Sag Harbor

In the very first few chapters of this novel, we are introduced to the sibling dynamic between Reggie and Benji. I was interested in their interactions, and that's pretty much what I mainly watched for as the story progressed. When Benji said that he and Reggie were slowly growing apart, I wondered if they would have a falling out, or if they would reconcile and again become "Benji n Reggie." When Benji mentioned that people always asked him where Reggie was, I understood that feeling. Being a twin myself, people always expect me to know where my brother is, what he is doing, and what he thinks. I mean, I guess I am somewhat more equipped to answer these questions than other people, I never understood why we were always paired with each other in peoples minds. Like the two brothers in Sag Harbor, my brother and I began to drift apart when I came to uni a year before him. We were no longer referred to as "Maia's brother" or "Daniel's sister." We no longer had to deal with the constant comparison and it felt pretty nice. While we probably aren't as close as we used to be, I think it was good for both of us. The same way Benji learned who he was without Reggie, I learned who I was without my brother.

On a slightly different topic, when Benji is trying to figure out his "identity" over the summer, he is trying to change himself from a nerd to a cool, popular kid. We see him try this through many things, like unsuccessfully changing his name to Ben. All of the adventures that Benji went on, or all the things that the chapters focused on, weren't actually all that adventure like. Most of them were pretty mundane and realistic. I haven't finished the book yet, but it's not like all his stories culminate into this one epic moment where he suddenly transformers from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan. His experiences at Sag Harbor are just the teenage way of exaggerating and dramatizing everything that ever happens, just think of the head pat incident. From saying all of these things you might get the idea that this is something I don't like about the novel, but it's the opposite of that. I appreciated the novel more because of the fact that almost everything Benji does is normal. I had kind of started to think that all coming of age novels had to have some sort of an exciting story or be centered around a character that led exciting lives. In other books we read this semester, kids my age, like Esther and Holden, did things I would never even think of doing, but here was Benji, just being lazy and slouching on the couch and indulging in guilty music during the summer. He's a normal kid and I can relate to that. I;m excited to see how the book ends!