-written, confessional ``zines,'' the two find commonality not only in their love of writing, but in their bone-deep distrust of others: hers a result of how her adoptive family has behaved toward her, his the product of shuttling between his self-absorbed father and a mother so traumatized by the divorce that she never hugs or touches him. Meeting only on weekends, John and Marisol develop a clandestine friendship that is tested hard when John reveals his feelings for her (discovering them himself at practically the same time), and she in turn hooks up with a trio of lesbians and takes off for New York City. They do part friends, though, and if Wittlinger (Lombardo's Law, 1993, etc.) makes Marisol a little too sure of herself to be completely believable, her bittersweet portrait of an adolescent writer caught up in a quixotic first love will snare susceptible readers. (Fiction. 13+) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
VOYARemembering that adolescence is a trying time filled with questions and feelings, Hard Love is an intriguing and absorbing novel.


Review
VOYA Remembering that adolescence is a trying time filled with questions and feelings, Hard Love is an intriguing and absorbing novel.


Book Description
Since his parents' divorce, John's mother hasn't touched him, her new fiancé wants them to move away, and his father would rather be anywhere than at Friday night dinner with his son. It's no wonder John writes articles like "Interview with the Stepfather" and "Memoirs from Hell." The only release he finds is in homemade zines like the amazing Escape Velocity by Marisol, a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee Lesbian." Haning around the Boston Tower Records for the new issue of Escape Velocity, John meets Marisol and a hard love is born.While at first their friendship is based on zines, dysfuntional families, and dreams of escape, soon both John and Marisol begin to shed their protective shells. Unfortunately, John mistakes this growing intimacy for love, and a disastrous date to his junior prom leaves that friendship in ruins. Desperately hoping to fix things, John convinces Marisol to come with him to a zine conference on Cape Cod. On the sandy beaches by the Bluefish Wharf Inn, John realizes just how hard love can be.With keen insight into teenage life, Ellen Wittlinger delivers a story of adolescence that is fierce and funny -- and ultimately transforming -- even as it explores the pain of growing up.


Card catalog description
After starting to publish a zine in which he writes his secret feelings about his lonely life and his parents' divorce, sixteen-year-old John meets an unusual girl and begins to develop a healthier personality.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Hard love? Frankly, John hasn't known any love in a long time. Ever since his parents were divorced, his mother hasn't touched him. To be more specific, his mother hasn't even accidentally grazed him with her hand when they both reach into the refrigerator at the same time. Strange? You bet, and it's been going on for years. His father isn't any better, effectively having checked out of John's life, too. John heads over to his dad's house in Boston every weekend, but his father leaves on dates long before the cheese on the pizza begins to coagulate.

At school, John obscures his pain with aloof sarcasm. He hangs out with his pal Brian, but the two rarely move beyond wisecracks. John avoids conversation and connection. As long as he and Brian hang out, at least it looks as though each of them has a friend. It's a silent agreement between them — a pretend friendship. It's the best one John has. It's the only one, too.

Ellen Wittlinger's challenging new novel,Hard Love, introduces us to this lonely teenager. He hides behind his wit. He wears his emotional scars like an invisible Mohawk or tattoo — with style, with the oblivious purposefulness for which teens are famous. You know John. You know that beneath that edge a smoldering heart lurks, ready to be found. Yet Wittlinger doesn't make it easy for anyone — including her readers — to find this wounded heart. She has bigger, more important plans for this complicated character. Her patience and honesty as a writer are gifts to teens everywhere.

John's world turns upside-down when he comes across a sassyzinecalled Escape Velocity, a self-published magazine by a Boston teen named Marisol. John is startled but intrigued by her honesty and self-awareness. In print, out there for anyone to read, she calls herself a "lesbian private-school gifted-and-talented writer virgin looking for love." How on earth could a teenager know herself well enough to say all that? And where does she get the guts to say it in print?

Inspired, John decides to create his own zine, not for self-exploration but more in the hopes of creating something for Marisol to read. After several fumbles, he connects with Marisol, who is angry, intense, and emotional in ways that John never imagined anyone could be.

Here's where the magic starts. Rob Thomas, celebrated author of Rats Saw God and other popular novels for teens, calls Hard Love "hip...compelling...gutsy," and you'll see why as this unusual friendship unfolds. Maybe John has nothing to lose. Maybe he is so lonely that even another rejection wouldn't make his life any worse than it is. Despite his shyness, he pursues Marisol and tries to break through her protective shell.

It works, surprising them both. Marisol is won over by John's earnestness and by his sexual ambiguity. She believes him when he says he's not trying to hit on her. He just wants to talk about writing, about zines. The two are a strange pair, and their friendship confuses everyone — including themselves. They talk about writing, honesty, their dysfunctional families, and their feelings.

Author Ellen Wittlinger sublimely crafts John's awakening. Marisol challenges him. She stirs up feelings of longing and hopes for closeness that he buried inside himself long ago. When John begins to confuse his friendship with Marisol with romantic love, it's unclear whether he's headed for a fall or one of the most exciting journeys of his life. Frankly, it also is unclear if Marisol, a self-described lesbian, may be falling in love with John, too.

Yes, this is a love story, but it's a hard one. Hard Love explores the sort of love that transforms us, makes us whole, and leads us into the wilderness of our own hearts. It's about the kind of love that supports us and makes us grow, but also rips us to shreds. Deep friendship is a difficult thing to find and to nurture. Wittlinger never simplifies John and Marisol's experience of friendship. She doesn't give the reader easy answers either. Provocative and refreshing, Hard Love is about the real stuff.
—Cathy Young

ANNOTATION

After starting to publish a zine in which he writes his secret feelings about his lonely life and his parents' divorce, sixteen-year-old John meets an unusual girl and begins to develop a healthier personality.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Since his parents' divorce, John's mother hasn't touched him, her new fiancé wants them to move away, and his father would rather be anywhere than at Friday night dinner with his son. It's no wonder John writes articles like "Interview with the Stepfather" and "Memoirs from Hell." The only release he finds is in homemade zines like the amazing Escape Velocity by Marisol, a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee Lesbian." Haning around the Boston Tower Records for the new issue of Escape Velocity, John meets Marisol and a hard love is born.

While at first their friendship is based on zines, dysfuntional families, and dreams of escape, soon both John and Marisol begin to shed their protective shells. Unfortunately, John mistakes this growing intimacy for love, and a disastrous date to his junior prom leaves that friendship in ruins. Desperately hoping to fix things, John convinces Marisol to come with him to a zine conference on Cape Cod. On the sandy beaches by the Bluefish Wharf Inn, John realizes just how hard love can be.

With keen insight into teenage life, Ellen Wittlinger delivers a story of adolescence that is fierce and funny -- and ultimately transforming -- even as it explores the pain of growing up.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

PW said of this novel about the complex friendship between high school friends, "The awkwardness of awakening sexuality, a growing preoccupation with identity and crossing the line from friendship to more are themes here with which teens will readily identify." Ages 12-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature - Kathleen Karr

Years after his parents' divorce, John is still tied in knots. Trying to learn to communicate again, he enters the "zine" world, producing his own personal little literary magazine. He's drawn deeper into this world by meeting Marisol, a free spirit and self-professed lesbian teenager. When friendship develops into love on John's part, emotional chaos breaks loose. Wittlinger's novel is tough and well-written. It delves deeply into the world of distressed teenagers with tight, believable dialogue, moving excerpts from "zines," and no apologies.

VOYA - Beth Gilbert

Sixteen year-old John Galardi Jr. calls himself "immune to emotion"; his insecure mother avoids any physical contact with her son and his single, intellectual father spends their father-son bonding time in search of other women. Without a dependable peer base at school, John finds solace in the insular, underground world of homemade "zine" writing and publishing. Once he befriends the quirky (and homosexual) Marisol, a fellow zine writer, John's views on love, trust, and family take on completely new dimensions. Author Wittlinger brings the reader a refreshingly quick-witted teenage protagonist in John "Gio" Galardi; male readers will find an emotional and, at times, conflicted voice as he negotiates the unresolved issues between his divorced parents, his mother's impending remarriage, and his growing feelings for Marisol. One unique point to note is the integration of zine articles and poetry throughout the novel. In addition, the non-dramatic ending is plausible without insulting teens' intelligence. Remembering that adolescence is a trying time filled with questions and feelings, Hard Love is an intriguing and absorbing novel for the gay/lesbian and young adult collections of any suburban or rural library. VOYA Codes: 3Q 4P S (Readable without serious defects; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12).

KLIATT

To quote KLIATT's May 1999 review of the hardcover edition: Creative students, sometimes outsiders, have found ways to express themselves and connect to other people through the world of zines, homemade magazines. Wittlinger uses this zine experience as the background of her main characters in Hard Love: John (Gio) and Marisol, who each produce a zine and find each other through them. The actual setting is the Boston area, with well-realized descriptions of Cambridge, Tower Records (where the zines are exchanged for free), and Provincetown (on Cape Cod) where the two go to attend an impromptu zine conference...The story begins as John and Marisol first meet. Marisol is a petite warrior, a brilliant student, an in-your-face adolescent, who announces to John and the world (in her zine) that she is a virgin lesbian looking for love. John is fascinated by her strength and beauty, and thinks he is immune to her attractiveness because he is so pessimistic about love after the debacle of his parents' marriage. Marisol is obsessed with truth telling, but both discover the complexity and difficulty of doing so...The brilliance of the book is in the development of the characters of Marisol and John, and of their growing emotional entanglement. No part of this is simplistic, no part is easy to understand—and that is as it should be. "Hard Love," a folk song by a local songwriter, Bob Franke, becomes the means by which John and Marisol recognize what they mean to each other, "the love that heals our lives is mostly hard love." KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 1999, Simon & Schuster, 230p, 21cm, $8.00. Ages 13 to 18.Reviewer: Claire Rosser; May 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 3)

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