What I Know Now

It was the summer of 1957 when I turned fourteen and I met a man named Gene Tole... and I fell in love with him. 

Dave Ryan's mother has hired Gene Tole to build a garden at the old home she is moving back to, away from her failed marriage. A handsome, thoughtful man, Gene seems to be the father Dave’s own silent, brooding dad could never be. “Sometimes when you build a garden,” Gene explains, “you build a gardener, too.” But a garden contains both beauty and secrets. As Dave’s feelings for Gene grow, he peers around the edges of his own life, seeing his brother, father, and mother in new ways. What I Know Now is a beautifully written evocation of a boy’s dawning sexuality that shows how his emerging feelings help him to become a young man.

"Fourteen-year-old Dave is confused about his feelings for Gene Tole, the gardener his mother has hired. Dave's first-person voice gets exactly right the teenager's hurt, excitement, & longing. Dave knows he is confused, but he knows he loves Gene & that he will 'figure love out' & live by the kind that is right for him." -