Review: A Stunningly Beautiful Debut Novel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 29, 2013
A fiction book written by a photographer.  How could that work?  Photographers see their work with their eyes.  Authors create their work inside their minds, never seeing it with their physical eyes.  The thing is, I think, that photographers see everything.  Everywhere they look, they see details others don't.  Every photo they put out for public consumption is one of hundreds taken at the same sitting.  The photographer saw something special in that one and ONLY that one photograph.  I think this enables them to remember details they have seen and to form fictional details in their mind's eye more clearly than you or I could.Memorizing You is the first book published by successful photographer D.W. Skinner.  It seems that while he was looking at all those pretty boys through the camera lens, he was thinking up stories for them.  His photographs have graced the covers of many popular gay fiction novels.  And now his own first novel.Even the title is one that could only be thought of by a photographer.  When the young lovers stare at each other during special moments alone, Ryan says that he is "memorizing" Dave so he will have a mental picture of this moment to take with him forever.Memorizing You is a coming of age story set in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  It is an achingly familiar story of first, young love.  Love in a time when being gay was exponentially  harder than it is today.  So much has changed, that it is hard to read how Dave & Ryan had to hide who they were.I don't want to give away anything at all from this beautiful tale.  I can say that it was worded so perfectly that in places I re-read paragraphs over and over again to try and memorize them.  They haunted me for hours after I put down the book.  I can say that the loveliness of that first blush of attraction was so well-written, I almost felt my own cheeks warm up.  I can say that the supporting characters are unforgettable for many reasons.  I can say that I cried for most of the last third of the book.Memorizing You is a perfect YA novel.  It is about the innocence and trust building involved when young people fall in love.  All sex takes place off page, so it is safe for a YA audience.  But it is written in a mature enough style that I, and many adult friends, loved it. I know that there are more books coming from Mr. Skinner.  I am anxiously awaiting their publication.  If you haven't read this book yet, you need to.  It could not be more beautiful.