Jameson Currier

I was a little afraid to read this novel due to the wrong assumption it was sad and full of angst; how could have not been? A brother who is searching for his lost relative among the ruins of the World Trade Center, a lover who is searching for his lost partner in the Afghanistan war zone, we are too used to the tragic news about these two events for me to expect something else. To add weight to my worries, on the first scene Teddy is having a one night stand with Stan, a foreign-service officer just back from Afghanistan where he practically abandoned his lover, Ali, despite the clear love of the boy, and above all, the big danger he is in.

But slowly, very slowly, I started to see glimpse of hope in the story of Teddy, Jim and Ari, and also Stan; first of all they are all connected together, Teddy is brother with Pup, who was lover of Ari, who is now partner of Jim, who is helped by Stan who has a one night stand with Teddy… it’s like the circle of life, but in the end it’s not so strange after all. The gay community of New York City is big but strictly interconnected and it’s not the first time I happen to meet, in different circumstances and different place and time, people who know each other. I always joke that when people know I live in Italy they ask me if I know someone living in Rome, when I live in a completely different city… but with the gay community of New York City is not so strange to ask that question, and often the answer is an affirming one. So it’s not strange that Ari, who lived in NYC, knew Pup, Teddy’s brother, and it’s not strange that Teddy, at a dinner night at Pup’s friends, meets Stan; it’s not strange that Teddy and Stan, even if they don’t know it, are connected through Ari and Jim.

What I was not expecting, and that I love of this novel, is that in the end, all of them will find the romance they are searching; sure there is no miracle in this story, the WTC was a real tragedy, and many common men become heroes and victims on the same day. But after the tragedy here it comes the romance, and who survived the pain of losing a dear one, after dealing with the aftermath, has the chance to have a some kind of happily ever after, maybe with a bittersweet aftertaste, but nevertheless with hope. Even for the one I had less prospects, Stan: he seemed a nice guy, during his night with Teddy, but the way he ran away with the tail between his legs leaving a desperate Ali waiting for him, when he had no intention to go back, well, he didn’t come out like a romance hero… but don’t get fooled, and wait until the end of the novel before condemning him.

The novel is highly emotional, and it’s not “easy”; don’t start it thinking to read a smushy romance with perfect heroes loving each other among the tragedy, Jameson Currier has never opted for the easy way. And even if he is telling a romance, be sure that between the lines he is also teaching you a lesson, and so with the romance you have also to accept, and welcome, the lesson: it’s a little price to pay to be a better reader.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984470727/?tag=elimyrevandra-20… (meer)

This novel by Jameson Currier stands in the middle of everything: it’s not contemporary but it’s not even paranormal; it’s about ethereal ghosts but also about very real men; it’s about dreams and reality.

Avery Greene Dalyrymple III, gay, middle age and unbeliever is one of the many gay men leaving at Le Petite Paradis, a guest house in the French quarter of New Orleans, with attached restaurant. The cook is Parker, Avery’s former boyfriend, and before that, former boyfriend of Mack, who was also boyfriend with Avery; Mack’s first boyfriend was Tony, an Afro-American man who died in an accident when both of them were too young.

Today Parker has another living boyfriend, Charlie Ray, Avery has Hank, and Mack has no one since he is dying: not even fifty, Mack is HIV positive and the virus is taking him. But this is not a sad novel about a man who is dying too young with unsatisfied dream; the strange thing is that I didn’t feel unhappiness in Mack, he was instead ready to reach Toby in the afterlife. Mack probably would have liked to do that many years before, but he has a purpose in life, being the guardian angels of all the gay men living under his protective wings at Le Petite Paradis. And this doesn’t mean find for them an happily ever after, but giving them a purpose, something to do. Avery and Parker are not together together, but in a way they are a couple, and Le Petite Paradis is their haven; problem is that when Mack dies, even if he is at peace and content, Avery is not the same; as usual when someone you love leaves forever, there is something else you’d have liked to say, something else you’d have wanted to do. Avery starts to see ghosts, from Mack’s past, Tony, but also from Tony’s own past, nineteen century ghosts who seem not at ease, apparently angry ghosts.

Avery beliefs his purpose is to help these ghosts, but I think he is projecting his uneasiness and discontent in them; they are not the ghosts who want something, it’s not Mack or Tony who didn’t realize their dreams, it’s Avery who is realizing that he spent his life without actually obtaining anything; taking care of Mack was the only important and vital thing he had in life, and now that he is dead, Avery feels deprived of something. Seeing ghosts, real or fictional, is only a way to let it go Mack. Avery can’t internalize that, indeed, it was time for Mack, but not since Mack was not ready, but since Avery wasn’t.

This novel tells the long farewell of Avery to Mack, but it’s not a sad farewell; trying to find a reason to what happened, Avery is also building the path towards his new life. Reliving the past will teach to Avery something for the future, and it will also help Avery to accept his own past. From unbeliever Avery will become someone who believes in everything, above all that Mack indeed loved him, like other loves him, and that indeed there is a reason to live.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984470700/?tag=elimyrevandra-20… (meer)