Elaine M. Alphin

Elaine M. Alphin wrote Simon Says as a boarding-school novel about artistic ambition, guarded identities, and the pressure to conform. Harcourt issued it in 2002. Junior Charles Weston arrives at Whitman, a school for artists, as a gifted but defensive painter who hopes to meet Graeme Brandt, an older student whose published novel challenges social expectations. Their friendship becomes the means through which Alphin examines honesty, reputation, and the burden of being interpreted by others. The narrative alternates Charles’s account with entries from Graeme’s journal, allowing the central conflict to emerge through distinct perspectives. Creative work is not merely background: painting and writing become ways for the characters to reveal, conceal, and question themselves. Simon Says treats gay characters candidly while connecting their experiences with Whitman’s wider culture of performance and judgment. Its focus on two young artists places personal integrity beside the difficult demands of friendship.