The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart

by R. Zamora Linmark

Overview

Readers of Adam Silvera (They Both Die at the End) and Elizabeth Acevedo (The Poet X) will pull out the tissues for this tender, quirky story of one seventeen-year-old boy's journey through first love and first heartbreak, guided by his personal hero, Oscar Wilde.

Words have always been more than enough for Ken Z, but when he meets Ran at the mall food court, everything changes. Beautiful, mysterious Ran opens the door to a number of firsts for Ken: first kiss, first love. But as quickly as he enters Ken's life, Ran disappears, and Ken Z is left wondering: Why love at all, if this is where it leads?

Letting it end there would be tragic. So, with the help of his best friends, the comfort of his haikus and lists, and even strange, surreal appearances by his hero, Oscar Wilde, Ken will find that love is worth more than the price of heartbreak.

"An unabashed love letter to Oscar Wilde, Cole Porter, and the arts' ability to give voice to human emotion." --Kirkus

"Linmark's novel is definitely offbeat and wild(e)ly imaginative...and a rich reading experience that would make the ineffable Oscar proud." --Booklist

"A big-hearted book that...always keeps love in its heart." --Abdi Nazemian author of Like a Love Story and The Authentics

"As surreal as it is real, as beautiful as it is painful, as playful as it is wise. --Randy Ribay, author of Patron Saints of Nothing

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101938225
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Poet, novelist, and playwright R. Zamora Linmark was born in Manila and educated in Honolulu. He is the author of four poetry collections and the novels Leche (Coffee House Press) and Rolling the R's (Kaya Press), which he adapted for the stage. He lives in Honolulu and Manila. The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart is his debut YA novel.

Read an Excerpt

There are two ways to begin this story.

a haiku

LITTLE MIRACLES  
Inside a minute—
A blue-throated hummingbird’s One thousand heartbeats.


OR


a prayer

Dear Oscar Wilde,
Patron Saint of Rebels and Bookworms:
 
This is Ken Z. I’m seventeen years old, a senior at South Kristol High. I live on an island in the middle of Nowhere, Pacific Ocean. So tiny you need a magnifying glass to spot us on the map.
Oscar, I met someone. There. It’s out. Whew. Yes, I met someone earlier this week, and this morning, I woke up to my heart beating a thousand hummingbird heartbeats. It felt new and strange, and anything new and strange to me is worth exploring, like Antarctica. I don’t know where my heart is zooming to. So if you could, please guide me through this unfamiliar map.
 
Your forever devotee, Ken Z 
 
 
PS His name is Ran.

Editorial Reviews

06/17/2019

Ken Z, 17, lives in the fictional Pacific Island country of South Kristol, which is a developing nation under the thumb of militaristic, wealthy neighbor North Kristol. When Ken Z visits an upscale shopping mall to see how the other half lives, he meets Ran, a boy from across the northern border, and over the course of a few weeks, experiences his first kiss, first love, and then his first heartbreak after Ran ends their budding relationship by vanishing without a word. Linmark’s YA debut, told in a smattering of literary styles (prose, haiku, lists that are half poetry, and imaginary conversations with Ken Z’s literary hero, Oscar Wilde), conveys a universal story, but it becomes bogged down in its own obsession with language, with pretty turns of phrase taking priority over plot. While the merger of narrative and poetry isn’t wholly successful at creating a believable emotional core, the narrative element, in particular, falls short, with dialogue that feels stiff and scripted. Older readers might find this story familiar, but younger teens especially might appreciate an artistic fantasy of first young love. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"A sweet love story that celebrates diversity of its characters and culture...everything, from Ran's compulsory military service to the banning of books, feels authentic and heightens the stakes of the burgeoning gay romance...[and] the boys' romance builds in a way that feels natural. An unabashed love letter to Oscar Wilde, Cole Porter, and the arts' ability to give voice to human emotion." —Kirkus

Linmark’s novel is definitely offbeat and wild(e)ly imaginative, inviting long thoughts about the uncertainty of love, with its wonderment and hummingbird heartbeats. Beautifully written, sad as a Wilde fairy tale, and home to highly empathic characters, the novel is a rich reading experience that would make the ineffable Oscar proud. —Booklist

"The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart is a big-hearted book that uses a beautiful mixture of prose, poetry, and haikus to tell a story that—to paraphrase the words of the book's patron saint Oscar Wilde—always keeps love in its heart." —Abdi Nazemian author of Like a Love Story and The Authentics
 
"A lyrical meditation on finding oneself in friendship, literature, love, and heartbreak. As surreal as it is real, as beautiful as it is painful, as playful as it is wise." —Randy Ribay, author of Patron Saints of Nothing

From the Publisher

07/26/2019

Gr 7 Up-Ken Z decides to go Bunburying on the rich side of his Pacific island town when he meets Ran and they hit it off over their joint love of Oscar Wilde (Ken Z's friends have an Oscar Wilde book club at school). Ran even looks like Oscar Wilde. Ran is from North Kristol, which is rich and militaristic, doesn't let anyone in, and barely lets anyone out. Ken Z's South Kristol is lower middle class but more liberal. Ken Z ditches his whole spring break as he falls in love with Ran. But shortly afterward, Ran disappears and Ken Z spirals into depression, further isolating himself from his friends as he skips school to languish in his bedroom and write out his feelings. The book is a mixed format of prose, play, texts, poetry, conversations, and letters that create a melodramatic monologue. Wilde, who was also a member of the LGBTQ community, is an invisible friend/ghost in the novel, and there are a lot of allusions to his work. The island of Kristol is reminiscent of Korea politically, and there is discussion of civil rights, mainly with regard to censorship and LGBTQ rights. With all of this complexity, not much happens in the plot and the characters are all flat. VERDICT Teens who like literary allusions and mysteries without resolution might push through this one. Otherwise, not recommended.-Rachel Reinwald, Lake Villa District Library, IL

School Library Journal

2019-05-22
Love, loss, and surviving heartache are at the center of this coming-of-age romance set in the South Pacific.

When Ken Z, a bookworm and senior from "the middle of Nowhere, Pacific Ocean," with a Japanese mother, braves a trip to a snooty mall a bus ride away from his high school, love is the last thing that he expects to find. A chance meeting with Ran, a wealthy, blond-haired, white doppelgänger for Dorian Gray, changes his mind. The pair bond over being the only children of single mothers and their shared love for the playwright Oscar Wilde. When Ran abruptly breaks everything off, Ken is devastated and has to find a way to continue believing in love. In this earnest novel, Linmark (Pop Vérité, 2017, etc.) creates a sweet love story that celebrates diversity of its characters and culture. The Pacific island, while unnamed, reads like an amalgam of the Philippines and the Korean peninsula. Everything, from Ran's compulsory military service to the banning of books, feels authentic and heightens the stakes of the burgeoning gay romance. At times the metaphors emphasizing the class disparity between Ken and Ran can be heavy-handed, but the boys' romance builds in a way that feels natural.

An unabashed love letter to Oscar Wilde, Cole Porter, and the arts' ability to give voice to human emotion. (Fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews