A fun, deliciously scandalous, if unevenly written, depiction of queers in the clergy.
A novel chronicles the lives of gay Roman Catholic clergymen at odds with their chosen vocation and the LGBTQ+ community.
Canadian author Brown's busy, provocative tale about religion clashing with lifestyle examines the lives of two 20-something deacons. Jared Röhrbach and Paul Fortis, both handsome, gay men at a seminary school in Rome, are on the verge of ordination to the priesthood. Jared struggles with nightmares involving his disapproving entrepreneur father and stepmother as well as an emotionally turbulent, decadelong relationship with Paul. Complicating matters is the knowledge of Paul’s affair with Jared’s schoolmate Jeff Hensen. Right from the opening pages, the author paints this love triangle with a fiery flair for the dramatic. Jared absconds with Jeff’s private letters detailing the “juicy secrets” about his and Paul’s intimate summer dalliance. Paul grows more conflicted about his gay relationship and its contradiction with church canons. When Jared makes a hasty departure stateside, he decides to take advantage of his trust fund and romances Tony Keating, a sexy, sketchy hustler, while Paul accepts a challenging position to assist a reclusive monsignor. A rushed meeting reunites Paul and Jared, but more trouble lies ahead, as family secrets are revealed about Jared’s stepmother. Brown’s prose straddles the vigorous, the poignant, and the sordid in equal measure, particularly during moments when Jared embraces his wild side and when Paul’s faith is tested against his deeply felt attraction to Jared. Some scenes seem cobbled together without resolution, and the details of the characters’ motivations tend to feel rushed. Jared, for instance, is a restless protagonist who strains believability. Though he’s initially fully ensconced in his religious routines, he abandons everything for a luxurious life with Tony, then seamlessly returns to his ministerial duties with ambitions to become a bishop. As things progress, the plot becomes overstuffed and unwieldy with subplots involving twins and embezzlement. Though the characters lose some of their early allure, a surprise twist revives things. Brown channels his former vocation as a minister and spiritual director into creating a narrative that is authentically pious but riddled with sex and shocking secrets. For readers of queer romance yarns, this novel will satisfy on several levels as an engrossing, modern tale of faith versus freedom and feelings.
A fun, deliciously scandalous, if unevenly written, depiction of queers in the clergy.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9798668-6-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Gibson-Brown Media
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
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