LGBTQA Group Books discussion

After reading the entire novel, ...

Wow. There are a lot of things going on in this novel, but it's never confusing. I couldn't put it down. No emotion is spared, be it love, hate, guilt, lust, or depression. It touches on sensitive issues but in an unsentimental and un-creepy way. Tears and laughter in beautiful, economically-written prose. The dialog is youthful, straightforward, and salty. As much as the principal characters are gay or gay-freindly, this isn't about sex (of which there's plenty) as much as about the love between the title brothers, Nathan and Tommy, past and present. Just loved this book.

The early chapters of this novel irritated me -- Nathan's first-person voice seemed shallow and judgmental, and the slang filled with cliches -- but the book grew on me as I plowed on. A vacation or party get-together of diverse characters has been a situation used in a lot of gay novels and plays -- decades ago in the Gordon Merrick novels, for example, and then the infamous birthday party of "Boys in the Band." A lot of the acidic dialogue in this book reminded me of the dishing in the "Boy in the Band" but at a dumbed-down "Valley Girls" level. Gradually, though, I developed an interest in the characters, especially Simon and Tommy, even though Nathan's rantings seemed to be obscuring them, rather than revealing them. At its core, I would say this book is about Nathan's love/hate relationship with both his father and with his brother. Not sure I could buy the ending as realistic. For hundreds of pages, Tommy is presented (through his brother's eyes) as a self-centered wanton, and then, all of sudden at the end, becomes the guilt-ridden hero who opts for suicide. We also are left hanging with the question of what happened to Simon. It's a great plot for a film treatment; let's see what some directer might make of it.

And I liked the simple (simplistic?), straightforward writing style. So different from something like Acimen's "Call Me By Your Name" which is so much more florid (and equally compelling). Takes all kinds, I guess, authors and readers!