In Mike We Trust
Encyclopedia
In Mike We Trust is a young adult gay novel
by P. E. Ryan first published in 2009. It depicts a teenage gay boy who falls under the sway of his con artist
uncle (who is the twin
brother of the boy's recently-deceased father). The boy struggles with his sexual orientation as well as the need for honesty when his beloved role model asks him to lie.
The book was a Lambda Literary Award
finalist for LGBT Children's/Young Adult literature, and was named by Booklist
to its Rainbow List 2010 (bibliography of young adult books which include significant gay
, lesbian
, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning content). This is the second young adult novel focusing on LGBTQ teens by author P. E. Ryan, whose first effort in the genre was 2008's Saints of Augustine. As Patrick Ryan, he wrote Send Me, a novel for adults.
from the perspective of its 15-year-old narrator, Garth Rudd.
The Rudds live in Richmond, Virginia
. Garth's father died in a boating
accident two years earlier, leaving his middle class
family to shoulder his many debts. Now living on the edge of poverty
, Garth's mother, Sonja, works two jobs
to support the family and Garth tries to earn spending money and save for college by working as a janitor
of sorts at a downtown
department store
for a condescending supervisor. Wanting to be a veterinarian
when he is older, Garth volunteers at a local animal shelter
caring for dogs and cats. Garth has repeated nightmare
s about his father's death, and is unhappy about his short height (he is only 5 in 2 in (1.57 m) tall). Prior to the novel's opening (although this scene is related in flashback
), Garth came out
to his best friend, Lisa, about his homosexuality
. Shortly thereafter, Garth (in flashback) tells his mother that he is gay
. But his mother, worried that her short, slight teenage son might be gay bashed
, tells Garth not to tell anyone else that he is gay.
The novel opens when Mike Rudd, the twin
brother of Garth's deceased father, arrives at the Rudd home. Mrs. Rudd and Lisa are somewhat cold and distant toward Mike, but Mike and Garth immediately become friends. Mike also realizes Garth is gay, and on a shopping trip Mike takes Garth into a gay bookstore. Garth meets an openly gay classmate, Adam Walters, in the store, and Mike arranges for Garth and Mike to watch a DVD
of the motion picture Beautiful Thing
together at the Rudd house. A short time later, Mike convinces Garth to go with him on a trip to a shopping mall
in a suburb
of Richmond where he intends to solicit donations to fight the disease "meninosis." Garth quickly realizes that "meninosis" is not a real disease, but the presence of the boyish-looking Garth helps Mike raise hundreds of dollars in donations. Mike promises to give Garth a cut of the money, and Garth quits his job. Garth begins to feel guilty over the large number of lies he tells his mother and Lisa to cover up both what he is doing with Mike and his relationship with Adam. Garth justifies his actions by assuring himself that the money he is getting will go into his college fund and make his mother worry less, and that his mother's demand that he remain closeted
is unjust.
Mike's cons
become more elaborate. He successfully convinces Garth to wear an old Scooby-Doo
Halloween
costume (which still fits, because Garth has not grown much taller in the past several years). He also successfully gets Garth to take two dogs from the animal shelter as well as his own elderly dog, Hutch, with them on a fundraising trip. They pretend to be raising money for a disease which strikes dogs. Adam and Garth watch the movie Chinatown together, and kiss. Shortly thereafter, Mike takes Garth to a run-down section of Richmond where Mike recruits a beautiful blonde woman and a bar patron to help with his latest scam. Mike rents a sports car
and pretends to raffle
off the vehicle at the Virginia
state fair
. Adam, also visiting the fair, sees Garth with his uncle. When the scam goes wrong, Mike, Garth, and the beautiful woman are forced to flee the scene. Upset that she was duped to participate in a con, the woman sends her boyfriend to the Rudd house to confront Mike. Mike escapes the house, leaving Garth to defend himself against the angry man. Garth's mother witnesses the confrontation, and Garth is forced to tell the truth about what he and Mike have been doing.
The novel concludes with Garth having to own up to his actions and resolve his conflicts with his mother. Garth must also come to terms with his Uncle Mike's cowardice and lies, and struggles to repair his friendships with Lisa and Adam.
The novel contains a number of references to non-fiction people, things, and places, like the singer Sufjan Stevens
, the films Beautiful Thing and Chinatown, the cartoon characters Scooby-Doo and Superman
, and to places in and around Richmond, Virginia. It also mentions the Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth (ROSMY), a real organization which offers support and leadership for LGBTQ youth in the Richmond area.
[Details in the book] become symbols for the various aspects of hiding, immaturity, fear, compromise, and insight that accompany Garth's circuitous route to maturity with honor, making this a rich and offbeat novel about a young man coming into his own both because of and in spite of his family." A School Library Journal
reviewer also had positive things to say about the book, writing, "With overlying themes of honesty and truth, In Mike We Trust features vivid characters dancing around a number of issues."
Gay novel
A gay novel deals with homosexual love between men. Novels that deal with homosexual love between women are usually referred to as lesbian novels....
by P. E. Ryan first published in 2009. It depicts a teenage gay boy who falls under the sway of his con artist
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
uncle (who is the twin
Twin
A twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...
brother of the boy's recently-deceased father). The boy struggles with his sexual orientation as well as the need for honesty when his beloved role model asks him to lie.
The book was a Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
finalist for LGBT Children's/Young Adult literature, and was named by Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
to its Rainbow List 2010 (bibliography of young adult books which include significant gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning content). This is the second young adult novel focusing on LGBTQ teens by author P. E. Ryan, whose first effort in the genre was 2008's Saints of Augustine. As Patrick Ryan, he wrote Send Me, a novel for adults.
Plot synopsis
The book is written in the first person singularGrammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
from the perspective of its 15-year-old narrator, Garth Rudd.
The Rudds live in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. Garth's father died in a boating
Boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels , focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or water skiing...
accident two years earlier, leaving his middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
family to shoulder his many debts. Now living on the edge of poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, Garth's mother, Sonja, works two jobs
Employment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
to support the family and Garth tries to earn spending money and save for college by working as a janitor
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
of sorts at a downtown
Downtown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
for a condescending supervisor. Wanting to be a veterinarian
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
when he is older, Garth volunteers at a local animal shelter
Animal shelter
An animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost, or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats.Parrots, for example, are the third most common pet owned by people...
caring for dogs and cats. Garth has repeated nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
s about his father's death, and is unhappy about his short height (he is only 5 in 2 in (1.57 m) tall). Prior to the novel's opening (although this scene is related in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
), Garth came out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
to his best friend, Lisa, about his homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. Shortly thereafter, Garth (in flashback) tells his mother that he is gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
. But his mother, worried that her short, slight teenage son might be gay bashed
Gay bashing
Gay bashing and gay bullying is verbal or physical abuse against a person who is perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender . Such abuse is used also to bully heterosexual persons and persons of non-specific or unknown sexual orientation.A "bashing" may be a specific incident, and one...
, tells Garth not to tell anyone else that he is gay.
The novel opens when Mike Rudd, the twin
Twin
A twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...
brother of Garth's deceased father, arrives at the Rudd home. Mrs. Rudd and Lisa are somewhat cold and distant toward Mike, but Mike and Garth immediately become friends. Mike also realizes Garth is gay, and on a shopping trip Mike takes Garth into a gay bookstore. Garth meets an openly gay classmate, Adam Walters, in the store, and Mike arranges for Garth and Mike to watch a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
of the motion picture Beautiful Thing
Beautiful Thing
Originally Beautiful Thing is a play written by Jonathan Harvey and first performed in 1993. A screen adaptation of the play was released in 1996 by Channel 4 Films, with a revised screenplay also by Harvey. Initially, the film was only intended for television broadcast but it was so well-received...
together at the Rudd house. A short time later, Mike convinces Garth to go with him on a trip to a shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
in a suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Richmond where he intends to solicit donations to fight the disease "meninosis." Garth quickly realizes that "meninosis" is not a real disease, but the presence of the boyish-looking Garth helps Mike raise hundreds of dollars in donations. Mike promises to give Garth a cut of the money, and Garth quits his job. Garth begins to feel guilty over the large number of lies he tells his mother and Lisa to cover up both what he is doing with Mike and his relationship with Adam. Garth justifies his actions by assuring himself that the money he is getting will go into his college fund and make his mother worry less, and that his mother's demand that he remain closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
is unjust.
Mike's cons
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
become more elaborate. He successfully convinces Garth to wear an old Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
costume (which still fits, because Garth has not grown much taller in the past several years). He also successfully gets Garth to take two dogs from the animal shelter as well as his own elderly dog, Hutch, with them on a fundraising trip. They pretend to be raising money for a disease which strikes dogs. Adam and Garth watch the movie Chinatown together, and kiss. Shortly thereafter, Mike takes Garth to a run-down section of Richmond where Mike recruits a beautiful blonde woman and a bar patron to help with his latest scam. Mike rents a sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
and pretends to raffle
Raffle
A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...
off the vehicle at the Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
state fair
State fair
A state fair is a competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs....
. Adam, also visiting the fair, sees Garth with his uncle. When the scam goes wrong, Mike, Garth, and the beautiful woman are forced to flee the scene. Upset that she was duped to participate in a con, the woman sends her boyfriend to the Rudd house to confront Mike. Mike escapes the house, leaving Garth to defend himself against the angry man. Garth's mother witnesses the confrontation, and Garth is forced to tell the truth about what he and Mike have been doing.
The novel concludes with Garth having to own up to his actions and resolve his conflicts with his mother. Garth must also come to terms with his Uncle Mike's cowardice and lies, and struggles to repair his friendships with Lisa and Adam.
The novel contains a number of references to non-fiction people, things, and places, like the singer Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...
, the films Beautiful Thing and Chinatown, the cartoon characters Scooby-Doo and Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, and to places in and around Richmond, Virginia. It also mentions the Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth (ROSMY), a real organization which offers support and leadership for LGBTQ youth in the Richmond area.
Critical reception
The reviewer in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books was highly laudatory, noting that "Garth's relationship with Mike is the perfect catalyst for his coming of age: it allows him to put aside his childish expectations about ideal relationships in favor of an understanding of adults as complex, flawed people.School Library Journal
The School Library Journal is a monthly magazine with articles and reviews for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with a focus on technology and multimedia. Reviews are included for preschool to 4th grade,...
reviewer also had positive things to say about the book, writing, "With overlying themes of honesty and truth, In Mike We Trust features vivid characters dancing around a number of issues."