Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Title Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You
Author Peter Cameron
Cameron grew up splitting his time between New Yersey and London, England. He received a B.A. in English Literature from Hamilton College and is the author of The Weekend, Andorra and Leap Year.
ISBN 9780374309892
Publisher Frances Foster Books (an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Copyright Date 2007
Reading Level/Interest Age 15+
Genre Issues: Sexual Identity; LGBT Fiction
Plot Summary
James Sveck is an eighteen year old who lives in New York. It’s the summer after senior year and he is working at his mother’s art gallery with the one other employee, John. His mother has just returned, early, from the honeymoon of her third marriage after her husband stole her credit cards to gamble. James’ sister Gillian is a junior in college. She has just decided that her name should be pronounced with a hard G and is dating a much older, married college professor. While James is trying to decide if he really wants to go to college, he must answer to these women along with his father and therapist: What’s wrong with you? The problem is, James doesn’t know. This is a story about feeling as if something, everything is wrong, but not quite knowing what it might be.
Critical Evaluation
Peter Cameron’s novel Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is not an easy book. The plot is not propelled forward by action and most of the drama occurs within the main character James’ head. But the dialogue, when it does occur, is fast-paced (think Gilmore Girls) and the characters are, though flawed, interesting enough to be likeable. James himself is a particularly likeable character, even when he is painfully, self-indulgently introspective or overwhelmingly angsty. He is likeable because he is easy to relate to – and I think most teenagers will feel the same way. We have all felt the way James feels: unidentifiably sad and lonely. The only difference is that for some reason, James doesn’t let the idea that he should at least pretend to be happy or pretend to know what to do to make himself feel better. This is not really a story about being gay, but a story about being a teenager who happens to be gay. The “coming-out” issue is not really an issue, but the novel could be read as the particular melancholy of a gay boy who has grown up in New York and feels cut off from everything around him. A great book filled with colorful, memorable characters; a book that is quietly read and mulled over for days after – I would recommend this book to any teenager, particularly older teenagers who are looking for good reads with fleshed out characters.
Reader’s Annotation
This is a book about when nothing is right, but nothing is particularly wrong. This is a book about James or a book about anyone.
Curriculum Ties Could be tied into lessons about LGBT issues, tolerance and prejudice.
Booktalking Ideas
1. Read chapter 5, page 69 and all through James’ first visit with the therapist. Talk about the idea of being sad without knowing what’s wrong.
Challenge Issues
Please see "Controversy & LGBT Teen Collections"
Why did I include this book?
Rainbow List Starred Pick (2008, ALA).