Sky Daddy

by Canaan Parker

Explosive conflicts arise when Derrick, a black teenager, makes two earthshaking his father is gay, and his father has a lover - who's a white teenage boy Derrick's age. In this fast-moving novel, the three sides of a triangle the relationship between a gay father and his son, the complex love between the father and his teenage boyfriend, and - most provocatively - the sibling rivalry between the two teens, one straight and one gay, one black and one white, both tough, hip '90s urban youth.

294 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

Reviews

[Nicolas Chinardet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sky Daddy is an ambitious tale encompassing family, race, and sexuality, and how humanity is too big and too messy to fit into the categories it created for itself. It is also, in that respect, a failure, unfortunately. The themes and ideas are there but they are simply not explored in much depth.

The problems perhaps start with the meaningless title. Sky Daddy is the nickname given to an off-stage character by other off-stage characters and a very minor secondary character (Macon). It feels like the wrong choice altogether.

Another problem is the ending. Throughout the book the narrative is well paced and engrossing but suddenly, in the last fifth, the story-line seems to disintegrate into random and incomplete shards, where events and characters are only glimpsed. The points of views suddenly shift and the sub-plot with Macon, which resurfaces at that point to take centre stage, feels more than ever clumsily shoe-horned.

It's a shame: the writing isn't bad and the plot keeps the reader's attention. But as mentioned the book doesn't fulfil its ambition and remains a mere entertainment where it could potentially have been much more.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've wanted to read this for like 20 years and finally got around to it. It's a very, very odd book - not bad, not that great either. It kind of deals with intersectional issues of racism and homophobia, but doesn't delve too deeply, disappointingly. The dialogue is also super corny and the two boys are just vile, unlikeable characters until the last, like, 20 pages.

But it has respectable ambition and a pretty propulsive plot.

[Ray Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story about parenthood and sexuality.