Week of 24/2/14: Eleanor and Park

Prompt:  Describe the similarities and differences between the main character and you. Though I was tempted to the playlist prompt, but the whole book talks about music, so I thought it redundant..
Pages: Start to 220

Normally, I wouldn't even bother to read a book like this; a teenage romance set in the mid-80's with the characters saying "I need you" and "I want to eat his face" on every other page.  But the thing that drew me in, besides their promised love of punk rock and new wave music (my two favorite music genres) was the female protagonist, Eleanor.  A larger un-girly girl with huge (not stereotypical 80's huge) red hair with a broken family. I find we have a few things in common.  I also have a few things in common with the male protagonist, Park.  But not everything, which I'm happy about.  I prefer when characters are more foreign to me in personality and the way they go about life, it makes for an interesting read.

Starting with similarities, and Eleanor, the biggest thing I have in common with her is a love for the Smiths and The Cure, and so on with those dark-wave new-wave bands.  Though I hate labeling music.     Now Eleanor's family is a lot worse off than mine, but our parents are divorced, so that counts as a similarity.  One of my favorite things about her is her resistance to makeup and any other fake mass-produced product.  I feel the same way, so I would say we have that in common.  She is built bigger, bigger than I am, but I also have a more muscular, athletic frame.  I love that she's not model-looking or stunningly beautiful because it makes the story more beautiful.  The back of Eleanor and Park even says 'two misfits' so I can totally relate.  Well one misfit here.  For differences, the biggest one that popped out at me was that she hates the Sex Pistols, and I absolutely love them.

Park is not an overly-masculine boy, which makes him a really cool character.  The boy's not afraid to wear eyeliner, he's a keeper!  He and I both share a love for loud, brash, painfully politically honest punk music.  Who cares if they aren;t good musicians or if they can't sing, it's not the point!  A difference between us is that he wears Vans and I wear Chuck Taylors, but that's not a big deal.  We both wear all black whenever we can, and have stereos that get us in trouble because we play them too loudly.  He has a Walkman, I have my CDs.  We both have turntables.  You know, fun stuff like that.  This entire book is fun outlined in sadness and sympathy.  It's not a cry your heart out, or at least not to me, but it's definitely bittersweet.



Oh and anyone who can get what song the poll's quoting from can, like, get a brownie I made.

Aren't they adorable?  Wow, never said that before.