"It's Kind of A Funny Story"

Ned Vizzini is the author of It's Kind of a Funny Story ("insightful and utterly authentic" --New York Times Book Review), Be More Chill, and Teen Angst? Naaah....

He applied the "page 69 test" to It's Kind of A Funny Story and reported the following:

Teen sex! Teen sex! Oh wow, it sure is exciting. (Trying to think how to write about my own work without tooting my own horn too much, can't, so here we go.)

I'm proud of a few things about my novel It's Kind of A Funny Story (2006), but one of the best was my inclusion in Nerve.com's Henry Miller Award for Best Sex Scene 2006. (Didn't win; honor to be nominated; etc.) Page 69 of the book is a little pastiche of sexual tension and lust among 14-year-olds that takes place just after the protagonist has gotten high for the first time. He (Craig Gilner), his best friend, and the beautiful girl of his dreams, Nia, are all together at his best friend's house celebrating the fact that they've been accepted into Executive Pre-Professional High School (in Manhattan).

It's representative, I'd say, of the honest sexuality that can be presented now in work for young adults. There's a more graphic scene later where a girl's nipples are described as "the highest point on her." Is this sexuality representative of the adolescent climate in the 00ze, or does it promote bad behavior? I don't know. Censors' department.

Check out Ned Vizzini's website, his MySpace page, and the It's Kind of a Funny Story MySpace page; read an excerpt from It's Kind of a Funny Story.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue