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The River In Winter
2010 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Jonah Murray has known much happiness—a supportive mother, a decent job, and fulfilling hobbies. But after the end of his first great love affair, the rawness of his emotions leads him into a dangerous entanglement.
Spike Peterson —heartbreakingly good-looking, imperturbably self-assured, relentlessly carnal—rekindles Jonah’s longing for companionship. But Spike isn’t the kind to offer companionship. Excitement, yes, but not companionship.
Eliot Moon , a counselor who facilitates a support group for gay men, offers Jonah a more transcendent path to happiness. But Jonah soon discovers that to take Eliot’s way, he will have to make difficult sacrifices.
Spike Peterson —heartbreakingly good-looking, imperturbably self-assured, relentlessly carnal—rekindles Jonah’s longing for companionship. But Spike isn’t the kind to offer companionship. Excitement, yes, but not companionship.
Eliot Moon , a counselor who facilitates a support group for gay men, offers Jonah a more transcendent path to happiness. But Jonah soon discovers that to take Eliot’s way, he will have to make difficult sacrifices.
410 pages, Paperback
First published October 21, 2009
14 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 29, 2010
I won this book through goodreads first-reads.
The book is not perfect--some readers will find the lack of plot makes it a bit slow. However, I think The River In Winter is a remarkable achievement in the field of gay literature because of its attention to realism rather than sensationalism and gay fantasy. The book's domesticity is a step-forward for the genre. An enjoyable read.
The book is not perfect--some readers will find the lack of plot makes it a bit slow. However, I think The River In Winter is a remarkable achievement in the field of gay literature because of its attention to realism rather than sensationalism and gay fantasy. The book's domesticity is a step-forward for the genre. An enjoyable read.
January 4, 2010
I wrote this book, so I may not be the most trustworthy reviewer, but I'm proud to have collected a few excellent reviews on Amazon:
"Perfect title for a near-perfect book about never-perfect life"
"We find plenty of moments of connection in Dean's breathtaking and poignant prose, but we also feel the never-endingness of his journey. What's best about this book is the thing that's most real--that none of us ever truly know where we're going. This book helps us admit that, and Jonah keeps us company so, at least, we don't have to go it alone."
"I became so wrapped up in the characters that I actually miss them now and hope there is a sequel. Easily the best fiction I've read in the past couple of years."
"Dean also has an incredible talent for painting such vivid scenes it puts the reader right there, seeing and sensing it all, right along with the characters. It real, it's raw, and it's one of the best books I've read in some time."
"It's quite a ride. Full of wit and poignancy. I loved every minute of this book!"
"Perfect title for a near-perfect book about never-perfect life"
"We find plenty of moments of connection in Dean's breathtaking and poignant prose, but we also feel the never-endingness of his journey. What's best about this book is the thing that's most real--that none of us ever truly know where we're going. This book helps us admit that, and Jonah keeps us company so, at least, we don't have to go it alone."
"I became so wrapped up in the characters that I actually miss them now and hope there is a sequel. Easily the best fiction I've read in the past couple of years."
"Dean also has an incredible talent for painting such vivid scenes it puts the reader right there, seeing and sensing it all, right along with the characters. It real, it's raw, and it's one of the best books I've read in some time."
"It's quite a ride. Full of wit and poignancy. I loved every minute of this book!"
October 12, 2010
Jonah Murray is a seeker. He lives a comfortable life – good job, nice home, mother who supports him – but after the death of his lover, he feels lost, and needs help finding his way. Couple that with a series of hate crimes, and Jonah is at his wit’s end. He seeks love, acceptance and identity, but is not sure where to look.
Jonah meets Spike Peterson, a porn star who lights a fire of lust within Jonah. But the lust and love that Jonah feels is not returned, as Spike uses Jonah and then tosses him aside. Spike only magnifies Jonah’s need to find companionship.
After having a breakdown, Jonah meets a counselor, Eliot Moon, who seems to be able to help him. He is invited to join a group of gay men, only to find that the therapist and the men in the group are all trying to become ex-gay men. Jonah feels a hard need for the support he finds within this group, but he knows that to be accepted, he must make sacrifices, that is, give up loving men. Can a gay man find happiness through celibacy?
This year’s Lambda Book Award Finalist, Matt Dean, takes us on an inner journey through a rather icy spot in one man’s life. This is a story that uses excruciatingly beautiful language. It is Dean’s remarkable voice and exquisite prose that makes this novel special, and worth reading.
As for the story, it started with an interesting hook, and made me experience a range of emotions, but then it began to wander, much like the protagonist, down a path with seemingly no direction. It didn’t take long before my interest level began to plummet. To compound the wandering, the prose, though quite beautiful, was very detailed in its descriptions, which slowed the pacing to a crawl. I love rich descriptions, but only when it advances the plot, which this all too often failed to do. These two elements combined to make this, at least for me, a dull read.
The story often spouts Christian doctrine, which I personally found distasteful. Christians, however, will no doubt be untroubled by it.
This story was sometimes poignant, and made me examine my own feelings I experienced during troubling times, and it did so with wonderfully gorgeous language, which is why, no doubt, it earned a Lambda Finalist Award. For readers who like a slow, beautifully written journey, with rich descriptions on every page, I can recommend this read.
Jonah meets Spike Peterson, a porn star who lights a fire of lust within Jonah. But the lust and love that Jonah feels is not returned, as Spike uses Jonah and then tosses him aside. Spike only magnifies Jonah’s need to find companionship.
After having a breakdown, Jonah meets a counselor, Eliot Moon, who seems to be able to help him. He is invited to join a group of gay men, only to find that the therapist and the men in the group are all trying to become ex-gay men. Jonah feels a hard need for the support he finds within this group, but he knows that to be accepted, he must make sacrifices, that is, give up loving men. Can a gay man find happiness through celibacy?
This year’s Lambda Book Award Finalist, Matt Dean, takes us on an inner journey through a rather icy spot in one man’s life. This is a story that uses excruciatingly beautiful language. It is Dean’s remarkable voice and exquisite prose that makes this novel special, and worth reading.
As for the story, it started with an interesting hook, and made me experience a range of emotions, but then it began to wander, much like the protagonist, down a path with seemingly no direction. It didn’t take long before my interest level began to plummet. To compound the wandering, the prose, though quite beautiful, was very detailed in its descriptions, which slowed the pacing to a crawl. I love rich descriptions, but only when it advances the plot, which this all too often failed to do. These two elements combined to make this, at least for me, a dull read.
The story often spouts Christian doctrine, which I personally found distasteful. Christians, however, will no doubt be untroubled by it.
This story was sometimes poignant, and made me examine my own feelings I experienced during troubling times, and it did so with wonderfully gorgeous language, which is why, no doubt, it earned a Lambda Finalist Award. For readers who like a slow, beautifully written journey, with rich descriptions on every page, I can recommend this read.
February 15, 2010
I found this book to be very well written and very enjoyable to read. It deals with some pretty heavy subject matter and the characters are very real. Targeted to the gay market or to those who wish to understand some of the communities issues, this is a must read! Especially in todays environment where the hostility between organized religion and gay equality is pretty heated.....this book gives great insight into the personal damage some organized religion can do to members of the gay community. I hope to see many other books from this author in the future!
May 23, 2016
A young man deals with grief at losing his partner by making terrible decisions and being used by people who do not have his well-being at heart. Depressing, depressing, depressing. And if you like depressing, The Wide Night Sky by the same author is better, in my opinion, although this book is well-written.
January 14, 2010
This was a great book and so reminded me of our lives and how we survived it all on a daily basis!
February 1, 2010
The River in Winter is a powerfully affecting debut novel--from a writer we will be hearing much more about in coming years! Dean's ear for dialogue is pitch-perfect, and his realism offers an abundance of fresh and telling details. (After reading this book, I feel as if I could navigate Minneapolis with relative ease.) The prose is frequently poetic, as Dean often leavens his realism with lyricism. He also frequently grants us surprising insights into his characters, while always remaining plausible and consistent. To say that each character possesses his/her own distinct voice is an understatement. This is a character-driven novel in the Jamesian tradition, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the plotting is both complex and exquisite. Each chapter builds meaningfully on those that came before, and the resolution is compelling and inevitable--while still feeling surprising. You cannot go wrong with this book. Several hours of the most intense reading pleasure await!
January 31, 2010
I had a hard time reviewing and rating this book, but I think that had more to do with the subject matter, and less to do with the overall quality of the book. Overall, an enjoyable, emotional read that follows Jonah Murray through a difficult period in his life. The problems: I'm not all that interested in reading graphic descriptions of gay sex (but then again, those descriptions were critical for flow of the book); I really hated some of the characters (the religious zealots, the vandals); I'm not male (maybe if I were, I would understand some of the emotions/desires a little better). A really good, extremely emotional read, but only for those who are open-minded and don't mind reading multiple very graphic sex scenes.
July 8, 2010
So this is clearly Dean's first book, and overall it's very good. I loved Jonah, the main character, but found some of the other characters underdeveloped, or even unbelievible.
It was interesting seeing how sexuality and christianity were interwoven, but I felt it was on the same level as The God Box, which was targeted for teenagers.
"The River in Winter" was worth my time for the first 300 pages, but then got rushed and untimately just ended. I HATED the epilogue. It might be the worst epilogue since "Harry Potter 7," Worse even.
It was interesting seeing how sexuality and christianity were interwoven, but I felt it was on the same level as The God Box, which was targeted for teenagers.
"The River in Winter" was worth my time for the first 300 pages, but then got rushed and untimately just ended. I HATED the epilogue. It might be the worst epilogue since "Harry Potter 7," Worse even.
October 20, 2019
Not even sure how this one crossed my path, but it did, and I’m glad. It wasn’t aleYs an easy read, but it felt like lived fiction...like someone’s normal life was being described and I found myself really appreciating it. There are no vastly heroic scenes, no major climaxes (pardon the pun), and definitely no long run-on mental acrobatics, making for a very different read. Many tim3s I felt myself anxious as I felt the protagonist making choices that seemed so obviously bad, and characters who seemed to be slimy and slightly creepy, actually were!
Worth the read, especially for a welcome addition to LGBTQ+ fiction that thankfully doesn’t read like an erotic story the whole way through.
Worth the read, especially for a welcome addition to LGBTQ+ fiction that thankfully doesn’t read like an erotic story the whole way through.
January 27, 2010
One of those books that wants to 'love and learn' and if you like that, you would like this. Dean is a good writer and there were a few times when I internally noted that I liked his phrasing but I just couldn't get IN to the story. I'm looking for more honesty in the characters and vulnerability is too easily used as a crutch here.
Want to read
January 20, 2010Won this on a Goodreads giveaway.
January 5, 2026
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. It's really well-written for the most part, but it's really about this guy who's going through a bit of a crisis and part of his downward spiral is joining a supposed gay men's support group that is actually a cult-like conversion therapy program with a shifty counselor. The premise itself is pretty engaging, but the guy gets way too into it and there's A LOT of Christian ramblings in this book. On the one hand I get it, I certainly found my spirituality after my sister died. But to choose this weird Christian cult... Girl, stop.
Aside from all of the crazed Christian ramblings, there's a lot here I enjoyed though. It takes place in Minneapolis in the early 1990s. Our protagonist is mad with grief after the death of his boyfriend. His life spirals out of control despite some good friendships and so forth. It doesn't help that someone keep vandalizing his home with threatening anti-gay graffiti or that some religious nut is trying to 86 the pro-tolerance agency where he is employed. It's not fully clear what drives him so deep into this weird cult. Maybe he's trying to symbolically repair the relationship he had with the super religious father who abandoned him in childhood? It's clear that after his father left, he had a pretty secular upbringing. Another thing I find myself thinking about is how dark the vibe was for gay people in the early 90s. I mean, I was just a kid, but it seemed like a pretty dark situation. Like the world was this constant firehouse of hate, directed at your face at pretty much all times. Plus the overwhelming specter of HIV and dissolution. Anyway, that's how it felt to me 5 hours east of Minneapolis. I understand wanting to run from that and ending up in a weird cult. Self-loathing was endemic then. I would have appreciated a bit more restraint though, in terms of the ex-gay ministry. It felt like a lot.
Aside from all of the crazed Christian ramblings, there's a lot here I enjoyed though. It takes place in Minneapolis in the early 1990s. Our protagonist is mad with grief after the death of his boyfriend. His life spirals out of control despite some good friendships and so forth. It doesn't help that someone keep vandalizing his home with threatening anti-gay graffiti or that some religious nut is trying to 86 the pro-tolerance agency where he is employed. It's not fully clear what drives him so deep into this weird cult. Maybe he's trying to symbolically repair the relationship he had with the super religious father who abandoned him in childhood? It's clear that after his father left, he had a pretty secular upbringing. Another thing I find myself thinking about is how dark the vibe was for gay people in the early 90s. I mean, I was just a kid, but it seemed like a pretty dark situation. Like the world was this constant firehouse of hate, directed at your face at pretty much all times. Plus the overwhelming specter of HIV and dissolution. Anyway, that's how it felt to me 5 hours east of Minneapolis. I understand wanting to run from that and ending up in a weird cult. Self-loathing was endemic then. I would have appreciated a bit more restraint though, in terms of the ex-gay ministry. It felt like a lot.
March 15, 2023
A Journey Many will Recognise
It's hard to write about this book, without giving away the ending. The protagonist travels the difficult path from self-loathing to self-acceptance. I, too, tried the ex-gay route focusing on prayer, self-denial and in my case a 12 Step Program. They don't work. Fortunately, I found good counseling both within and without the church, that allowed me to recognize who I am and to become comfortable with myself. The only criticism I have is the amount of time devoted to the details of music composition. I play two instruments and played with an orchestra for 4 years and most of it went way over my head, as I believe it will for most readers. The second concerns vocabulary. I like learning new words and actually feel like I have a fairly decent vocabulary, but I was constantly looking up new words, to the distraction of the story. I have a hunch that many readers will start to skip over them and lose some of the meaning, of the book.
I gather this is the author's first book. It's a great start and I look forward to his future books.
It's hard to write about this book, without giving away the ending. The protagonist travels the difficult path from self-loathing to self-acceptance. I, too, tried the ex-gay route focusing on prayer, self-denial and in my case a 12 Step Program. They don't work. Fortunately, I found good counseling both within and without the church, that allowed me to recognize who I am and to become comfortable with myself. The only criticism I have is the amount of time devoted to the details of music composition. I play two instruments and played with an orchestra for 4 years and most of it went way over my head, as I believe it will for most readers. The second concerns vocabulary. I like learning new words and actually feel like I have a fairly decent vocabulary, but I was constantly looking up new words, to the distraction of the story. I have a hunch that many readers will start to skip over them and lose some of the meaning, of the book.
I gather this is the author's first book. It's a great start and I look forward to his future books.
July 16, 2021
I hate to say anything negative about authors, I know they work very hard to produce a book. This story was all over the place. I did not like the story or the main character.
July 18, 2011
Matt Dean is a wonderfully lyrical writer.
Much of my copy of "The River in Winter" is marked-up with yellow highlighter. I couldn't help it. I would come across passage after passage where the narrative was so well-crafter, the dialogue so pithy, the description so nuanced, that I wanted to record it so that I could return again and again to savour it.
Matt and I share a number of common interests in our fiction-writing (my novel, "Searching for Gilead" will be out in the fall 2011). Our stories confront the role of religion (I trembled for Jonah, Matt's principle character, in his struggle), explore the arts as a metaphoric device (I loved Matt's use of Beethoven), and do not shy away from the rough edges of love and sex (I confess to being turned on reading Matt's descriptions).
"The River in Winter" was a 2010 Lambda Literary Award finalist. The novel richly deserves this and every other recognition that it attracts.
I am grateful for having discovered "The River in Winter". I am appreciative for now considering Matt Dean to be a literary friend of mine.
Much of my copy of "The River in Winter" is marked-up with yellow highlighter. I couldn't help it. I would come across passage after passage where the narrative was so well-crafter, the dialogue so pithy, the description so nuanced, that I wanted to record it so that I could return again and again to savour it.
Matt and I share a number of common interests in our fiction-writing (my novel, "Searching for Gilead" will be out in the fall 2011). Our stories confront the role of religion (I trembled for Jonah, Matt's principle character, in his struggle), explore the arts as a metaphoric device (I loved Matt's use of Beethoven), and do not shy away from the rough edges of love and sex (I confess to being turned on reading Matt's descriptions).
"The River in Winter" was a 2010 Lambda Literary Award finalist. The novel richly deserves this and every other recognition that it attracts.
I am grateful for having discovered "The River in Winter". I am appreciative for now considering Matt Dean to be a literary friend of mine.
November 29, 2016
I spent a lot of time in deciding how to rate this. I started at 4 then changed to a 3. The book confuses me. I wanted to stop reading it but kept on being drawn back to it. Matt deans style I like. I even want to get some Beethoven for Christmas...... There where times I felt it rambled a bit too much but strangely enough the rambling made me want to stick with it. The story line though not positive packs a good punch about the fine line of life. Matt It might have been tempting (or perhaps not) to have had the romantic ending where he gets his man , who saves him from the evil ( what a range of characters to chose from) but you did not. If only he fell in love with Charlie ..... There are so many interpretations which is your strength as a writer. My review could be as long as the book, without indepth ref to Beethoven . As conclude you will be confused to hear I've changed my mind. You get a 4.
June 11, 2011
Dean's The River in Winter reminds me of a beautiful sonnet mixed with a classic opera - or perhaps that is just the author's attention to artistic details that I'm picking up on. Jonah's tale is as moving and raw as the cold river he escapes to in his solitude. There are several moments in everyone's life when they question the who/what/where of their existence and in Jonah we can understand why he is at that point in his own world. Beautifully written with just enough bends and turns to cause the reader to wonder where his personal river will lead him. I finished it in two nights on my vacation and glad I had brought along this Lambda Literary Award Finalist on my kindle.
February 24, 2010
A goodreads first reads win. I'm not going to lie - it took me awhile to get into this book; it's not what I would typically read. But I will say - in the end, I am glad that I plugged through and finished it. Like I said, it's not my typical read, but I am a big fan of the author's writing style, which made the book easier for me to read. I would read something by the author again.
July 10, 2010
I wanted to like this book. It was given to me as a challenge read and the premise was great. So again, I wanted to like it. Unfortunately I couldn't get into it. The main character was unapproachable and it felt like too many things were being jam packed into this story at once. At heart, I think this book was more literary fiction and less genre fiction, and I don't do well with it.
June 22, 2012
Joe a teen lives a not happy existence with a flaky mom & boyfriend, leaves when the boyfriend abuses his mom & ends up living with his grandfather in house that has been in the family for years. Joe helps his grandfather discover life again & his grandfather hows Joes what life is. Love, Fate, Tragedy
March 29, 2010
Matt Dean is def a great writer. I enjoyed this book and although some parts of the story were a little graphic I still enjoyed his style writing. I am not a shy person and i am very open minded so I was not offended at all. I def would read another of his books in the future.
January 24, 2010
Mr. Dean conveys his story in a style that is spare and lyrical. A beautifully written novel.
March 3, 2017
Such a beautiful, difficult book.
December 18, 2013
Another solid read and story. Not much to say, other than I enjoyed the journey.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews