![]() ![]() ![]() The number two thing is telling his mom he’s gay. The number one thing on Ethan’s mind is – well, that’s sex. Jorja, Ethan’s heavy-duty-Goth-Christian best friend, the only person he’s come out to, prays for him, hoping he’ll straighten up, or have strength to never “give into the Beast.” The Beast she says she’s seen, but won’t tell him when, how, or any details about the home life she’s increasingly quiet about. His parents are in the midst of divorce, which led his year-older brother Kyle to religious fervor, taking the Bible literally, rationalizing mutilating his right hand with Matthew, Chapter five, verse thirty: “If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you.” One thing Ethan Poe, a caring, sweet, healthily self-obsessed teenager accepts when surrounded by everyone’s problems is “it’s not all about him.” Yet narrator Ethan’s coming out is only part of Evolution’s larger narrative focusing on a rural Maine town’s debate over integrating Intelligent Design, the religious pseudo-science that dismisses evolution, into public school science classrooms. With The Evolution of Ethan Poe (Kensington Books), Robin Reardon provides a fresh, engaging example of why the coming out story is not irrelevant, instead a crucial, continuing story with countless raw variations. ‘The Evolution of Ethan Poe’ by Robin Reardon ![]()
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