The flip side, a novel

Kliatt, July, 2003 by Claire Rosser

MATTHEWS, Andrew. The flip side, a novel. Random House, Delacorte. 150p. c2001. 0-385-73096-9. $15.95. JS

This gender-bender YA novel is written by a British author of more than 50 books who had been a high school English teacher for many years before writing for young people. By page 10, we find ourselves with the main characters in an English class, talking about Shakespeare. "I reckon Shakespeare must have been some sort of perv, Miss." And why? "Well, he's got this girl making out she's a boy making out he's a girl. That's a bit iffy, isn't it?"

And that's the beginning. When our hero Robert pretends to be Rosalind in the play, he realizes some side of himself he never knew existed, and he kind of likes her, er, him. Then the girl of his dreams, Milena, thinks he's special too once she sees him as Rosalind, and she encourages his cross-dressing. When Robert's parents go away for a weekend, he and Milena cross-dress to attend a party. Robert's father catches them kissing when he unexpectedly comes home early, and he's taken aback because here's Robert dressed as a girl kissing a boy. Explanations are in order. And explanations aren't so easily understood, by anyone. Robert can't understand why he enjoys being a girl; Milena doesn't know if she is attracted to Robert, or to Robert as a girl; and their friend Kevin just then gets the nerve to come out of his closet as a homosexual--what does it all mean? Kevin doesn't want to dress like a girl--he's a boy who likes other boys. Is Milena a girl who really likes other girls, or just Robert dressed as a gi rl?

Not every teenager is ready to go into this labyrinth. But those who are will find this short novel intelligent and the characters endearing. And, anyway, didn't Shakespeare start it all?