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Tony Correia is a former columnist for Xtra West and lives in Vancouver. In True to You (Lorimer, 2017), he writes about a gay teenager who struggles to have a relationship that lets him be true to himself. 9781459412552, 160 pages, $14.95
[BCBW 2017]
One Summer in Vancouver by Tony Correia (James Lorimer & Company)
Review by Brett Josef Grubisic
For North American teens aged 13–18, two handfuls of days in August, 1990 might seem impossibly remote. If identifiable at all, 1990 itself could be considered prehistory. After all, Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” video premiered in 1998, and Rihanna made “Pon de Replay” a phenomenon back in 2005. In 1990, Mark Zuckerberg turned six and the iPhone wasn’t yet a gleam in Steve Jobs’ eye. On the rare occasion that “streaming” appeared, the verb had nothing to do with data transmission.
The year might not register with much impact in Queer history either. This term’s popular use began some two decades past Stonewall, eight years after “AIDS” entered the lexicon, and a decade and a half before Canada’s Civil Marriage Act.
Published as a title in Lorimer’s “Children & Teens” catalogue, One Summer in Vancouver makes a heartfelt—and entertainingly persuasive—case for YA readers to deepen their historical knowledge. There’s also a bonus for the quiz-oriented pupil of an imaginary high school’s Queer History 101 class. Question: Name a significant societal moment between the onset of the AIDS pandemic and homosexual marriage in Canada. Answer: Celebration ’90 Gay Games III & Cultural Festival is a perfectly admissible answer.
In particular, for YA readers who identify as LGBTQIA2S+, Tony Correia’s celebratory novel can serve the invaluable function of colourfully filling in a historical blank. And in doing so, One Summer provides not only a rousing account of communal roots but an important message about the active, necessary and fruitful work of visibility. In the case of non-YA readers—aka geezers—the novel might prompt nostalgia for long-gone Vancouver landmarks as well as the sobering realization about how quickly time flies.
For Vancouver’s Tony Correia (author of YA titles Walk This Way and Same Love as well as a memoir, Foodsluts at Doll & Penny’s Cafe), the novel’s core theme is clear. In his “Historical Note,” Correia summarizes One Summer as “a novel about a diverse community demanding a seat at the table.” He implies that without toil and persistence, Celebration ’90 may well have never occurred at all: “They did so by working through their differences to host the world’s largest sporting events in 1990 without financial support from federal and provincial governments, without advertising and without the benefit of the Internet.”
Far from coming across as a dry lecture about the importance of elbow grease and stick-with-it-ness, One Summer focuses on the adventures of a trio of adolescents. Similar to Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City (which appeared in book form in 1978), the novel’s primary appeal stems from its likeable, relatable characters. And while One Summer relates coming-of-age experiences under the shadow of AIDS, its cast is neither sombre nor insular. In setting his characters in the midst of a festival of day-through-night celebration (from a variety of homes and sporting events all over the city to literary readings and night clubs), Correia situates his adolescents in a network of people of all ages and nationalities who have varied life experiences, political stances and beliefs. In short, between July 28, 1990, when the novel opens, and Sunday, August 12, 1990, at the novel’s epilogue, these kids see and learn a lot. For them, Celebration ’90 is formative.
“If it weren’t for The Village People, I’d still be home in Mississauga, stocking shelves at Safeway,” laments one of the novel’s main characters, Tom, in the first chapter. Not out of the closet—not even sure of his identity—Tom has run away from his non-affirming parents to his “out” Uncle Fred’s place in Vancouver, just as the Gay Games are about to start.
Momentarily disoriented, Tom had been wide-eyed and astounded when he heard The Village People’s “Go West” on the radio in his mom’s car and decided it was a sign to fly across the country without a word to his parents. Later, Tom meets his Uncle Fred’s roommate Gaetan, who cracks, “That’s the power of disco.”
Athletic, popular and eager to be the son his father expected (which is to say heterosexual), Tom delights at hearing himself identified as “questioning.” He intuits he can formulate answers to his own questions only when he’s far from home. Before arriving at his delightfully acerbic uncle’s home in the West End, Tom bumps into Dwayne on the street. A junior Goth (who carries an Anne Rice book like a bible), Dwayne correctly—and bitterly—senses he’s Tom’s opposite: neither popular nor attractive, this A&B Sound clerk is later told he’s a “nobody” (by a fully-grown, American A-lister and gay Republican, who turns out to be the novel’s sole antagonist incapable of rehabilitation). For himself, Dwayne projects a life to come marked by alienation and loneliness.
In the West End, Tom also meets Gina, whose home life with a conventionally minded and devout mother has reached a crisis. Torn between genetic family and chosen family, she understands a momentous decision is hers to make—and soon.
Written in first person, all three characters are engrossing recreations of adolescents—creatures prone (but not limited) to drama, angst, impulsiveness, jealousy and infatuation. Numerous personal quandaries aside, Gina, Tom and Dwayne’s direct exposure to a dizzyingly politicized adult world hints that while their teen eras have been momentous, the trials of adulthood will challenge them further still. 9781459417236
In 1990 Brett Josef Grubisic moved (with his boyfriend, younger sister and best friend) from Victoria, BC, to Japan. He taught English at a Berlitz branch in Tokyo.
[BCBW 2023]
[BCBW 2017]
One Summer in Vancouver by Tony Correia (James Lorimer & Company)
Review by Brett Josef Grubisic
For North American teens aged 13–18, two handfuls of days in August, 1990 might seem impossibly remote. If identifiable at all, 1990 itself could be considered prehistory. After all, Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” video premiered in 1998, and Rihanna made “Pon de Replay” a phenomenon back in 2005. In 1990, Mark Zuckerberg turned six and the iPhone wasn’t yet a gleam in Steve Jobs’ eye. On the rare occasion that “streaming” appeared, the verb had nothing to do with data transmission.
The year might not register with much impact in Queer history either. This term’s popular use began some two decades past Stonewall, eight years after “AIDS” entered the lexicon, and a decade and a half before Canada’s Civil Marriage Act.
Published as a title in Lorimer’s “Children & Teens” catalogue, One Summer in Vancouver makes a heartfelt—and entertainingly persuasive—case for YA readers to deepen their historical knowledge. There’s also a bonus for the quiz-oriented pupil of an imaginary high school’s Queer History 101 class. Question: Name a significant societal moment between the onset of the AIDS pandemic and homosexual marriage in Canada. Answer: Celebration ’90 Gay Games III & Cultural Festival is a perfectly admissible answer.
In particular, for YA readers who identify as LGBTQIA2S+, Tony Correia’s celebratory novel can serve the invaluable function of colourfully filling in a historical blank. And in doing so, One Summer provides not only a rousing account of communal roots but an important message about the active, necessary and fruitful work of visibility. In the case of non-YA readers—aka geezers—the novel might prompt nostalgia for long-gone Vancouver landmarks as well as the sobering realization about how quickly time flies.
For Vancouver’s Tony Correia (author of YA titles Walk This Way and Same Love as well as a memoir, Foodsluts at Doll & Penny’s Cafe), the novel’s core theme is clear. In his “Historical Note,” Correia summarizes One Summer as “a novel about a diverse community demanding a seat at the table.” He implies that without toil and persistence, Celebration ’90 may well have never occurred at all: “They did so by working through their differences to host the world’s largest sporting events in 1990 without financial support from federal and provincial governments, without advertising and without the benefit of the Internet.”
Far from coming across as a dry lecture about the importance of elbow grease and stick-with-it-ness, One Summer focuses on the adventures of a trio of adolescents. Similar to Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City (which appeared in book form in 1978), the novel’s primary appeal stems from its likeable, relatable characters. And while One Summer relates coming-of-age experiences under the shadow of AIDS, its cast is neither sombre nor insular. In setting his characters in the midst of a festival of day-through-night celebration (from a variety of homes and sporting events all over the city to literary readings and night clubs), Correia situates his adolescents in a network of people of all ages and nationalities who have varied life experiences, political stances and beliefs. In short, between July 28, 1990, when the novel opens, and Sunday, August 12, 1990, at the novel’s epilogue, these kids see and learn a lot. For them, Celebration ’90 is formative.
“If it weren’t for The Village People, I’d still be home in Mississauga, stocking shelves at Safeway,” laments one of the novel’s main characters, Tom, in the first chapter. Not out of the closet—not even sure of his identity—Tom has run away from his non-affirming parents to his “out” Uncle Fred’s place in Vancouver, just as the Gay Games are about to start.
Momentarily disoriented, Tom had been wide-eyed and astounded when he heard The Village People’s “Go West” on the radio in his mom’s car and decided it was a sign to fly across the country without a word to his parents. Later, Tom meets his Uncle Fred’s roommate Gaetan, who cracks, “That’s the power of disco.”
Athletic, popular and eager to be the son his father expected (which is to say heterosexual), Tom delights at hearing himself identified as “questioning.” He intuits he can formulate answers to his own questions only when he’s far from home. Before arriving at his delightfully acerbic uncle’s home in the West End, Tom bumps into Dwayne on the street. A junior Goth (who carries an Anne Rice book like a bible), Dwayne correctly—and bitterly—senses he’s Tom’s opposite: neither popular nor attractive, this A&B Sound clerk is later told he’s a “nobody” (by a fully-grown, American A-lister and gay Republican, who turns out to be the novel’s sole antagonist incapable of rehabilitation). For himself, Dwayne projects a life to come marked by alienation and loneliness.
In the West End, Tom also meets Gina, whose home life with a conventionally minded and devout mother has reached a crisis. Torn between genetic family and chosen family, she understands a momentous decision is hers to make—and soon.
Written in first person, all three characters are engrossing recreations of adolescents—creatures prone (but not limited) to drama, angst, impulsiveness, jealousy and infatuation. Numerous personal quandaries aside, Gina, Tom and Dwayne’s direct exposure to a dizzyingly politicized adult world hints that while their teen eras have been momentous, the trials of adulthood will challenge them further still. 9781459417236
In 1990 Brett Josef Grubisic moved (with his boyfriend, younger sister and best friend) from Victoria, BC, to Japan. He taught English at a Berlitz branch in Tokyo.
[BCBW 2023]
