We obviously have good reason to be somewhat skeptical about parents’ biased assertions. How many times have we heard parents say, “But they’re a good kid!” when their little darlings are accused of behaving badly? In Sameer Pandya’s novel Our Beautiful Boys, though, the presumption of innocence seems, at first, eminently plausible. Vikram, Diego and MJ are three high school football players who seem to exemplify the concept of the student athlete. When the three are accused of assaulting a fellow student, their families’ concerns about how they will be treated break along ethnic and economic divides.
The immediate penalty for the boys is an indefinite suspension until the school principal can figure out the truth of what happened the evening of the assault. As teens do, the boys clam up at first, then try to concoct a unified story that leaves them comparatively blameless. But the football season hangs in the balance, and the team won’t make the playoffs without its three stars, so the pressure is on to get this resolved, and quickly. In their absence, their fellow students begin to segregate into camps supporting or opposing the victim’s account of the events, which is the only version initially made public.
Meanwhile, the parents find themselves in an awkward position, occasionally working at cross-purposes with one another while trying to defend both their kids’ and their families’ reputations. And the high schoolers aren’t the only ones concealing valuable truths: The adults have secrets of their own, which complicates the interactions among all concerned.
Investigating masculinity, ethnicity, education, privilege and social standing, Pandya has delivered an incisive and thoughtful novel that not only speaks to our contemporary culture, but also unearths some timeless truths about the good—and bad—kids inside us all.
