Sample: IDENTITY
A gay teenager deals with his parents and grapples with his teachers loneliness; a pot-head tries to hide from taking on responsibility; an obese American woman participates in a TV show and discovers her desire; an embittered college tutor breaks down in a lecture; and an elderly lady tries to come to terms with her past as death approaches.
Identity is about five very different characters in London, each one of whom narrates a segment of the book. As the characters lives overlap and their different themes merge, a portrait of modern Western identity is drawn.
Section 1.
(Extract from The Age of Innocence)
Jarold, your father and I want a word, says Mum in her business bitch voice. She’s a lawyer, which as you can imagine is great for me. Dad’s a chef, which makes Mum’s feed-yourself rule seem doubly cruel. They look very serious, even more so that usual. I consider trying to rush them, but their bodies are too close together to allow me safe passage.
Well what is it? I say, since I’m on a meter here – I’ve got to finish my reps before Bad Girls starts in ten minutes, and I’ve still got sixty to do. You have to wait at least thirty seconds in-between sets of ten (push ups, press ups, whatever), but it s easy to overstep the mark and I really don’t wanna miss this weeks, since the evil one apparently snuffs it.
In the living room please, says Dad, like his voice carries any weight or something. No one moves, so my Mum goes Now! in her angry, louder voice, and we all file in and sit down on the stupid armchairs. I wait for them to speak, but there’s this long pause which is infuriating, plus they re both biting their lip, which looks ridiculous. Then, just to piss me off even further they glance at each other with this look that clearly means something, and it’s like they have their own secret code of communication.
Are you going to tell me what’s going on or is this like some coming of age ritual or something? I say in the end. There is a continued silence, so I make as if to stand up. This seems to panic Mum into talking.
Look Jarold, she says in a tense, this-is-a-big-deal kind of way. We know all about the nightclub, and we know all about what you’ve been up to.
I’m like huh?
We know what you’ve been doing with yourself ! says Dad, still under the delusion that anyone actually cares what he says. You’ve been going to that gay bar and picking up... Men. He whispers this last word like it s a mortal sin or something, rather than the logical thing to pick up in a gay bar. It s going to be kind of hypercritical if they turn out to be not okay with gayness now, since Mum s regularly defending fags and Dad s kitchen at work is like populated by them.
Don t you want to say anything? He says abruptly. That s a tack which he learned off Mum, and I really hate it when people can t be bothered to think up their own style. I deign to reply with no more than a shrug.
First things first says Mum militantly, seeing Dad floundering and assuming control like a sergeant. It’s okay if you think you’re gay. You’re young, you might grow out of it, but it’s okay and you need to know that.
She watches me closely. I’m like, great, now I know. Thanks.
But it is not okay for you to lie about this kind of stuff she says quickly, unnecessary emphasis on the not part. This gets me mad, since a) parents are there to be lied to, and b) like I m gonna tell Mum or Dad that I’m off banging guys and by the way is that okay? I mean, really, I know this is like, a ceremonial talk that I have to have, but couldn’t someone at least have considered what they were gonna say to me first.
Don’t try and be smart. You’re not even grown up yet she continues, like she knows all about it.
I’m like, Mum you’re embarrassing yourself. I stand up.
Sit yourself back down right this minute! she screams. Who the hell do you think you are?
Look what is this? I say, making a last stab at being reasonable.
This is you sitting down and listening to someone other than the bloody CD player for a change! She roars.
I’m like, the definition of fuck off. This doesn’t go down well At All. Next thing I know Mum’s screaming her head off like an ambulance, coming up with apparently random stuff, the first thing that comes to her head. She shouts so fast it s hard to make sense out of it, but I get the gist. It s pretty disturbing, let me tell you. She seems to have totally lost control, because you can just scrap all that stuff she was saying earlier about it being okay that I m gay. If this is anything to go by, okay is like, Far From. Dad’s looking at her and then me like a scared cuddly thing. He doesn’t know what to do, and neither do I, so we wait. Eventually the screaming fit subsides and Mum drops her head and starts sobbing instead.
Maybe you should apologise Dad suggests to me after a few minutes of us moronically staring at her.
Are you joking? I say. I m not apologising. Can’t you see the woman has issues?
That sets her right off again, and this time she goes on for even longer. To give you an idea, though I m not gonna try to get it all down, this is something like what she was on about: YOU RE GAY AND I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING AS IF YOU WERE NORMAL TO BEGIN WITH I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN WHEN YOU WERE BORN MAYBE IT S MY FAULT NO IT S HIS (DAD’S) HIM AND HIS MOTHER SHE NEVER COULD JUST BUTT OUT OF THINGS I WISH I’D NEVER MARRIED HIM AND NEVER HAD YOU CAN T YOU SEE YOU SUCKED UP MY LIFE WHY CAN T YOU BOTH JUST LEAVE ME IN PEACE SOMETIMES I WISH I WAS DEAD.
I swear she would have wowed a deep sea diver.
Anyway, I’m like, Suits me.
There s not much more she can say so after a bit more mandatory painful silence I get to go to my room finally. Unfortunately after this scene they hole up the living room, so I can’t watch TV and end up beginning my reps all over again.
End of scene one.
