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Sea of Tranquillity
From Paul Russell, the award-winning author of The Coming Storm , comes the story of a splinted nuclear family - spanning from the optimistic time of the first moon shot to the bleak time of the early AIDS years.
Astronaut Allen Cloud suffers severely from post-lunar depression, and dreams of returning to the far-off world in which he'd finally found peace. His wife's search for happiness takes her from the bottom of a bottle in middle America to Turkey, where she finds spiritual salvation. Their gay son Jonathan embarks on a journey of self-discovery, leading him from Houston to the sophisticated gay world of the East Coast. His acknowledgment of his sexual identity and pursuit of physical and spiritual fulfillment has its counterpoint in a repressed preacher's son, whose desires Jonathan awakens in high school and whose destiny Jonathan permanently alters.
Told by a brilliant quartet of voices, Sea of Tranquillity demonstrates a spectrum of emotion that sweeps from razor-sharp wit to wrenching heartache, from anger and alienation to acceptance and reconciliation.
Astronaut Allen Cloud suffers severely from post-lunar depression, and dreams of returning to the far-off world in which he'd finally found peace. His wife's search for happiness takes her from the bottom of a bottle in middle America to Turkey, where she finds spiritual salvation. Their gay son Jonathan embarks on a journey of self-discovery, leading him from Houston to the sophisticated gay world of the East Coast. His acknowledgment of his sexual identity and pursuit of physical and spiritual fulfillment has its counterpoint in a repressed preacher's son, whose desires Jonathan awakens in high school and whose destiny Jonathan permanently alters.
Told by a brilliant quartet of voices, Sea of Tranquillity demonstrates a spectrum of emotion that sweeps from razor-sharp wit to wrenching heartache, from anger and alienation to acceptance and reconciliation.
384 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1994
17 people are currently reading
1021 people want to read
About the author
Paul Russell
46 books135 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Paul Russell received his doctorate from Cornell in 1983 for a dissertation on the novelist Vladimir Nabokov and is currently a Professor in the English Department at Vassar College.
His fourth novel, The Coming Storm won the 2000 Ferro-Grumley Award for Gay Male Fiction.
His short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Black Warrior Review, and Carolina Quarterly.
Paul Russell received his doctorate from Cornell in 1983 for a dissertation on the novelist Vladimir Nabokov and is currently a Professor in the English Department at Vassar College.
His fourth novel, The Coming Storm won the 2000 Ferro-Grumley Award for Gay Male Fiction.
His short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Black Warrior Review, and Carolina Quarterly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
August 31, 2023
I'm torn about how much I liked this novel. For the most part, the story and writing kept me intrigued and interested in continuing but, I feel, the author lost his way a bit during certain parts, and, in turn, lost me as a reader.
Sea of Tranquillity traces a disintegrating nuclear family across two tumultuous decades of American life - from the early '60s to the '80s - and is told in a quartet of voices: astronaut Allen Cloud, his wife, their gay son, Jonathan, and his friend/lover. The novel ranges in time and emotion from the optimism of the first moon shot to the dark landscape of the age of AIDS.
Compelling stuff, to say the least. And Paul Russell definitely captures the essence of the differing historic periods and the world of NASA, the space mission, and all the mechanics that entails. He also does a great job at capturing the early years of the AIDS epidemic, especially by honing in on just the one character struggling with the disease versus trying to incorporate the vastness of entirety of the crisis. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite capture the vastness of his own ideas as portrayed through the lives of these 4 characters (really, just 3 of them - the astronaut, his wife, and the son, as the friend/lover is the most mentally stable of the characters, despite his own familial issues). The enormity of Russell's grasp - the moon, the universe, the actual existence of man - might be too grand for anyone to fit into a novel but he definitely gives it a shot, with some success and some failures.
The characters are well drawn, for the most part, though their voices (each chapter is told from a particular characters perspective and it switches with each chapter) tend to sound a lot alike. There's one chapter toward the end that I'm still not sure who it was and I should have been able to by that point.
Overall, I have a feeling certain aspects of the novel will stay with me, haunt and dog me, which is a sign of a good story and good writing. But certain aspects will continue to frustrate me, as well.
Sea of Tranquillity traces a disintegrating nuclear family across two tumultuous decades of American life - from the early '60s to the '80s - and is told in a quartet of voices: astronaut Allen Cloud, his wife, their gay son, Jonathan, and his friend/lover. The novel ranges in time and emotion from the optimism of the first moon shot to the dark landscape of the age of AIDS.
Compelling stuff, to say the least. And Paul Russell definitely captures the essence of the differing historic periods and the world of NASA, the space mission, and all the mechanics that entails. He also does a great job at capturing the early years of the AIDS epidemic, especially by honing in on just the one character struggling with the disease versus trying to incorporate the vastness of entirety of the crisis. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite capture the vastness of his own ideas as portrayed through the lives of these 4 characters (really, just 3 of them - the astronaut, his wife, and the son, as the friend/lover is the most mentally stable of the characters, despite his own familial issues). The enormity of Russell's grasp - the moon, the universe, the actual existence of man - might be too grand for anyone to fit into a novel but he definitely gives it a shot, with some success and some failures.
The characters are well drawn, for the most part, though their voices (each chapter is told from a particular characters perspective and it switches with each chapter) tend to sound a lot alike. There's one chapter toward the end that I'm still not sure who it was and I should have been able to by that point.
Overall, I have a feeling certain aspects of the novel will stay with me, haunt and dog me, which is a sign of a good story and good writing. But certain aspects will continue to frustrate me, as well.
March 23, 2007
This isn't an easy read. There are four characters revealing four points of view about a singular family. I loved it, even when I thought it was becoming a mess, I always came out the otherside appreciating where the novel finally led (and there is much less mess than beauty i in this somber tale).
Paul Russell and Dennis Cooper are the two best writers of dark gay fiction. Each probes areas that make me think, shudder, find compassion for those I wouldn't think I could, and even feel thrilling, disturbingly aroused. That's worth the price of admission, isn't it. But then, like goobers and popcorn, Russell, adds a breathtaking turn of phrase; succinct character development, and surprising plot twists. I'm sold.
Paul Russell and Dennis Cooper are the two best writers of dark gay fiction. Each probes areas that make me think, shudder, find compassion for those I wouldn't think I could, and even feel thrilling, disturbingly aroused. That's worth the price of admission, isn't it. But then, like goobers and popcorn, Russell, adds a breathtaking turn of phrase; succinct character development, and surprising plot twists. I'm sold.
August 8, 2015
This is an excellent piece of work, full of humor and pathos. It tells the story of two gay boys, one, Jonathon, a flaming star shooting through his own life and the lives of those around him, separate and different to all around him, drawn compulsively in his isolation to sex as the only way he seems to be able to connect. A truth that answers the deep seated frustration put into him by the distance and emotional unresponsiveness of his father, an astronaut and the his mother a lush. The other grown up in fear and loathing created by a fundamentalist Christian preacher, his father and and an emotional idiot his mother. Their relationship flames into a significance that neither truly understands until they are busted and Jonathon is renounced by the other, and it scars him. Their lives go their separate ways. Jonathon, predictably, given the time and his promiscuity is infected with the AIDS virus, there is great pathos here for it must have been the story of the lives of so many young men of that time. The other moves into a stable relationship with a mutual acquaintance but when Jonathon returns the relationship between all three resumes at a greater depth with substantial poignancy. A beautifully written story of great sadness by Paul Russell, I will seek more
January 13, 2020
Paul Russell’s writing slows me down in a good way. I read every word, every sentence. Everything matters. His books are about relationships, about how people bump against each other, support each other, survive each other. This is my third Russell and I’ll continue to read his work. Each is unique but there is a common thread of friendships, love, interdependence.
November 12, 2008
Fascinating odyssey of a story! The scope of this novel was fascinating, and the historical context provided that much more significance to the narrative.
February 17, 2023
یک جملهای از کتاب که خیلی بهش فکر کردم این بود که فکر کن وارد اتاقی بشی که توش بدونی هر کس چطور میمیره و نتونی کاری کنی. خودم را گذاشتم جاش و دیدم چه ترسناک. چند روز پیش یک مطلبی میخوندم که اگر بتونید بفهمید چند وقت دیگر زندهاید آیا میخواهید بدونید؟ خیلی برای من جوابش یک نه راحت بود. فکر میکنم یک اصل بزرگ زندگی گونه بشر براساس اینه که در هر لحظه فراموش کنیم خودمون و اطرافیانمون میرا هستیم و جواب این سوال ازمون این uncertainty را میگیره.
جملهی دومی که جالب بود برام اونجایی بود که در مورد پندمیک میگه و چطور یک مرتبه زندگی از این رو به اون رو میشه و بعد یادآوری میکنه فقط پندمیک نیست که این طوره. وقتی یکی میشنوه بیماری سختی داره یا پارتنرش یک مرتبه میمیره. در همه اینها یک دفعه زندگی عوض می شه.
قسمت سفر در طول زمانش هم مثل همه کتابهای این مدلی پر از سوراخ و تناقض و سوال باز بود.
جملهی دومی که جالب بود برام اونجایی بود که در مورد پندمیک میگه و چطور یک مرتبه زندگی از این رو به اون رو میشه و بعد یادآوری میکنه فقط پندمیک نیست که این طوره. وقتی یکی میشنوه بیماری سختی داره یا پارتنرش یک مرتبه میمیره. در همه اینها یک دفعه زندگی عوض می شه.
قسمت سفر در طول زمانش هم مثل همه کتابهای این مدلی پر از سوراخ و تناقض و سوال باز بود.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 6, 2020
Three teen boys (and their parents) deal with homosexuality in the 60s-80s. A question I always ask myself: How does anyone survive their parents?
October 25, 2013
Published in 1994, I first read this novel when I was an undergrad in college, in 1998 or 1999. I was hungry for models and history and culture, and wanted to know how to live and love in this new lifestyle in which I had been inaugurated, a lifestyle that wanted to be a culture... Or had been one at one time? In any event, so fraught and delicate and in danger, yet key to my own flourishing.
I remember being very moved by the book. Many such books moved me then. I'd finish them in my dorm room and stalk the West Bank with my hands in my pockets, feeling overly full-- "being in excess," as one of the characters puts it in the novel.
Over ten years later, I wanted to return to the book. I'm 35 years old and it is 2013. The "era" of "gay fiction" is long over. Who needs our elegiac AIDS narratives now? Would the book still move me? I secretly hoped it would, but I knew as all of us know now that gay culture now is not poetry. It is not a philosophy or ethics. It is a demographic, a new conservatism, a bloc.
I admit that the first 2/3 of the novel felt dated to me. Upon this second read, its allegory was obvious. Deep in Tennessee, two high school boys meet. Jonathan seduces and draws out the shy Stayton, the black sheep of an evangelical family. Stayton rejects Jonathan, but the bell has been wrung. As an adult, Stayton eventually comes out and establishes a well-rounded gay life in D.C. with his African American boyfriend Kai. AIDS emerges, and after many years, Jonathan -- itinerant, wandering, pure energy -- is in Turkey. He falls sick with AIDS and returns to Kai and Stayton in a tempest of love and energy to die with them, on his own terms.
The lessons of this allegory are clear. Jonathan represents the hedonism, experimentation, joy, sexual abandon, multiculturalism, potential, and transformative fervor of pre-AIDS sexual culture. It's a sacrificial role; it must be burnt on the pyre of AIDS in order to usher in the stable, post-racial gay culture that Kai and Stayton represent. Not unhappy, but not in love... barely emotional, their relationship is a psychic refuge from the disease. Jonathan's return, unasked for but welcomes, sets them in motion again. Jonathan must die in this book, he must get AIDS. He is too in love with the world, with his own asshole, with stars. The least educated of the three characters, and yet his wisdom transcends them. His dying is a lesson that will set them all free.
Does gay culture have a particularly well-honed vocabulary to describe loss? To say goodbyes? I have not lost a friend or lover to AIDS but I have lost lovers and friends and so this book still moved me even today when gay men no longer "lose" anything unless they choose to, or so we are told, and the magic of this book is that the characters are allegorical in the same way that we as gay men are allegorical, each of us, on our own journey, carries the culture forward or not. As frangible as it is each of us matters. The gay kid who commits suicide is a philosophy arrested at the first exciting moments of its elaboration. We are constantly teaching each other how to live and love. I see models all around me. Books like this should still be important, perhaps even because of their datedness. "This is what we talked about then."
I remember being very moved by the book. Many such books moved me then. I'd finish them in my dorm room and stalk the West Bank with my hands in my pockets, feeling overly full-- "being in excess," as one of the characters puts it in the novel.
Over ten years later, I wanted to return to the book. I'm 35 years old and it is 2013. The "era" of "gay fiction" is long over. Who needs our elegiac AIDS narratives now? Would the book still move me? I secretly hoped it would, but I knew as all of us know now that gay culture now is not poetry. It is not a philosophy or ethics. It is a demographic, a new conservatism, a bloc.
I admit that the first 2/3 of the novel felt dated to me. Upon this second read, its allegory was obvious. Deep in Tennessee, two high school boys meet. Jonathan seduces and draws out the shy Stayton, the black sheep of an evangelical family. Stayton rejects Jonathan, but the bell has been wrung. As an adult, Stayton eventually comes out and establishes a well-rounded gay life in D.C. with his African American boyfriend Kai. AIDS emerges, and after many years, Jonathan -- itinerant, wandering, pure energy -- is in Turkey. He falls sick with AIDS and returns to Kai and Stayton in a tempest of love and energy to die with them, on his own terms.
The lessons of this allegory are clear. Jonathan represents the hedonism, experimentation, joy, sexual abandon, multiculturalism, potential, and transformative fervor of pre-AIDS sexual culture. It's a sacrificial role; it must be burnt on the pyre of AIDS in order to usher in the stable, post-racial gay culture that Kai and Stayton represent. Not unhappy, but not in love... barely emotional, their relationship is a psychic refuge from the disease. Jonathan's return, unasked for but welcomes, sets them in motion again. Jonathan must die in this book, he must get AIDS. He is too in love with the world, with his own asshole, with stars. The least educated of the three characters, and yet his wisdom transcends them. His dying is a lesson that will set them all free.
Does gay culture have a particularly well-honed vocabulary to describe loss? To say goodbyes? I have not lost a friend or lover to AIDS but I have lost lovers and friends and so this book still moved me even today when gay men no longer "lose" anything unless they choose to, or so we are told, and the magic of this book is that the characters are allegorical in the same way that we as gay men are allegorical, each of us, on our own journey, carries the culture forward or not. As frangible as it is each of us matters. The gay kid who commits suicide is a philosophy arrested at the first exciting moments of its elaboration. We are constantly teaching each other how to live and love. I see models all around me. Books like this should still be important, perhaps even because of their datedness. "This is what we talked about then."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2019
4.0 of 5 – Realistic, Telling, Thought-Provoking, Sad & Hopeful.
This was an intriguing story of a splintering nuclear family through the highs and lows of two turbulent decades over the 70s and 80s. It was realistic and telling - depicting the dysfunctional dynamics that pulled them apart. There was sadness - the rejection of gays and the coming of AIDS. And there was hope - showing how familial and romantic bonds held them together.
What I noticed, and enjoyed, right away was Paul Russell’s literary quality. His writing was educated, observant and prosaic, and at times emotional where it moved me to tears. I appreciated that it was not romantic, in an m/m romance way, but broadened to be more about living, as well as symbolic. It started out somberly, dealing with divorce, regrets and relationships, and went on through various mood swings and events in the MCs’ lives. And in that same way, I loved that the ending was true to life .
I find it interesting to read this particular kind of “historical” of the recent past – in that it wasn’t written as HF but as contemporary and current for its time. So in that way, over 20 years later, Russell was able to take me back and make me feel I was there. He captured the people and culture, especially that of the space race and then the early AIDS era. In fact, I liked the Houston locale and the framing around the space race that I grew up with. I’ve thought that I’m the first generation that could add to saying a policeman or fireman, that “When I grow up I want to be an astronaut.” So while some thought less of it, I relished the little bits of info about space flights and didn’t feel it was too much, but served to give a sense of it.
Paul Russell told the story from four different povs in alternating chapters (Allen, Joan, Stayton and Jonathan). This worked fairly well, especially the device of using first person except for Allen. It gave a sense of his being more removed and not as connected emotionally – symbolically like an astronaut far away out in space (which might also explain the choice of his being an astronaut). Of minor note, it sometimes took a while to figure out who was talking, which created unnecessary confusion and could have been easily remedied with a name to start each chapter.
What I found most compelling were the gay aspects of the story, which centered around the two boys/young men. I felt they were better developed and likable, in different ways, because they did provide an intriguing contrast. Russell captured and gave me a good sense of what the gay culture was like then, both the good and bad; and depicted well the thoughts and desires of teens and young men from a male pov.
There were times when the characters flirted with being stereotypes; and while I applaud Russell’s diversity, this included a lack of depth on those interracial aspects. But ultimately the story he wove around his MCs made them more three dimensional, so I came to think of them as more symbolic representatives of certain kinds of people in our lives, even in some respects of who I myself am.
Overall, making this an interesting and thought-provoking look into the lives of four people.
[Gay Men’s Book Group-Chicago monthly selection]
This was an intriguing story of a splintering nuclear family through the highs and lows of two turbulent decades over the 70s and 80s. It was realistic and telling - depicting the dysfunctional dynamics that pulled them apart. There was sadness - the rejection of gays and the coming of AIDS. And there was hope - showing how familial and romantic bonds held them together.
What I noticed, and enjoyed, right away was Paul Russell’s literary quality. His writing was educated, observant and prosaic, and at times emotional where it moved me to tears. I appreciated that it was not romantic, in an m/m romance way, but broadened to be more about living, as well as symbolic. It started out somberly, dealing with divorce, regrets and relationships, and went on through various mood swings and events in the MCs’ lives. And in that same way, I loved that the ending was true to life .
I find it interesting to read this particular kind of “historical” of the recent past – in that it wasn’t written as HF but as contemporary and current for its time. So in that way, over 20 years later, Russell was able to take me back and make me feel I was there. He captured the people and culture, especially that of the space race and then the early AIDS era. In fact, I liked the Houston locale and the framing around the space race that I grew up with. I’ve thought that I’m the first generation that could add to saying a policeman or fireman, that “When I grow up I want to be an astronaut.” So while some thought less of it, I relished the little bits of info about space flights and didn’t feel it was too much, but served to give a sense of it.
Paul Russell told the story from four different povs in alternating chapters (Allen, Joan, Stayton and Jonathan). This worked fairly well, especially the device of using first person except for Allen. It gave a sense of his being more removed and not as connected emotionally – symbolically like an astronaut far away out in space (which might also explain the choice of his being an astronaut). Of minor note, it sometimes took a while to figure out who was talking, which created unnecessary confusion and could have been easily remedied with a name to start each chapter.
What I found most compelling were the gay aspects of the story, which centered around the two boys/young men. I felt they were better developed and likable, in different ways, because they did provide an intriguing contrast. Russell captured and gave me a good sense of what the gay culture was like then, both the good and bad; and depicted well the thoughts and desires of teens and young men from a male pov.
There were times when the characters flirted with being stereotypes; and while I applaud Russell’s diversity, this included a lack of depth on those interracial aspects. But ultimately the story he wove around his MCs made them more three dimensional, so I came to think of them as more symbolic representatives of certain kinds of people in our lives, even in some respects of who I myself am.
Overall, making this an interesting and thought-provoking look into the lives of four people.
[Gay Men’s Book Group-Chicago monthly selection]
August 25, 2023
First and foremost, especially having read the Coming Storm, I am getting wigged out by Russel's seeming fetishization of Black men. Maybe I misread irony especially with the Greek gay guy? Even if I did, the characterization of Kai is very questionable.
That said, Jonathan was the driving force of this novel. Not just the tragedy of AIDS, but also thge beautty of the wold in its abbility to creative divine energy made his story compelling.
I understand that telling the tale through Jonathan's own voice, as well as three others, was a strategy to show him as three dimensionally as possible. It didn't work. The alternating narration was distracting at its worst, and trite at its best.
There were odd moments too -- Stayon's dad becoming a Jerry Falwell-type was too fantastical as it really only existed to set up a very weird and fun sex scene.
I loved both the political critique of the space race, and the unbridled passion for thinking about space and the universe. The line about how dark matter makes up the majority of the universe, and that our conception of reality might be a tiny minority of what's really going on stuck with me.
This was a page turner, and something that I enjoyed. Just a lot of other flags. It felt so dated and yet the level of repression around queerness represented happened very much in my lifetime. Weird how time works.
That said, Jonathan was the driving force of this novel. Not just the tragedy of AIDS, but also thge beautty of the wold in its abbility to creative divine energy made his story compelling.
I understand that telling the tale through Jonathan's own voice, as well as three others, was a strategy to show him as three dimensionally as possible. It didn't work. The alternating narration was distracting at its worst, and trite at its best.
There were odd moments too -- Stayon's dad becoming a Jerry Falwell-type was too fantastical as it really only existed to set up a very weird and fun sex scene.
I loved both the political critique of the space race, and the unbridled passion for thinking about space and the universe. The line about how dark matter makes up the majority of the universe, and that our conception of reality might be a tiny minority of what's really going on stuck with me.
This was a page turner, and something that I enjoyed. Just a lot of other flags. It felt so dated and yet the level of repression around queerness represented happened very much in my lifetime. Weird how time works.
December 1, 2020
I bought this ten or more years ago and don't think I finished it then because I couldn't remember it well and it wasn't rated here on Goodreads, so I thought it was time to give it another go.
The writing was great, characters were interesting, and it definitely tells their lives in a series of snapshots over time, but was it ever a chore to read at times. Those hallucinations, dreams, random streams consciousness and words were all a bit too much. This could have easily been a higher rating if not for that.
The writing was great, characters were interesting, and it definitely tells their lives in a series of snapshots over time, but was it ever a chore to read at times. Those hallucinations, dreams, random streams consciousness and words were all a bit too much. This could have easily been a higher rating if not for that.
November 15, 2017
This may be my favorite of Russell's books. He does a great job of bringing life to his characters, and showing the way they affect each other. He deals with coming of age and coming out of the closet in small town mid-America, relationships of parents and their children, creating a new family when your birth family rejects you, and the effects of the AIDS epidemic on all of this.
May 14, 2018
I think that this is a very ambitious book that didn't quite work out...four narrators, diverse characters, chapters ranging from poetry to domestic drama to space travel. It was very cluttered narrative and did have some compelling moments but this was the most difficult read I have had of all the authors books.
April 10, 2024
I have to admit, I slogged my way through the first half of the book. It's written in a first person narrative of four different people, each of whom seems unlikable and unredeemable. I was wrong, some were. More like 3 1/2 stars.
September 2, 2017
An extremely easy read and would definitely be a relaxing beach type book. Fairly predictable but rather far fetched. That said, overall I did enjoy it.
Read
August 3, 2020I actually quit reading this because I got tired of the promiscuous, and in my mind gratuitous, gay sex.
July 11, 2022
Just didn’t connect with the writing style at all. None of the characters gripped me at all, although there was some nice character development.
August 5, 2022
This is truly a page turner, an intriguing story about time travel.
July 9, 2023
Sad and moving tale. Loved how it was told by four different characters.
January 12, 2025
Sprawling, occasionally too big, too meandering. Gorgeous, sometimes too gorgeous. Gay, never too gay, ambitious in its homosexuality, and lovely
March 12, 2014
I've read all of Mr. Russell's books except for : " Boys Of Life". I've really enjoyed each of them ,individually , yet there's something that is incredibly unique about this book. I don't think I want that to mean it is "the best" . I want to make an allusion to a magic carpet ride here . It's the most succinct manner by which I can put this book into some sort of perspective , for myself, at least . I am only 3/4 of the way through the book and I need to take a respite. I have to read it in increments; little gaps or spaces in time, as it enmeshes into my own life's experiences. The story is so beautiful and reminiscent at the same time. The fact that the places (terrestrial) Jonathan travels to are some of the most alluring places I've ever been to as well may also make me bias. I truly believe it's much deeper than that however, it's an intrinsic ride the author is taking me(us) on ,and at times , I find myself holding my breath, and at others, gasping for air. It invokes so many emotions and makes you see the fantastical as possible through the eyes of tormented pulchritude.
March 28, 2009
This wass very readable but not nearly as intense as Boys of Life. I've read The Salt Point, too, and neither come close to the power of Boys of Life. Maybe it's a personal thing with me, since I identify so closely with the narrator in Boys. Anyway, this is good enough in a gay novel kind of way.
What I liked about it is the range of topics covered: a lot of gay novels never get out of the gay ghetto, but this one marries AIDS, gay sex, and male relationships to travels in Turkey, NASA, space exploration, and gender roles in the 70s through the 90s. None of us really live in a gay ghetto - our lives are much richer than that, and I liked that this novel attempted to capture that.
What I liked about it is the range of topics covered: a lot of gay novels never get out of the gay ghetto, but this one marries AIDS, gay sex, and male relationships to travels in Turkey, NASA, space exploration, and gender roles in the 70s through the 90s. None of us really live in a gay ghetto - our lives are much richer than that, and I liked that this novel attempted to capture that.
August 8, 2014
Lovely
A beautifully written though somewhat uncentered look at the breakdown of an American family - an astronaut, his wife and their gay son - through the turbulence and the disillusionment of the 1970's and 80's. Russell's insights into his characters verge on the poetic, but though it leaves the reader with a feeling something like redemption, in the end it feels a bit unearned. The center does not hold.
Still, all of Russell's books are worth reading, for the vividness of his prose, the emotional transparency of his characters, and the affection of the author for their - and our - brokenness and thwarted attempts at love.
A beautifully written though somewhat uncentered look at the breakdown of an American family - an astronaut, his wife and their gay son - through the turbulence and the disillusionment of the 1970's and 80's. Russell's insights into his characters verge on the poetic, but though it leaves the reader with a feeling something like redemption, in the end it feels a bit unearned. The center does not hold.
Still, all of Russell's books are worth reading, for the vividness of his prose, the emotional transparency of his characters, and the affection of the author for their - and our - brokenness and thwarted attempts at love.
December 11, 2014
I have mixed emotions about this book.
It a book that drags the reader kicking and screaming through the lives of several characters. It's good because you really end up liking and caring about the characters. It's bad because you end up caring about the characters and all their flaws.
Some of the characters, at least for sections of their life, come directly out of 'characters' in my life. Sometimes it hits too close to home.
Well written, kept me engaged even when I didn't want to be (the dragging the reader part), and it flowed well.
I even approve of the ending, it was appropriate, and tidy (I hesitate to use the word tidy, but it fits).
It a book that drags the reader kicking and screaming through the lives of several characters. It's good because you really end up liking and caring about the characters. It's bad because you end up caring about the characters and all their flaws.
Some of the characters, at least for sections of their life, come directly out of 'characters' in my life. Sometimes it hits too close to home.
Well written, kept me engaged even when I didn't want to be (the dragging the reader part), and it flowed well.
I even approve of the ending, it was appropriate, and tidy (I hesitate to use the word tidy, but it fits).
April 12, 2020
While Boys of Life and the Coming Storm are both excellent literary works, Sea of Tranquillity has to be Paul Russell's finest work to date. This novel is truly a masterpiece. Vivid and complex characters who live on in the readers mind long after the book is over. I read this book on a trip to San Francisco several years ago, and I still find myself moved by the voice of the characters. Nothing I've read has come close to reaching into my soul like this book did. It is a terrible shame that this book is out of print. If you can get it, do so, you won't be disappointed.
April 1, 2011
This remains one of my favorites and I reread it every couple of years. There are not too many characters and begins with the astronaut father of one of the boys it's about. One by one each character is introduced in a manner that explains their later actions and behaviors in a believable and sympathetic manner. Ultimately it is a kind of love affairs over space and time, between two men and their families, during or near the beginning of the dark age of AIDS. It's probably not to everyone's taste, but my own reading habits seldom include anything on the best seller lists.
March 2, 2014
"Book of the thousand and one dreams; shadow play of night sweats and nocturnal emissions; calendar of spent days; rumor-chronicle of voyages lunar and sublunary; the secret history of a plague as told by a dying American prince to his father the astronaut: in the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful."
Another great book by Paul Russell. Characters so painfully nuanced that they feel like our selves, but which also give us glimpses into people we might never have otherwise seen or come close to understanding.
Another great book by Paul Russell. Characters so painfully nuanced that they feel like our selves, but which also give us glimpses into people we might never have otherwise seen or come close to understanding.
January 1, 2017
I chose this book thinking it was another book titled Sea of Tranquility. There seem to be quite a few with this title. Nevertheless, it is a good book and I would read more by this author. The story is about a family with an astronaut father and a gay son, and a mother who is loving but who has many issues. The plot and the characters are well written. I finally was tired of the dysfunctionality of all of the characters though and did not read the last 20 pages. Please note: There is quite a bit of graphic gay sex in this book.
July 1, 2012
One of my all time favorite books. This book combines a surprising number of elements-- mid to late 20th century American history, the Space Race, the rise of out Gay American culture, American Buddhism, US race relations--all told through a handful of interconnected characters with poetic language.
May 17, 2014
I was a bit shocked that my daughter recommended a book with such graphic gay sex but she was caught up in the sadness of the main character's battle with AIDs which really didn't move me in the same way.
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