Genre
LGBTQ / Young adult
Setting and Context
Present-day
Narrator and Point of View
Written in third person but includes Greek chorus in first person from the perspective of deceased gay men.
Tone and Mood
Elegiac, Sad, Heartfelt, Optimistic
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists are Harry, Craig, Avery, Ryan, Neil, Peter, and Cooper while the antagonist is homophobia, hate crime, anger, and depression.
Major Conflict
The major conflict that is present in all four storylines is the struggles of young gay people as they navigate through life. The title alludes to Harry and Craig creating awareness by breaking the record of the longest kissing session. The other stories include couples and individuals dealing with the process of coming out and bullying.
Climax
The narrative has several climaxes. However, the definitive climax could be when Cooper prepares to take his life in the river but is stopped by a police officer.
Foreshadowing
“Trust us: There is a nearly perfect balance between the past and the future. As we become the distant past, you become a future few of us would have imagined.”
The statement foreshadows how the lives of the young men come full circle with the experiences of gay men in the past.
Understatement
“We are characters in a Tony Kushner play, or names on a quilt that rarely gets taken out anymore. We are the ghosts of the remaining older generation. You know some of our songs. We do not want to haunt you too somberly. We don’t want our legacy to be gravitas. You wouldn’t want to live your life like that, and you won’t want to be remembered like that, either.”
The collective voice understates how their experiences and legacies have been buried and forgotten through time.
Allusions
The novel alludes to the true events of two boys attempting to break the Guinness world record for the longest kiss ever to raise awareness. Furthermore, refers to the lives of the gay community during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Imagery
“They are proper pajamas—striped button-down shirt with matching striped elastic-waisted bottoms. They are at least a size too big, and make him look like he’s waiting for Mary Poppins to pop her head in and say it’s time to go to bed. Peter is in boxers and a T-shirt that reads LEGALIZE GAY. Even though they’ve just spent hours talking, they spend another hour talking, sometimes sitting at their computers and looking at each other, and other times letting the cams gaze on as they walk around their rooms, brush their teeth, pick out clothes for tomorrow.”
Paradox
“If you let the world in, you open yourself up to the world. Even if the world doesn't know that you're there.”
Parallelism
“We did not have the Internet, but we had a network. We did not have websites, but we had sites where we wove our web.”
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“Neil has two DVDs, two bottles of Diet Dr Pepper, cookie dough, and a book of poems in his backpack.”
Personification
“We wish we could show you the world as it sleeps.”
