"Swim the Fly" by Don Calame

Swim the Fly is the story of three friends who make a pact to see a "real live" naked girl by the end of the summer, then spend the entire book going to greater and greater lengths to achieve their goal.  They sneak into a girls' locker room (which is unsuccessful because one of them suddenly has an attack of diarrhea), hide in a closet to try to catch their classmates having sex, peep on people in a changing room the mall, and finally bring a pair of binoculars to a nude beach.

Ok, am I wrong to be super creeped out by this book?  All that shit listed above is super creepy, right?  And if one of the characters were to, say, take a cell phone picture of his classmates in flagrante and post it to Facebook, that is basically cyber bullying of the worst order, right?  What am I missing here?  Why am I rooting for these characters to succeed?  I DO NOT WANT PEOPLE LIKE THIS TO SUCCEED.  The only point at which any of the characters thinks that maybe, just maybe, there is something wrong with this behavior is when the narrator and his two friends hatch a plan to look over the top of the dressing room walls at a bathing suit store to try to see their two female friends changing.  The narrator's tiny pubescent conscience finally starts to bother him, so he deliberately thwarts his friends' best attempts to commit sexual harassment (assault?).

Maybe I am misremembering adolescence   I remember it being a feral struggle to survive; a constant, desperate battle to climb on top of others before they climbed on top of you.  I remember being mercilessly mocked by my teammates on the wrestling team when they found out I took dance lessons, and I remember being part of the mob that doled out pink bellies to people who violated the proto-bro code that ruled wrestling practice.  I remember being pantsed at soccer practice by a senior when I was a freshman.  I remember hating every second of it.  I remember being mystified by girls and wanting to figure them out.  I do not, however, remember conniving to see people naked without their consent, nor do I remember any of my friends seriously suggesting it.

Am I taking this work of fiction too seriously?  I know this kind of stuff, and worse, happens every day in every school.  But in Swim the Fly it's presented as a natural outgrowth of teenage thought, and it happens with essentially no consequences.  We don't witness the reaction of the student whose underwear picture was posted to Facebook.  That happens off camera.  Also it happens to a girl, so who cares.  Gs up hoes down, amirite?

I dunno.  I'm feeling like maybe I'm missing something about this book, but the more I write about it, the angrier it makes me.  To do, or attempt to do, the things that the main characters do in this book is simply not cool, to put it mildly.  They are these guys.  I know that's how teenagers naturally behave, but can we all agree that the entire point of education is to eventually STOP them from behaving like that?  Books like this are not helpful to this end.

I honestly don't know what to suggest as readalongs for this book.  Maybe some stuff that I read when I was this age?  I remember being way into Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton in middle school, Kurt Vonnegut in high school.  Cassie also suggested I do listenalongs.  Bands I was into in high school (on the less embarrassing end of the spectrum) include Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Reel Big Fish, and, of course, The Doors.

Now I'm all depressed.  Thank God in heaven that I never have to go back to high school.