Three Simultaneous Years

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
reviewed by Ruya

My Most Excellent Year is a sweet little fairy tale-type story written for high-schoolers. It's told in the form of three essays written simultaneously by two best friends and a girl who became their friend: Augie, T.C., and Alejandra. Their assignment is to describe their most excellent year, which is the same for all of them. It's their freshman year, the year when Augie and TC meet Alejandra, the year of their first loves, the year they meet Hucky, the year of the memorial baseball field, and the year all three teenagers remember how to believe in magic.

The best way to describe this novel is that it's what one wishes one's life to be like. Nearly everyone has wished at some point that their best friend could become their sibling the way T.C and Augie have. Struggles with sexual orientation would be so much easier if all your friends and your family knew before you even told them, the way Augie's did. And who wouldn't love to be best friends with Augie, the vivacious theater boy, or T.C., the outgoing athlete, or especially Alejandra, the outspoken, artsy, ambassador's daughter? And, of course, any Julie Andrews fan can appreciate the Mary Poppins theme that goes along with Hucky, the adorably stubborn deaf boy that they all adopt into their lives. Although not the most realistic story, My Most Excellent Year is one you'll remember for quite some time.