The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

The Guncle Abroad
By Steven Rowley
Published by Putnam, 2021 and 2024
Five stars


The sequel to “The Guncle” is as good as its predecessor and opens up a whole new menu of things to think about, laugh at, and weep over.

Patrick O’Hara is now a New Yorker, having successfully relaunched his career. It’s been five years since he took on his niece Maisie and nephew Grant while his brother Greg was in rehab. Back then, they were all mourning the loss of Greg’s wife, Sara. Patrick helped his brother’s kids, whom he called his niblings, onto the path of healing. Along the way, he finally started to recover from his own loss, the death of his boyfriend Joe.

This time it’s a confident, successful Patrick who answers his brother’s request to take charge of Maisie and Grant again (now 14 and 11); but in this case it’s to occupy them while Greg plans his wedding to an Italian marchesa, Livia Brasso. It’s a different kind of adventure, addressing a different kind of grief.

As with the first book, Patrick is an interesting character. Not entirely likeable, but nonetheless funny and quick-witted. He adores the children, who now adore their guncle (whom they call GUP, for Gay Uncle Patrick) somewhat less unreservedly as adolescence transforms them into new, more complex people. Steven Rowley makes these children exactly like they are: lovable, but irritating; smart, but unlearned in just the ways you’d expect. As a gay man who raised two children, it all rang pretty true.

There’s plenty of laugh-out-loud humor, but (also expected) plenty of darker, sadder moments. Grief never disappears completely, and life never stops throwing curveballs. The one thing that the story never lacks is love. These people love each other, and since the first book, Patrick and his siblings—Greg is younger, Clara is older—have grown closer and have learned to enjoy each other more easily. Honestly, I’d say that love is the most important thing of all.

The author takes his cast on a tour of Europe, as Patrick tries to teach the kids about love in his own, cockeyed way. The flaw in his lessons is his own blindness, made manifest in the absence of Emory, the boyfriend he discovered in the first book. Emory’s story provides a punchline and a romantic eyeroll for the story, which nonetheless got me weeping in several places toward the end. As an actor and a gay man, Patrick is good at self-deception and not always as clear-headed as he imagines himself. All of this mixes together to create a savory, sweet confection that managed to be both light-hearted and deeply touching.

I cannot wait to read this book! I absolutely LOVED The Guncle, and am currently reading another novel by Steven Rowley titled Lily and the Octopus. I’m thoroughly enjoying it so far. Hopefully my waitlist comes through soon for The Guncle Abroad.