Where the Rainbow Ends

by Jameson Currier

When Robbie leaves his small town life to move to New York City, he is embraced by members of the gay community who help him in his new world, yet as the 1980s approach and the AIDS epidemic surfaces, Robbie finds himself struggling with new pain and loss. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, Gay Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Jameson Currier is the author of five novels, Where the Rainbow Ends, nominated for a Lambda Literary award, The Wolf at the Door, The Third Buddha, What Comes Around, and The Forever Marathon, and four collections of short fiction: Dancing on the Moon; Desire, Lust, Passion, Sex; Still Dancing: New and Selected Stories; and The Haunted Heart and Other Tales, which was awarded a Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection. His short fiction has appeared in many literary magazines and Web sites, including Velvet Mafia, Blithe House Quarterly, Confrontation, Christopher Street, and the anthologies Men on Men 5, Best American Gay Fiction 3, Boyfriends from Hell, Mammoth Book of New Gay Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best American Erotica, Best Gay Romance, Best Gay Stories, Circa 2000, Rebel Yell, I Do/I Don't, Where the Boys Are, Nine Hundred & Sixty-Nine, Wilde Stories, Unspeakable Horror, and Making Literature Matter. His AIDS-themed short stories have also been translated into French by Anne-Laure Hubert and published as Les Fantômes. His reviews, essays, interviews, and articles on AIDS and gay culture have been published in many national and local publications, including The Washington Post, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Lambda Book Report, The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, The Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Metrosource, Bay Area Reporter, Frontiers, The New York Blade, and Body Positive. In 2010, he began Chelsea Station Editions, an independent press for gay books, and the following year launched Chelsea Station, a literary magazine devoted to gay-themed writing. In 2013 he edited two original anthologies for the press: Between: New Gay Poetry and With: New Gay Fiction. He currently resides in Manhattan.

Reviews

[jocelyn • coolgalreading · Rating 5 out of 5]

legit cannot believe how this book has so few reviews and ratings?! a beautiful, devastating novel about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and one man who continues to lose people around him. this book will not soon leave me. this was a library loan but i want to get a copy so i can revisit it.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich and marvellous book that captures part of what the 80s and 90s felt like for me. It's important to me because even 2o or 3o years after the fact I still have the greatest difficulty expressing anything coherent about it. There are books that are entertaining, amusing and meaningful, but this one (for me, anyway) was that and, well, almost medicinal. If you want to understand something about being human in inhuman times, Mr Currier gives us part of it, distilled from sources ancient and modern.

[Tony Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realistic. Beautiful. Heartbreaking. However, in all honesty, the book offers hope in all that may be grim as well. I admit to having tears while reading this novel, but quite glad to have finished it. It's one that if you've read it, stays with you, haunts you, and rediscovers your appreciation for life.

[Jörgen Bierau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must confess, this was one of my slowest reads in a long time. It wasn’t that the topic didn’t speak to me - it did. And it wasn’t that I didn’t root for Robbie - on the contrary, I recognised a lot of myself in him. What made reading it difficult for me at times was the meandering of the narrative, too much detail in second- and thirdhand recounts by Robbie of what happened to secondary characters, creating a strange shift between first person and omniscient point of view, and often the use of redundant words. But that is all style. It doesn’t take away that from the fact that it is an important boom; that it is good storytelling, and that the ending brought me to tears. This is a story about the generation of gays before mine. What happened in the 1980s and 1990s held me back, contributed to me staying closeted far longer than was needed or healthy. So, if the AIDS pandemic, the struggle for gay rights, and the power of chosen family interest you, this one is definitely worth the read. Thank you for this story, mister Currier.

[Akhiladevi Devabhaktuni · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book I've had the pleasure of reading recently.

I've often wondered how much grief is too much. I thought if I figured out the appropriate amount, I can move-on. But, grief is never linear. Author talks about how isolating grief can be, navigating loss and grief and our complicated relationship not just with god but faith, and it's origin, place in our life, meaning of it....

Fight against AIDS and many people who stood-up through loss of entire communities and long accumulated families depicts resilience, strength and a look into what the movement meant for people involved through the protagonist offered invaluable insights.

[ashman.toronto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving novel that recounts the lives of a group of friends during the AIDS epidemic in the 80s.

[gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a handful of books that have left an indelible mark upon me insomuch as they were the 'guidebooks' I sought out while navigating the confusing and precariousness of being gay. 'And the Band Played On,' 'A Home at the End of the World,' and this mesmerizing work by Jameson Currier are all prominently displayed on the top shelf of one of my bookcases. They are the touchstones of who I am today.

Fresh from a two year sojourn in Toronto, I had found myself settling into the quiet domesticity of a small central Ontario town where the pace of life was quieter, and the rigors of the gay mystique were less demanding. Reading had always been a solace for me, and when, on a return trip back to Toronto, I had stopped off at a favourite gay themed bookstore, the clerk [a face from the past] suggested I might enjoy 'Where the Rainbow Ends,' I decided to give it a go. Three days, many tears and bouts of laughter later, I read the last word of the last page and knew that this was a book that I would not soon forget. That was sixteen years ago!

Smalltown guy moves to the big city and in his first month experiences all of the fears that most Mother's envision when their naive sons leave the farm for the bright lights and allure of the big cities. Mothers who, though unwilling to admit, realize that their boys aren't like other boys! Robbie is the perfect representation of the rural gay Everyman. Embattled with his faith [though not of his own prescription] and his burgeoning sexually awakened appetite, he embarks upon a journey that says before him every possible dream he could ever imagine, but also lays him directly in the path of heartache, not to mention in the path of a deadly disease that has targeted gay men in general. A cast of supporting characters become more than friends, confidantes and lovers - they are more akin to siblings than those of your actual blood family.

Currier and Cunningham [Jameson/Michael] remain two of my most treasured and read writers to date, and this stunning book serves as my reasoning behind my following them as loyally as I do. Heartbreaking, joyous, poignant, frustrating, angry, desolate, redemptive..... you will find all of this and more within the pages of this most treasured novel.