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The Geography of Pluto
Twenty-eight-year-old Will, a teacher living in Montreal's gay village, has spent the last few months recovering from a breakup with his first serious boyfriend, Max. He has resumed his search for companionship, but has he truly moved on? Will's mother Katherine - one of the few people, perhaps the only one, who loves him unconditionally - is also in recovery, from a bout with colon cancer that haunts her body and mind with the possibility of relapse. Having experienced heartbreak, and fearful of tragedy, Will must come to terms with the rule of impermanence: to see past lost treasures and unwanted returns, to find hope and solace in the absolute certainty of change. In The Geography of Pluto, Christopher DiRaddo perfectly captures the ebb and flow of life through the insightful, exciting, and often playful story of a young man's day-to-day struggle with uncertainty.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2014
About the author
Christopher DiRaddo
4 books103 followersChristopher DiRaddo is the author of The Family Way (2021), shortlisted for the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize, and The Geography of Pluto (2014). His work has appeared in First Person Queer, Here & Now (Volumes I and II), and The Globe and Mail, among others. He has written for publications like Elle Canada, Xtra, and enRoute, winning a National Magazine Award. In 2014, he founded the Violet Hour Literary Series & Book Club, supporting over 300 LGBTQ writers in Canada. He lives in Montreal. IG: chrisdiraddo
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
August 8, 2022
can’t review too busy crying
August 7, 2016
What a charming debut.
July 24, 2019
Loved this little gem of local literature, which hit home on so many levels. The voice rang true and all of my old hangouts are featured in there. Glad I picked it up.
June 29, 2022
I RECEIVED THIS AS A GIFT FROM A CANADIAN FRIEND. THANKS!
My Review: What I can tell you is that this is a reading experience to savor, because it's got the meditative quality of all the best bildungsromans. It's not precisely The Sorrows of Young Werther (thank goodness) but it's as deeply felt and its hero is very much a hero.
What I can't tell you is what the heck made me pick it for a Canadian friend to send to me in 2015. (He's no longer my friend, so naming no names.) I guess I wanted a Canadian gay man's perspective...? I don't know but thank goodness he chose to gift me this book, and I got to meet Will and his loved ones. I don't think I'll forget Angie, the lesbian bestie, any time soon..."you {gays} have it so good, there's always a party or something, lesbians are boring!" as Will's trying to process heartbreak...and while I don't want to remember Max, I know I will. *guilty memories*
Into every ordinary life...Will's mother, close to him, doesn't know he's gay (or so he thinks). She's now, after a long motherhood without a coparent, facing the worst sort of news: Terminal cancer. This is, as anyone who's lived through it knows, a death sentence for whoever the person you were before your loved one was diagnosed as well as for them. It's a long and bitter war, Will learns, to be there for someone you love as they die. He is up to the challenge, though, and does his mother proud: He comes out to her. And, before she dies, the "...unspoken truth that would weigh upon her until she was ready to confront it: that she was the mother of a gay man," is spoken and it (predictably) isn't anything that awful in their lives.
It is with Max, Will's first serious love, that I got squirmy. He is Mr. Right! He's so {insert laundry list of delightful things}! He and I will grow old together. And Max is thinking, "this is great, I like this guy and the sex really works, but I need something else," and doesn't share that with the passionately in-love Will because, well, the sex really works. So when the inevitable happens and he breaks up with Will, only one of them is devastated and it's not Max. Who, need I mention, recrudesces like a malign growth in Will's world...he simply can't just Be Done, get over it, without Max wanting...something.
I guess it's a no-brainer to realize that Will, a geography teacher by profession, living in Montreal, a city whose geography is ever-present, unignorable, and quite beautiful, will describe same to reader. It's a pleasure to read. The descriptions are embedded, and frequently at spoiler-sensitive times, or I'd quote one or two. The reason I bring it up is that it's one of my favorite things about the read. I had a firm sense of place, I was oriented in Will's world, and I've been to Montreal only twice. That's a good job of world-building, Author DiRaddo. The wonderful ending of the book takes us, in Will's musings, out to Pluto the ex-planet, the cold world beyond anything Humankind's ever known. Will says about its 2006 demotion from planethood:
So that's it. Will's ordinary life is just...ordinary. He lives, loves, hurts, laughs in Montreal. He questions his choices and his sanity, his luck and his lovers. He does it all at the turn of the millennium, which honestly feels like History now. And I was in my forties! So there's a lot to learn about younger people, their ways and their means; but there's really so much more that simply feels like the best kind of homecoming to me. I remember these passages, including his coping with a parent's loss and a lost parent. Will felt like a man I'd gladly have to a dinner party and expect he'd be a great asset to my circle of friends.
I suppose it's all just the long way to say: I think Will's a good guy, and I hope you'll give him a chance on this blind date I'm urging you to go on with him.
My Review: What I can tell you is that this is a reading experience to savor, because it's got the meditative quality of all the best bildungsromans. It's not precisely The Sorrows of Young Werther (thank goodness) but it's as deeply felt and its hero is very much a hero.
What I can't tell you is what the heck made me pick it for a Canadian friend to send to me in 2015. (He's no longer my friend, so naming no names.) I guess I wanted a Canadian gay man's perspective...? I don't know but thank goodness he chose to gift me this book, and I got to meet Will and his loved ones. I don't think I'll forget Angie, the lesbian bestie, any time soon..."you {gays} have it so good, there's always a party or something, lesbians are boring!" as Will's trying to process heartbreak...and while I don't want to remember Max, I know I will. *guilty memories*
Into every ordinary life...Will's mother, close to him, doesn't know he's gay (or so he thinks). She's now, after a long motherhood without a coparent, facing the worst sort of news: Terminal cancer. This is, as anyone who's lived through it knows, a death sentence for whoever the person you were before your loved one was diagnosed as well as for them. It's a long and bitter war, Will learns, to be there for someone you love as they die. He is up to the challenge, though, and does his mother proud: He comes out to her. And, before she dies, the "...unspoken truth that would weigh upon her until she was ready to confront it: that she was the mother of a gay man," is spoken and it (predictably) isn't anything that awful in their lives.
It is with Max, Will's first serious love, that I got squirmy. He is Mr. Right! He's so {insert laundry list of delightful things}! He and I will grow old together. And Max is thinking, "this is great, I like this guy and the sex really works, but I need something else," and doesn't share that with the passionately in-love Will because, well, the sex really works. So when the inevitable happens and he breaks up with Will, only one of them is devastated and it's not Max. Who, need I mention, recrudesces like a malign growth in Will's world...he simply can't just Be Done, get over it, without Max wanting...something.
I guess it's a no-brainer to realize that Will, a geography teacher by profession, living in Montreal, a city whose geography is ever-present, unignorable, and quite beautiful, will describe same to reader. It's a pleasure to read. The descriptions are embedded, and frequently at spoiler-sensitive times, or I'd quote one or two. The reason I bring it up is that it's one of my favorite things about the read. I had a firm sense of place, I was oriented in Will's world, and I've been to Montreal only twice. That's a good job of world-building, Author DiRaddo. The wonderful ending of the book takes us, in Will's musings, out to Pluto the ex-planet, the cold world beyond anything Humankind's ever known. Will says about its 2006 demotion from planethood:
Is anything truly permanent? Can anything ever be when your own universe can surprise you with something new about itself—correcting a fact you were taught to believe your entire life? The teacher in me wonders what they will do now with the old textbooks, the ones that count the planets in our solar system as nine. The little boy in me feels betrayed by the astronomers, the curtain pulled further back on the limits of science. But the lover in me is optimistic, content that something so cold and distant is perhaps more understandable.
So that's it. Will's ordinary life is just...ordinary. He lives, loves, hurts, laughs in Montreal. He questions his choices and his sanity, his luck and his lovers. He does it all at the turn of the millennium, which honestly feels like History now. And I was in my forties! So there's a lot to learn about younger people, their ways and their means; but there's really so much more that simply feels like the best kind of homecoming to me. I remember these passages, including his coping with a parent's loss and a lost parent. Will felt like a man I'd gladly have to a dinner party and expect he'd be a great asset to my circle of friends.
I suppose it's all just the long way to say: I think Will's a good guy, and I hope you'll give him a chance on this blind date I'm urging you to go on with him.
March 30, 2022
"...I'd believe her. I'd believe her because she is my mom."
A book for suburban gay men who have a close but not deeply intimate relationship with their mothers. It succeeds incredibly well at being just that. "The Geography of Pluto" extends its reach further, though, interrogating how we move through time and gain and shed things along the way. Maybe it's only so great to me because it's so relatable, but "The Geography of Pluto" is the first book to make me cry in a long time. I can already tell it will become more special to me as time goes on; I'm sure I'll find myself returning to it in the near future.
"My heart was still purple; soft and sore."
A book for suburban gay men who have a close but not deeply intimate relationship with their mothers. It succeeds incredibly well at being just that. "The Geography of Pluto" extends its reach further, though, interrogating how we move through time and gain and shed things along the way. Maybe it's only so great to me because it's so relatable, but "The Geography of Pluto" is the first book to make me cry in a long time. I can already tell it will become more special to me as time goes on; I'm sure I'll find myself returning to it in the near future.
"My heart was still purple; soft and sore."
October 24, 2014
Some books are able to put you in the shoes of their protagonist, however different this character might ever feel from you. They make you see the world from their eyes, experience life from their point of view, and ultimately show you that we all share the same few fundamental needs. The Geography of Pluto is one of these books. With this novel I spent a day and a half – that’s how fast I devoured it – beside Will Ambrose, a gay man reaching his 30’s, the partygoer I won’t ever be, and shared with him the pain of a failed relationship, the terror of impermanence and the crave for love.
The premise of The Geography of Pluto is simple: Will and Max were together until recently, when the latter abruptly ended their relationship with a few words of painful honesty that should have open Will’s eyes but only threw him into denial. Will is shattered. He goes from incredulity to anger, from cold and recoiled depression to deluded hope of getting Max back.
During this time, Will somewhat re-invents Max and forges memories of an idealized relationship that has little to do with reality. The rejection and sudden loneliness created the illusion that his former boyfriend used to provide everything that Will is needing now.
Actually, Will seems trapped in some limbo similar to grief: stunned by the sudden loss of someone close to his heart and angst by the unjust pain it causes him. Shooed away from the path he had planned to follow, he’s left lost and confused: “What do I do now?”, “Where do I go?”.
Worst, his memories – real or fake – become a jail: Will focuses more on what he has lost and this clinging prevents him from going ahead.
Another important aspect of the book is the relationship between Will and his mother, which brings additional depth to The Geography of Pluto. First of all, Will shows his difficulty to come out, even to a close parent, and how his being gay is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about, some kind of shameful secret:
However, Will’s mother will also push him to learn and grow up. When her life is threatened with cancer, Will suddenly makes giant steps as an individual. He conjures the strength to tell her he’s gay, feeling that she must know him and he must dare coming out before it’s too late. Furthermore, it makes Will sense the pressure and unavoidability of impermanence. Sickness makes you feel powerless: it threatens and sometimes take away your loved ones, force on you a terrible loss that you can’t do anything about.
Loss, grief, mourning, The Geography of Pluto explores the emotional pain of separation with a simple story and beautiful writing. It brought me so close to Will, makes his experience so vivid to me, that I forgot several times that this novel was a fiction. Will Ambrose feels so real, so ordinary, and his struggles so terribly familiar, that everyone will recognize a bit of himself in The Geography of Pluto. I can’t recommend this book enough.
Review first published on MapleBooks.ca: Canadian book reviews
“How can you lose something you thought was forever?”
The premise of The Geography of Pluto is simple: Will and Max were together until recently, when the latter abruptly ended their relationship with a few words of painful honesty that should have open Will’s eyes but only threw him into denial. Will is shattered. He goes from incredulity to anger, from cold and recoiled depression to deluded hope of getting Max back.
During this time, Will somewhat re-invents Max and forges memories of an idealized relationship that has little to do with reality. The rejection and sudden loneliness created the illusion that his former boyfriend used to provide everything that Will is needing now.
“My current state had erased and rewritten his [Max's] character flaws and turned them into poetic mannerisms for me to mourn.”
Actually, Will seems trapped in some limbo similar to grief: stunned by the sudden loss of someone close to his heart and angst by the unjust pain it causes him. Shooed away from the path he had planned to follow, he’s left lost and confused: “What do I do now?”, “Where do I go?”.
Worst, his memories – real or fake – become a jail: Will focuses more on what he has lost and this clinging prevents him from going ahead.
“I had thought I was getting better, but I had underestimated Max’s power. And when I closed my eyes I could still feel his gravitational pull across time and space, holding me within his orbit.”
Another important aspect of the book is the relationship between Will and his mother, which brings additional depth to The Geography of Pluto. First of all, Will shows his difficulty to come out, even to a close parent, and how his being gay is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about, some kind of shameful secret:
“An unspoken truth that would weigh upon her until she was ready to confront it: that she was the mother of a gay man.”
However, Will’s mother will also push him to learn and grow up. When her life is threatened with cancer, Will suddenly makes giant steps as an individual. He conjures the strength to tell her he’s gay, feeling that she must know him and he must dare coming out before it’s too late. Furthermore, it makes Will sense the pressure and unavoidability of impermanence. Sickness makes you feel powerless: it threatens and sometimes take away your loved ones, force on you a terrible loss that you can’t do anything about.
“I was hoping to stop things from changing, to have some control over the present. But I can’t. No matter how hard I try, I can’t stop the world from moving forward. I can’t stop anyone from leaving…”
Loss, grief, mourning, The Geography of Pluto explores the emotional pain of separation with a simple story and beautiful writing. It brought me so close to Will, makes his experience so vivid to me, that I forgot several times that this novel was a fiction. Will Ambrose feels so real, so ordinary, and his struggles so terribly familiar, that everyone will recognize a bit of himself in The Geography of Pluto. I can’t recommend this book enough.
Review first published on MapleBooks.ca: Canadian book reviews
August 31, 2018
This well-written and well-structured debut novel is ultimately about five kinds of love: love of family, romantic love, love of friends, love of place, and (ultimately) self-love / self-respect.
The likeable yet far-from-perfect narrator, Will Ambrose, is a gay geography teacher in Montreal facing two relationship challenges: the need to get over his ex-boyfriend (Max), and the desire to take his relationship with his single mother deeper beyond 'surface' matters. As the novel moves back and forth in time, the reader learns about Will's friendship with Angie, which is enviably close and able to withstand all sorts of bruises. Other aspects of the novel focus on Will's experience of coming out as a gay man and discerning the boundaries between sex, love, and various in-between states. The other main character of the book is the city of Montreal, which is gorgeously depicted throughout via vivid descriptions of its climate, gay village, and (yes) geography as the reader rides along and the subway/metro and looks into the apartment windows; the book left with me with an urge to learn French, abandon my long-time home in Western Canada, and move to Montreal, a city I've visited just once.
The strength of this debut effort indicates that the author, DiRaddo, is blessed with innate gifts, and a few tantalizing threads in the closing chapters left me hoping that he is considering a sequel. Surely there's enough room on Pluto- or Earth- for such an effort.
The likeable yet far-from-perfect narrator, Will Ambrose, is a gay geography teacher in Montreal facing two relationship challenges: the need to get over his ex-boyfriend (Max), and the desire to take his relationship with his single mother deeper beyond 'surface' matters. As the novel moves back and forth in time, the reader learns about Will's friendship with Angie, which is enviably close and able to withstand all sorts of bruises. Other aspects of the novel focus on Will's experience of coming out as a gay man and discerning the boundaries between sex, love, and various in-between states. The other main character of the book is the city of Montreal, which is gorgeously depicted throughout via vivid descriptions of its climate, gay village, and (yes) geography as the reader rides along and the subway/metro and looks into the apartment windows; the book left with me with an urge to learn French, abandon my long-time home in Western Canada, and move to Montreal, a city I've visited just once.
The strength of this debut effort indicates that the author, DiRaddo, is blessed with innate gifts, and a few tantalizing threads in the closing chapters left me hoping that he is considering a sequel. Surely there's enough room on Pluto- or Earth- for such an effort.
December 24, 2016
This is a beautiful book.
It's been a long time since a book made me cry. This did so in spades.
Probably the best book I've read in the past two years.
To say it's book about love is to do the author a disservice. And love too - for you think you know all about all aspects of love. But this shows love off at its best, boldest and widest.
It's about parental love (by & for), and about the love for & by partners - partners past, present and future. It also touches on love within friendship - between those few friends who are there, unconditionally, when you really need them.
It's not a joyful book, because love can be sad, particularly when it's lost, declined or taken from us. The author explores and details it all.
I never knew such love and sadness could be put into words. Thank you Mr DiRaddo for doing so, and so expertly.
A note for the heteros out there: I knew to expect a detailed love scene. I wasn't sure how I would handle it: I was ready to squirm a little. But the author handled it beautifully. Heteros need squirm no more.
It's been a long time since a book made me cry. This did so in spades.
Probably the best book I've read in the past two years.
To say it's book about love is to do the author a disservice. And love too - for you think you know all about all aspects of love. But this shows love off at its best, boldest and widest.
It's about parental love (by & for), and about the love for & by partners - partners past, present and future. It also touches on love within friendship - between those few friends who are there, unconditionally, when you really need them.
It's not a joyful book, because love can be sad, particularly when it's lost, declined or taken from us. The author explores and details it all.
I never knew such love and sadness could be put into words. Thank you Mr DiRaddo for doing so, and so expertly.
A note for the heteros out there: I knew to expect a detailed love scene. I wasn't sure how I would handle it: I was ready to squirm a little. But the author handled it beautifully. Heteros need squirm no more.
January 24, 2014
One of my methods of evaluating any given book (or film) is whether or not I feel compelled to cheer for a character. In this case, I felt myself rooting for Will, a 28-year-old Montreal-based teacher dealing with the complexities of love and life. The story was graceful and humorous, gritty and tender. In fact, reading the book didn’t even feel like reading at all — it felt like hanging out with an old friend.
August 12, 2014
This novel resonated on many levels. It is both an homage to my home city of Montreal and a deep exploration of character, the search for connection and love in a complex world. Brilliant!
October 17, 2020
This book has the rarest of characters: a young man who appreciates his mother; they have a sweet relationship. Another strength of the novel is its frank portrayal of gay and lesbian people in the real world without stereotyping. The story does move slowly, more character study than plot driven. I very much enjoyed the vivid descriptions of Montreal - very well done, as you might expect from a book with “Geography” in the title.
January 26, 2024
Thoroughly enjoyed!! Felt so frustrated with the main character, Will, but mainly because he’s extremely relatable. Enjoyed the complexity of his relationship with his mother and the theme of grief.
May 31, 2014
I won a copy of this book as part of the Goodreads first-reads giveaway.
The Geography of Pluto is the story of a young man named Will who is a geography teacher living in Montreal. He is really struggling to get over the breakup of his relationship with his boyfriend Max. He makes half-hearted attempts at moving on, but can he? Will's mother is also facing struggles of her own. She is a cancer survivor, but the cancer looms like a dark cloud over them, always threatening to come back.
This story had me captivated. It is a novel about grief, love, and the beautiful city of Montreal. At times I found myself cheering for Will, other times he made me frustrated. It is definitely a story worth reading.
The Geography of Pluto is the story of a young man named Will who is a geography teacher living in Montreal. He is really struggling to get over the breakup of his relationship with his boyfriend Max. He makes half-hearted attempts at moving on, but can he? Will's mother is also facing struggles of her own. She is a cancer survivor, but the cancer looms like a dark cloud over them, always threatening to come back.
This story had me captivated. It is a novel about grief, love, and the beautiful city of Montreal. At times I found myself cheering for Will, other times he made me frustrated. It is definitely a story worth reading.
March 5, 2020
This is the novel that my heart has written many times, with lines that feel like they’re plucked from so many of its many beats. DiRaddo captures various geographies - early 2000s Montreal, the strange sea floor undulations of the dance floor, the planetary pull of relationships, the rocky terrain of feeling - with prose both poetic and precise. No comparison is wasted, the imagery clear and vibrant, burning with that tingle of magic only the most heartfelt and true writing can engender. Normally, emotions remain tightly coiled inside when I read, but this book cut through those restraints and had me alive to its sorrows and triumphs, smiling and crying alongside Will Ambrose and his universe of companions - some lost, others gained, all exalted.
April 1, 2018
What a pleasure. I appreciate books that respect setting as much as character. I like to feel as though I've been taken to a new place as well to visit new people. The Geography of Pluto definitely does just that. That's geography, after all: people and place. Thoughtful and heartfelt, there's a strong current of irony that adds richness to the story as well. Will is a character I think we can all see ourselves in; his path is one we've all traveled in one form or another - that his story offers some unique observations makes it well worth the read. I enjoyed my time with the novel; I rather think it's one I'll revisit, too.
June 1, 2014
I was very happy to win this small press book from Goodreads. I doubt that I would have had a chance to read it otherwise. This was a very sweet book. The main character and his life experiences were depicted without romance, with all the rawness and naiveté of someone that age trying to make sense of life . His relationship with his mother was especially compelling. And it doesn't hurt that the setting is Montreal in the 1990s (I think).
July 16, 2014
An amazing story that is heartwarming and simply amazing. The story itself is not complicated but it never feels boring or drags, it flows smoothly and feels authentic to real life. An excellent read and a wonderful first novel. Looking forward to any other novels written by the author.
January 22, 2023
This was absolutely precious! Such a beautiful illustration of a gay man dealing with the complexities of love and life. It was beautifully sad and brilliant.
October 20, 2026
The Geography of Pluto by Christopher DiRaddo is not an extraordinary story, and I do not mean that as a criticism. It is a simple story about a simple man with simple needs. Will Ambrose, a gay high school geography teacher living in Montreal, is not looking for grand adventures or dramatic change. He wants a stable life, a stable relationship, and some peace. The problem is that life does not give him certainty, and much of this novel is about his struggle to accept that.
The writing style felt unusual to me. At times it reminded me of the stream-of-consciousness feeling I have experienced in writers like Virginia Woolf or Arundhati Roy. The narrative does not move in a straight line. It drifts between the present and the past, often moving into flashbacks and then branching into older memories. Because of that, the first few chapters felt slow, sometimes almost as if nothing was happening. But by the end, I understood why the story was written this way. The novel is less interested in plot than in how memories, regrets, and old relationships continue to shape a person's present life.
What I appreciated most was how realistic the emotions felt. Will is still carrying the weight of a past relationship, and that affects how he approaches new ones. The novel captures the fear of moving on, the fear of getting hurt again, and the temptation to stay attached to a version of life that no longer exists. One message that stayed with me is how relationships often fail because people emotionally give up before they truly try to work through their problems.
The strongest part of the book for me was the relationship between Will and his mother, Katherine. This is the first book I have read where a gay protagonist has such a loving and detailed relationship with a parent. Their bond felt genuine and deeply relevant to the story. For most of his life, his mother was the person he could always call family. When his romantic relationship failed, he returned to that source of stability. But as her health declines, he is forced to face another painful truth: nothing lasts forever. That loss of certainty becomes one of the novel's central struggles.
I also loved Will's friendship with Angie. Both of them understand disappointment in relationships, and both know what it feels like to search for stability and not always find it. Their connection felt honest and natural. They support each other without judgment because they understand each other's fears and failures. In a book filled with uncertainty, Angie is one of the few people Will can rely on.
One thing that genuinely surprised me was seeing a gay character with such a supportive parent-child relationship. So many stories focus on rejection that this felt refreshing. My biggest disappointment was the pacing at the beginning. It takes time to see where the story is going, and readers looking for constant movement may struggle with it. Still, by the end, the difference in Will is clear.
What I liked most about the ending is that it does not pretend uncertainty disappears. Will does not suddenly gain complete confidence about the future or about his relationship. Instead, he comes to an agreement with life itself. He accepts that he cannot know how long things will last, but he chooses to try anyway. He chooses not to repeat the mistakes he made before. There is a quiet peace in that realization, and it made the ending satisfying for me.
I would especially recommend this book to gay readers who are struggling to move on from a past relationship, or to anyone who finds uncertainty frightening and keeps looking backward instead of forward. If you are looking for a fast-paced story with major twists, this may feel too slow. But if you want a thoughtful and realistic novel about loss, love, family, and learning to live with change, there is something beautiful here.
One thing I kept thinking about after finishing the book was the title. For most of the novel, I was not sure why it was called The Geography of Pluto. But after I finished, I started connecting it to Will's journey. Pluto was once considered the ninth planet, part of a system where its place seemed certain. Then it lost that status, and suddenly people were asking what Pluto was supposed to be now. In a way, Will goes through something similar. When he loses the people he loves, especially the relationships that gave him stability and identity, he feels lost and uncertain about who he is. He no longer knows where he belongs. Maybe that is why the title worked for me by the end. The difference is that Will is not Pluto. He is a human being. He does not need another person or a label to define what he is. His peace comes from accepting uncertainty instead of letting it define him.
The writing style felt unusual to me. At times it reminded me of the stream-of-consciousness feeling I have experienced in writers like Virginia Woolf or Arundhati Roy. The narrative does not move in a straight line. It drifts between the present and the past, often moving into flashbacks and then branching into older memories. Because of that, the first few chapters felt slow, sometimes almost as if nothing was happening. But by the end, I understood why the story was written this way. The novel is less interested in plot than in how memories, regrets, and old relationships continue to shape a person's present life.
What I appreciated most was how realistic the emotions felt. Will is still carrying the weight of a past relationship, and that affects how he approaches new ones. The novel captures the fear of moving on, the fear of getting hurt again, and the temptation to stay attached to a version of life that no longer exists. One message that stayed with me is how relationships often fail because people emotionally give up before they truly try to work through their problems.
The strongest part of the book for me was the relationship between Will and his mother, Katherine. This is the first book I have read where a gay protagonist has such a loving and detailed relationship with a parent. Their bond felt genuine and deeply relevant to the story. For most of his life, his mother was the person he could always call family. When his romantic relationship failed, he returned to that source of stability. But as her health declines, he is forced to face another painful truth: nothing lasts forever. That loss of certainty becomes one of the novel's central struggles.
I also loved Will's friendship with Angie. Both of them understand disappointment in relationships, and both know what it feels like to search for stability and not always find it. Their connection felt honest and natural. They support each other without judgment because they understand each other's fears and failures. In a book filled with uncertainty, Angie is one of the few people Will can rely on.
One thing that genuinely surprised me was seeing a gay character with such a supportive parent-child relationship. So many stories focus on rejection that this felt refreshing. My biggest disappointment was the pacing at the beginning. It takes time to see where the story is going, and readers looking for constant movement may struggle with it. Still, by the end, the difference in Will is clear.
What I liked most about the ending is that it does not pretend uncertainty disappears. Will does not suddenly gain complete confidence about the future or about his relationship. Instead, he comes to an agreement with life itself. He accepts that he cannot know how long things will last, but he chooses to try anyway. He chooses not to repeat the mistakes he made before. There is a quiet peace in that realization, and it made the ending satisfying for me.
I would especially recommend this book to gay readers who are struggling to move on from a past relationship, or to anyone who finds uncertainty frightening and keeps looking backward instead of forward. If you are looking for a fast-paced story with major twists, this may feel too slow. But if you want a thoughtful and realistic novel about loss, love, family, and learning to live with change, there is something beautiful here.
One thing I kept thinking about after finishing the book was the title. For most of the novel, I was not sure why it was called The Geography of Pluto. But after I finished, I started connecting it to Will's journey. Pluto was once considered the ninth planet, part of a system where its place seemed certain. Then it lost that status, and suddenly people were asking what Pluto was supposed to be now. In a way, Will goes through something similar. When he loses the people he loves, especially the relationships that gave him stability and identity, he feels lost and uncertain about who he is. He no longer knows where he belongs. Maybe that is why the title worked for me by the end. The difference is that Will is not Pluto. He is a human being. He does not need another person or a label to define what he is. His peace comes from accepting uncertainty instead of letting it define him.
July 22, 2020
The Geography of Pluto has quickly become one of my favourite novels. As someone roughly Will's age, I could relate to a lot of his experiences, bigger existential questions, and even his coming out was remarkably similar to mine. The novel made me reflect a lot on my own relationships - romantic, familial, and geographical - all of which intersect to make up our personal stories.
I thought the descriptions of Montreal were especially beautiful and this novel makes me long for other well-written Canadian literature... and perhaps another visit to the city. Eagerly awaiting Christopher DiRaddo's next work.
I thought the descriptions of Montreal were especially beautiful and this novel makes me long for other well-written Canadian literature... and perhaps another visit to the city. Eagerly awaiting Christopher DiRaddo's next work.
November 17, 2019
A gorgeous first novel that pulls equally from a sunset coming of age through to the indelible disappointments of those first broken relationships. DiRaddo paints a portrait of Montréal that truly brings the city's queer underbelly to life – but rather than sounding resigned to sadness or lost to loss, it's clear from 'The Geography of Pluto' that orbits continue and the sun always returns. We might just want to shade our eyes from it from time to time, with a bittersweet look back.
August 27, 2024
Really wonderful book. The Geography of Pluto follows Will, approaching 30, struggling with time passing him by, and figuring out how to take life into his own hands.
Will was a flawed by likable and sympathetic character. His relationship with his best friend Angie was delightful. And his dedication to his equally flawed mother was familiar and heartwarming.
Can be sad at times, but by no means a total downer.
Will was a flawed by likable and sympathetic character. His relationship with his best friend Angie was delightful. And his dedication to his equally flawed mother was familiar and heartwarming.
Can be sad at times, but by no means a total downer.
January 2, 2020
Set in Montreal and gay.... worth the read. Heart breaking ending and made me cry so I’d recommend for a quick read.
September 18, 2020
Moving coming of age story of a gay boy who struggles to cope with life and loss as he grows into his adulthood.
December 15, 2022
A nostalgic and heartfelt snapshot of queer Montreal life that delves deeply into questions of love, loss, and the human condition.
August 25, 2022
I loved everything about this novel. The way DiRaddo describes relationships past, present and future in a manner that enables the reader to practically feel the emotions of the main character made me unable to stop reading. Reading it while visiting Montréal and actually moving around in the same city as Will at the time of reading it only made the reading experience all the more powerful.
September 30, 2019
I read this in Montreal, because it’s set in Montreal. It is definitely entrenched in its setting, and I liked that. It was really quite slow and depressing. The man was processing the loss of a lover, but then his mom dies and the whole book shifts its focus. It’s really not bad, but I felt like the reflections on the loss of a lover were not new, and the mother’s death wasn’t fully processed in this book. I would read more by this author, if the premise seemed interesting. But I don’t think I’d recommend this because it’s slow and not-particularly-insightful. I could really empathize with the main character, and his struggles with loss and his wondering “why we can’t keep things/people we love,” but I was disappointed because I didn’t think he added any new perspective to those sentiments.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2014
This compact novel about being a gay man in Montreal in the recent past won me over completely. The protagonist is very much flawed, but a good person at heart, and his life and adventures were not only interesting, but also brutally honest.
April 2, 2017
I received this book from a goodreads giveaway.
I really enjoyed this book. What a nice surprise! Very well written and a compelling story. I grew to like the main characters a great deal. Good character development and plot.
I really enjoyed this book. What a nice surprise! Very well written and a compelling story. I grew to like the main characters a great deal. Good character development and plot.
March 28, 2023
This book was so well written. Even when I thought I knew what might happen I was surprised by when and how it happened. I felt everything the protagonist went through and could identify with so many of the moments. Can’t wait to read the author’s new book.
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