books | "the kid"

by dan savage. (paperback, 2000)

Somehow I often end up reading the first book in a series last. Technically, the "Savage Love" columnist's sociopolitical memoirs are not a cohesive series, but they each tell different parts of the same autobiography. In this first installment, Savage and his boyfriend decide they want to become parents and investigate their options in achieving this goal.

Spoiler alert: they choose open adoption, and the story falls neatly into place from there, culminating in the successful adoption of a healthy baby boy. Savage's writing is always fun, but feels like it's reaching to prove its coolness here and there. This can possibly be attributed to it being his first book, or that it's been eleven years since he wrote it. I also wonder how much has changed about adoption law.

Savage's second book veered away from the family to examine the seven deadly sins in America. But 2005's The Commitment brought the story back home to boyfriend Terry and school-aged son D.J., and explored the fundamentals of relationships in our society. These later books were meatier, more confident...but what's to be confident about when you're writing your first book and becoming a parent for the first time?

The Kid reaches its natural conclusion, but the book leaves things painfully open-ended, another hazard of this memoir genre. I'd love to get Savage's perspective on raising a teenager, but my math indicates it'll be a few years before that story can be told. Beginnings always make me cry out for endings, though.