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The Beloved Son
It's called the "sandwich" generation, grown children who are simultaneously caring for both aging parents and nearly adult children. Karl Preston, at fifty-two, certainly fits this image, as he lives an emotionally comfortable life with his wife and daughter in an affluent North Carolina suburb. But preparing for a weekend visit to his elderly parents' Florida home, Karl becomes increasingly aware of the pressing concerns of their faltering lives-realizing too it will be the first time in years he has seen his gay brother, Sven.
Frank, Karl's father, is bellicose and bewildered, and Annike, his still beautiful mother, is increasingly isolated, despite her fluency in three languages. Then there is Sven: Harried, loving, and hopeful, he is a forty-year-old gay man who finds his life bound by the confines of his parents' needs, a situation that has taken over his life.
In rich, lyrical prose, Jay Quinn charts what happens when responsibility outweighs love, when obligation turns to guilt, and when the walls come down and the truth unfolds. The Beloved Son marks a new chapter in Jay Quinn's remarkable career, as he paints both a loving and tortured portrait of the modern-day family.
286 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 10, 2019
3.5 stars
I don't know who was responsible for this re-release over at Open Road Media, but the editing was not very good. Compound words were separated into two words, "in" was often replaced with "m", plus there were other typos throughout. In one scene, a character's name was replaced twice with another character who wasn't even present, and I think it happened once more later on, though that one is less obvious since both characters were in that scene. Then a whole paragraph got repeated a page after it first appeared, and one sentence is repeated nearly verbatim twice in a row.
On top of that, this is a very wordy book. Whenever I see blurbs claiming a story is "richly told" or "lyrically written," I prepare for walls of purple prose. The prose wasn't purple, but there was a lot being told that simply didn't need to be. There were too many details. This book didn't just set the scene; it set it then zoomed in for a microscopic review. It got to the point where if a character's every action wasn't described, I assumed it didn't happen rather than it being implied.
So why 3.5 stars? Because despite all that, it was a good story. The characters were flawed but compassionate, and it dealt with the issues of relationships, aging parents and life changes in a real, stark and honest way. Told in limited third-person POV, we follow Karl as he makes a journey home to visit his parents and younger brother after decades away. Karl is married with an adult daughter who is about to start her own life, his brother Sven is having problems with his long-time boyfriend, plus Karl finds out his mother has dementia.
This could've been sappy or melodramatic, but it's not. Instead, we see the good and the bad of what it means to be a family and how different one's experience in a family can be just based on who you are. Frank, Karl and Sven's father, is not always an easy guy to like, and their mother Annike is doing all she can to make this transition easier on her sons, but she is also having trouble letting go. It's just as much about growing up and moving on as it is about getting back to your roots and coming together. Taking place over a long weekend, Karl learns new things about his family and rediscovers things about himself that he'd forgotten along the way to middle age.
I wasn't wowed by this, but I did like it and look forward to reading the other books I picked up from this author back during a freebie grab.
I don't know who was responsible for this re-release over at Open Road Media, but the editing was not very good. Compound words were separated into two words, "in" was often replaced with "m", plus there were other typos throughout. In one scene, a character's name was replaced twice with another character who wasn't even present, and I think it happened once more later on, though that one is less obvious since both characters were in that scene. Then a whole paragraph got repeated a page after it first appeared, and one sentence is repeated nearly verbatim twice in a row.
On top of that, this is a very wordy book. Whenever I see blurbs claiming a story is "richly told" or "lyrically written," I prepare for walls of purple prose. The prose wasn't purple, but there was a lot being told that simply didn't need to be. There were too many details. This book didn't just set the scene; it set it then zoomed in for a microscopic review. It got to the point where if a character's every action wasn't described, I assumed it didn't happen rather than it being implied.
So why 3.5 stars? Because despite all that, it was a good story. The characters were flawed but compassionate, and it dealt with the issues of relationships, aging parents and life changes in a real, stark and honest way. Told in limited third-person POV, we follow Karl as he makes a journey home to visit his parents and younger brother after decades away. Karl is married with an adult daughter who is about to start her own life, his brother Sven is having problems with his long-time boyfriend, plus Karl finds out his mother has dementia.
This could've been sappy or melodramatic, but it's not. Instead, we see the good and the bad of what it means to be a family and how different one's experience in a family can be just based on who you are. Frank, Karl and Sven's father, is not always an easy guy to like, and their mother Annike is doing all she can to make this transition easier on her sons, but she is also having trouble letting go. It's just as much about growing up and moving on as it is about getting back to your roots and coming together. Taking place over a long weekend, Karl learns new things about his family and rediscovers things about himself that he'd forgotten along the way to middle age.
I wasn't wowed by this, but I did like it and look forward to reading the other books I picked up from this author back during a freebie grab.
July 5, 2008
Thomas Wolfe said, "You Can't Go Home Again," and whether or not that statement rings true is likely to vary from person to person. Although we all may have a natural inclination to break free from the nest of our upbringing after a certain age, returning back to where it all started for us shouldn't be forbidden or a circumstance we'd rather avoid. Karl Preston, the protagonist of Jay Quinn's provocative new novel The Beloved Son, has managed to keep a considerable distance, both physically and emotionally, between his life and the home he left as a teenager. At the age of 52, he unexpectedly finds himself reexamining the decisions he made long ago, and the results that followed.
Karl and his wife, Caro, have made a wonderful life for themselves in North Carolina, with their 24-year-old daughter, Melanie. Their only major concern at present is whether or not their daughter will marry her current boyfriend, Andrew, before they move in together. But then Karl's father, Frank, calls and asks his son to come for a visit - the following weekend. Assuming correctly that something must be wrong, Karl leaves for his Florida hometown a day earlier than his wife and daughter, and is met at the airport by his gay brother, Sven. Born thirteen years apart, the brothers aren't exactly close, yet they immediately put their differences aside once Sven reveals that their mother, Annike, is suffering from quickly progressing dementia.
Instantly, the author easily conveys Karl's apparent discomfort and just how unfamiliar he is with his own family's environment. Sven has become his mother's nurse maid, much to the chagrin of Frank, who openly and frequently berates his younger son. Meanwhile, Sven and Rob, partnered for 26 years, are in the midst of a trial separation, yet they continue to run a successful business together and function as though they were still a couple. As Karl becomes better acquainted with his temporary surroundings, in a single day he is confronted with a range of emotions: shock and horror, after witnessing his father's treatment of his brother; jealousy, while listening to his mother and brother affectionately converse in her native Swedish; bewilderment, as he tries to comprehend Sven's relationship with Rob; guilt, for not visiting more often; and finally helplessness, for not being able to repair his mother's deteriorating condition.
When Caro and Melanie arrive the following day, Karl informs them of his mother's condition and his father's intention to move them both to an assisted care facility. Like any family facing a particularly difficult time, the weekend visit is riddled with continuous outbursts, differences in opinion, and heartfelt confessions. But most of all, each family member comes to realize how important it is to be able to say good-bye, or better yet, hello again.
Jay Quinn has incredible knack for describing any scene, whether it's as mundane as the waiting area at an airport, or as exotic as a store filled from top to bottom with European relics. His attention to extraneous detail helps the reader feel as though he or she is a participant, rather than witness, to the course of events. It's hard to believe the entire story takes place over only four days, because you will feel as though you've really gotten to know and care for Karl, his wife, his daughter, his brother, and his parents--and only wish them well in the end.
Karl and his wife, Caro, have made a wonderful life for themselves in North Carolina, with their 24-year-old daughter, Melanie. Their only major concern at present is whether or not their daughter will marry her current boyfriend, Andrew, before they move in together. But then Karl's father, Frank, calls and asks his son to come for a visit - the following weekend. Assuming correctly that something must be wrong, Karl leaves for his Florida hometown a day earlier than his wife and daughter, and is met at the airport by his gay brother, Sven. Born thirteen years apart, the brothers aren't exactly close, yet they immediately put their differences aside once Sven reveals that their mother, Annike, is suffering from quickly progressing dementia.
Instantly, the author easily conveys Karl's apparent discomfort and just how unfamiliar he is with his own family's environment. Sven has become his mother's nurse maid, much to the chagrin of Frank, who openly and frequently berates his younger son. Meanwhile, Sven and Rob, partnered for 26 years, are in the midst of a trial separation, yet they continue to run a successful business together and function as though they were still a couple. As Karl becomes better acquainted with his temporary surroundings, in a single day he is confronted with a range of emotions: shock and horror, after witnessing his father's treatment of his brother; jealousy, while listening to his mother and brother affectionately converse in her native Swedish; bewilderment, as he tries to comprehend Sven's relationship with Rob; guilt, for not visiting more often; and finally helplessness, for not being able to repair his mother's deteriorating condition.
When Caro and Melanie arrive the following day, Karl informs them of his mother's condition and his father's intention to move them both to an assisted care facility. Like any family facing a particularly difficult time, the weekend visit is riddled with continuous outbursts, differences in opinion, and heartfelt confessions. But most of all, each family member comes to realize how important it is to be able to say good-bye, or better yet, hello again.
Jay Quinn has incredible knack for describing any scene, whether it's as mundane as the waiting area at an airport, or as exotic as a store filled from top to bottom with European relics. His attention to extraneous detail helps the reader feel as though he or she is a participant, rather than witness, to the course of events. It's hard to believe the entire story takes place over only four days, because you will feel as though you've really gotten to know and care for Karl, his wife, his daughter, his brother, and his parents--and only wish them well in the end.
June 6, 2015
Jay Quinn writes such beautiful stories about family life. His stories always involve gay men in contemporary settings and stories focused not just on gay romance or gay sex, but on real day to day life involving a myriad of relationships. His stories include gay men and their relationships with their partners, mothers, brothers, friends, neighbours, relatives etc etc In this way it is so easy to appreciate and understand his stories because they are grounded and rooted in reality.
I have read so many stories where the main characters, the friends, the next door neighbours, the cat, the dog, and everyone else is gay. Sometimes this works well (shifter stories) but other times the story becomes unreal.
Not so with Mr Quinn.
Jay Quinn's stories explore real relationships, real family and working life, and issues such as health, faith, and career. And the settings always include water, either a river or the sea.
Above all his writing is beautiful.
This story involves ageing parents and the impact of dementia on a family. Karl and Sven are brothers. Karl is seen as the strong one by his mother and Sven is her beloved, the younger son. Sven is also gay and both brothers are middle aged.
They both have to confront and respond to the ageing of their parents. Their beautiful mother has dementia and their father is in his eighties. Both parents have come to terms with this and are planning on moving to assisted living accommodation, where they will live out their days.
Their parents have made peace with their old age and rest in their faith and memories but Karl and Sven both find that they need to respond to these changes and the paths their lives have taken and their parents still have issues that confront them. Their father has always resented Sven and favoured Karl. Using Sven's sexuality as an excuse their father has created a rift between himself and his younger son which is dressed in a barely disguised hostility. All of this despite the fact that he is reliant on Sven because Sven lives nearby while Karl lives across the country.
Their mother has always loved both her children but she has a deep love for her younger son Sven, and in some ways this has prevented him from spreading his wings away from home in the way that his partner Rob would like him too. It has also contributed to his father's resentment towards him. Sven has managed with these different pressures for years but now with her dementia progressing, his mother sees this as an opportunity to set both her sons free to live their lives, even as hers declines.
And there are hidden resentments in this family. As the family gathers one more time before their parents move into the assisted living facility, Karl sees for himself the anger and resentment his father has against his brother. He also sees the deep love his mother has for his brother and how this play of power within the family has unconsciously affected the way he himself has lived his life. Sven however is beautiful both inside and out. He has tried his best to love his parents and his brother and he allows his father's resentment to roll off him like water off a duck's back. He uses this visit to reconnect with his brother and with his partner Rob and he continues to find comfort in the Catholic church in a way that surprises his brother.
Karl finds that he develops a deeper appreciation for his family during this visit and also a deeper appreciation for his wife and daughter and the choices he has made. He also confronts the need for his mother and his shock at the encroaching dementia. His mother uses this visit to say good bye to her older son.
This is a beautiful and reflective story which focuses on issues that anyone with aging family members can relate to. It also alerts the reader to the kinds of shadows that exist within families and the control that parents have over their children whether for good or for ill. I was shocked at the way the mother was trying to push her children away from her because of her dementia. Her plan was to cut off contact with her children and live out her last days in the assisted living facility. I know she wanted them to get on with their lives but really? As someone who has dealt with the ageing and death of both my parents I struggled with this. Neither of my parents had dementia but both were very ill before they passed away. No way would I have left them to the care of professionals and cut off contact with them. I was glad in the story when Karl recognised that he didn't think he could do this. Even if a parent has dementia and changes and doesn't recognise you it doesn't wipe away the fact that you care.
All in all this was a beautiful story of a group of people coming to terms with the changes and times of life. It made me think about my own life and the need to appreciate everyday and those around me as much as I can, and to face what ever the future brings with courage, faith and love.
This is the last Jay Quinn novel in my to read pile. :(
He hasn't written any others and this means I have read them all. I feel bereft. :(
What will I do now?
And he doesn't have a website or facebook page for me to stalk.
Alas!!
I even wrote to his publishers (Open Road Media) to express my joy at his books and to ask if Jay Quinn will be publishing any thing new.
They didn't reply :)
That's the bad news. The good news is that I have come across some anthologies that he edited which also contain his writing. Yay. And some non-fiction that he has written. So all is not lost for now. Not quite yet!!
I have read so many stories where the main characters, the friends, the next door neighbours, the cat, the dog, and everyone else is gay. Sometimes this works well (shifter stories) but other times the story becomes unreal.
Not so with Mr Quinn.
Jay Quinn's stories explore real relationships, real family and working life, and issues such as health, faith, and career. And the settings always include water, either a river or the sea.
Above all his writing is beautiful.
This story involves ageing parents and the impact of dementia on a family. Karl and Sven are brothers. Karl is seen as the strong one by his mother and Sven is her beloved, the younger son. Sven is also gay and both brothers are middle aged.
They both have to confront and respond to the ageing of their parents. Their beautiful mother has dementia and their father is in his eighties. Both parents have come to terms with this and are planning on moving to assisted living accommodation, where they will live out their days.
Their parents have made peace with their old age and rest in their faith and memories but Karl and Sven both find that they need to respond to these changes and the paths their lives have taken and their parents still have issues that confront them. Their father has always resented Sven and favoured Karl. Using Sven's sexuality as an excuse their father has created a rift between himself and his younger son which is dressed in a barely disguised hostility. All of this despite the fact that he is reliant on Sven because Sven lives nearby while Karl lives across the country.
Their mother has always loved both her children but she has a deep love for her younger son Sven, and in some ways this has prevented him from spreading his wings away from home in the way that his partner Rob would like him too. It has also contributed to his father's resentment towards him. Sven has managed with these different pressures for years but now with her dementia progressing, his mother sees this as an opportunity to set both her sons free to live their lives, even as hers declines.
And there are hidden resentments in this family. As the family gathers one more time before their parents move into the assisted living facility, Karl sees for himself the anger and resentment his father has against his brother. He also sees the deep love his mother has for his brother and how this play of power within the family has unconsciously affected the way he himself has lived his life. Sven however is beautiful both inside and out. He has tried his best to love his parents and his brother and he allows his father's resentment to roll off him like water off a duck's back. He uses this visit to reconnect with his brother and with his partner Rob and he continues to find comfort in the Catholic church in a way that surprises his brother.
Karl finds that he develops a deeper appreciation for his family during this visit and also a deeper appreciation for his wife and daughter and the choices he has made. He also confronts the need for his mother and his shock at the encroaching dementia. His mother uses this visit to say good bye to her older son.
This is a beautiful and reflective story which focuses on issues that anyone with aging family members can relate to. It also alerts the reader to the kinds of shadows that exist within families and the control that parents have over their children whether for good or for ill. I was shocked at the way the mother was trying to push her children away from her because of her dementia. Her plan was to cut off contact with her children and live out her last days in the assisted living facility. I know she wanted them to get on with their lives but really? As someone who has dealt with the ageing and death of both my parents I struggled with this. Neither of my parents had dementia but both were very ill before they passed away. No way would I have left them to the care of professionals and cut off contact with them. I was glad in the story when Karl recognised that he didn't think he could do this. Even if a parent has dementia and changes and doesn't recognise you it doesn't wipe away the fact that you care.
All in all this was a beautiful story of a group of people coming to terms with the changes and times of life. It made me think about my own life and the need to appreciate everyday and those around me as much as I can, and to face what ever the future brings with courage, faith and love.
This is the last Jay Quinn novel in my to read pile. :(
He hasn't written any others and this means I have read them all. I feel bereft. :(
What will I do now?
And he doesn't have a website or facebook page for me to stalk.
Alas!!
I even wrote to his publishers (Open Road Media) to express my joy at his books and to ask if Jay Quinn will be publishing any thing new.
They didn't reply :)
That's the bad news. The good news is that I have come across some anthologies that he edited which also contain his writing. Yay. And some non-fiction that he has written. So all is not lost for now. Not quite yet!!
December 28, 2008
This was another novel that i found remarkable because of the author's ability to write about a dysfunctional family and to respect and honor each of the family members stories without judging. This author has written several gay-themed novels, all worth reading. But this book was a particular "gay" story from the perspective of the older and straight brother. The book, much like First Person Plural, takes on in a very significant way, a homophobic elderly father who at the end of his life must reconcile his anger and hate with his dying wife. The entire family come together one weekend and a lifetime of truth telling occurs. And each character is as vibrant and multi-dimensional, the villains and the heroes alike. Fabulous read!
January 9, 2017
Lots of beautiful emotional writing here though there isn't much of a plot. Quinn has a remarkable insight into people and their feelings.
May 10, 2018
Quality
Top tier, writing, editing and craftsmanship. Glad I found Jay Quinn and looking forward to many more of his books.
Top tier, writing, editing and craftsmanship. Glad I found Jay Quinn and looking forward to many more of his books.
December 9, 2010
I picked this book up at the library mainly because I wanted to read a Q for the A-Z Challenge and I had no idea what to expect, haven't come across the writer before or spoken to anyone else who has. The book explores family relationships and includes themes such as aging parents, having adult chidren, gay siblings and the journey and challenges of marriage/longterm partners. I found it very readable, well written although some of the emotional conversations and exchanges felt a little bit "Oprah" (iykwim) and perhaps for that reason didn't quite ring true for me.
January 19, 2016
I love Jay's writing. His characters are completely believable with all the good and bad that's in us all. This story centres on family and the difference between generations and two brothers. The descriptions of love, the dilemmas they all face are beautiful. I feel I know Florida well now. I'd recommend Jay Quinn to anyone who wants a deeply drawn portrayal of love and families.
May 29, 2011
brand new from booksale for P75 :-) a straightforward and touching story about family foibles, farewells and forgiveness.
April 15, 2016
I was excited about reading this book but I felt that it fell flat. There were too many trivial details and the characters seemed a little odd to me.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews