61 pages 2 hours read

Maulik Pancholy

The Best at It

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019

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Themes

Figuring Out and Accepting One’s Identity

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of anti-gay bias, bullying, and mental illness.

The Best at It is part bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story. Rahul eventually grows more comfortable with several intersecting identity factors as he navigates perceived normativity when it comes to both sexuality and ethnicity.

One of the things Rahul struggles with is weighing how people perceive his identity and judging it against standards of supposed “normativity.” Brent sees Rahul doodling hearts in his notebook and interprets them as a symbol of Rahul’s sexuality. He asks, “Were the hearts for Justin?” (30), and this perception of Rahul’s identity persists throughout the entire book, fueling Brent’s bullying. Brent sees being gay—or even potentially gay, as he does not have confirmation of Rahul’s sexuality—as a deviation from the norm of heterosexuality and thus something to be mocked. Brent’s treatment of his identity also touches on the theme of Navigating Bullying and Mental Health as a Teen.

Rahul is confronted with the perceived normativity of heterosexuality elsewhere, too. Because Rahul spends a lot of time with Chelsea, Nandita Auntie says, “Have you asked Chelsea to be your girlfriend yet? She’s soooo cute! […] It’s never too early to be thinking about marriage” (46).