A carefully wrought study of a gay boy’s coming-of-age.
Ross’ (Inside, 2013, etc.) literary novel considers the fraught relationship between a young gay man and his father.
When he is 8 years old, Anthony Dimora is swimming with his father in Lake Erie. They pretend that Anthony is a submarine and his father is a bridge so that Anthony can swim between his father’s legs, groping his father underwater where no one can see. “Swimming underwater, I lift my arm above my head. Daddy’s bulge feels firmer and pushes against my palm.” As Anthony comes up, gasping for air, his father affirms, “My boy’s just fine, isn’t he?” At least, that’s how Anthony remembers it. Growing up in the tightknit Italian-American community in Castleton, Pennsylvania, Anthony idolizes his father. But he’s also in love with him. As his gay identity develops, however, his relationship with his father becomes increasingly strained, and Anthony finds a surrogate dad in Tony Tomasso, his father’s friend. Tensions in his parents’ marriage, family secrets, and a conservative 1950s culture all weigh on the young man as he tries to understand his sexual orientation in a hostile environment. It isn’t until he reaches adulthood that he is able to examine the events of his early life—and his bond with his father—with clarity. When he finally realizes what truly happened, it may turn out to be even worse than the story he’s been telling himself all along. Ross’ prose is pliable and perfectly animates Anthony’s unique voice: “I look at the kitchen clock. Five-fifteen. Daddy doesn’t know I have paper dolls. Even though Mommy said he wouldn’t like me playing with them, she gave me the Hedy Lamarr paper doll set that she had as a girl. Mommy said Hedy Lamarr was a big movie star, but I’ve never heard of her.” While much of the novel’s material is quite dark, Ross renders it palatable through the humanity of his characters. And the bold exploration of a father and son’s relationship makes for a compelling reading experience.
A carefully wrought study of a gay boy’s coming-of-age.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72963-861-3
Page Count: 222
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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