Deadline -- Chris Crutcher

Ben Wolf goes in for a routine physical at the beginning of his senior year.  He walks out with a year to live and some big decisions to make:

I walked away understanding I have a rare form of whatever the hell it is and without treatment my chances sucked, but with it they still sucked and somehow I knew my chances aren't about living, they're about living well.  I wouldn't recommend this for anyone else, but I'm not going out bald and puking.  I don't have anything to teach anyone about life, and I'm not brave, but I'd rather be a flash than a slowly cooling ember, so I'll eat healthy food, take supplements, sleep good, and take what the universe gives me.

And I'm turning out for football.

Not only does he decide to forgo treatment -- he decides that he wants his last year to be as normal as possible.  So he doesn't tell anyone.  His parents, his brother, his coach -- no one.

He sets out to do a lifetime's worth of living in a year.  He wants to learn as much as he can, understand as much as he can, get up the nerve to talk to Dallas Suzuki and, yes, go out for football. 

Oh, hell.  I'm getting all choked up again.

In non-weepy news, Chris Crutcher has left the No Swearing Realm of The Sledding Hill behind. 

Crutcher fans will recognize a lot of the themes and issues from previous books (child abuse, racism, our education system, censorship), and they'll recognize some character types (the Coach/Mentor, the Tough Sporty Girl, the Kid Who Regurgitates Everything Her Father Says), but A) just because it's been explored doesn't mean there's nothing left to say, and B) for me, those themes and character types are part of the appeal.  I like what Chris Crutcher has to say, and I like how he says it.

I'm getting off-track.  Sorry.  I get like this when I'm weepy.

Really, more than any of the other stuff I rattled off up there, Deadline is about truth-with-a-capital-T. 

And there you have it.