Lani Garver

I’ve been meaning to write about this cool book called What Happened to Lani Garver. I read it quite a while ago. It all started when Zoey all but raced into our classroom begging the nearest person to read it. And since I had nothing to read at the moment, I borrowed it from her. And that’s how Lani Garver became stuck fast in my mind for quite a while.

Lani (pronounced Lonny) is this supposed guy who looks too much like a girl to be straight. The protagonist is Claire, a member of the elite in their school. So they become friends. And only friends. How sad. But yeah, he does look like a girl. Anyway, he is prepositioned by this closet-gay but outwardly macho guy. So a lot of conflict later, there is a conclusion (oh no, I sound like an English teacher).

The ending is very sad, though. Some guys unintentionally drown him. He dies. I was devastated, but not so much, because at the beginning of the book, there’s this prologue type thing that tells you that Lani dies in the end. So I was expecting it. Dreading it, more like. He’s such a good character.

The thing is, (and this struck me as very funny) Lani fits the description of a floating angel in the book, according to another character. A floating angel is supposed to have no gender (like Lani). So there you have, Floating Angel Garver (F. A. G.). Saddest joke in history. But whatever. Here’s how readers find out about Lani’s non-existent sexuality. This is very paraphrased.

Claire: Lani’s going to try to wriggle out of every form of categorization, so good luck with that.
Some Unimportant Guy Whose Name I Can’t Remember: Do you like boys?
Lani: Yes, I love boys.
Unimportant Guy: Do you like girls?
Lani: I love girls.
Unimportant Guy: Are you bi?
Lani: Bi-sexual is a pretty sizable box.

So what is he, exactly? Nothing? Something? A floating angel? That’s the beauty of the ending, because you can imagine however you want the ending to be like. Like Zoey can argue that Lani actually didn’t drown, that he was, in actual fact, an excellent swimmer and escaped the island.

And just like that I have discovered another one of my favourite fictional characters of all time.