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The Coming Storm
Set against the backdrop of a traditional boys' school in upstate New York, The Coming Storm is a delicately and brilliantly rendered tale that reveals the most closely held secrets of the human heart. Russell's award-winning novel is the story of four interlocking lives - Louis Tremper, the headmaster at the Forge School; his wife Claire; Tracey Parker, a 25-year old gay man and recently hired teacher at the Forge School; and Noah Lathrop III, a troubled student; all of whom struggle with their own inner demons, desires, and conflicted loyalties. When Tracey and Noah become involved in an illicit relationship, dark incidents from the school's past begin colliding with the current growing confusion that all of them must face. Compelling and poignant, this is the finest work yet from one of the best contemporary American novelists.
371 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
31 people are currently reading
2685 people want to read
About the author
Paul Russell
35 books135 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Paul Russell received his doctorate from Cornell in 1983 for a dissertation on the novelist Vladimir Nabokov and is currently a Professor in the English Department at Vassar College.
His fourth novel, The Coming Storm won the 2000 Ferro-Grumley Award for Gay Male Fiction.
His short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Black Warrior Review, and Carolina Quarterly.
Paul Russell received his doctorate from Cornell in 1983 for a dissertation on the novelist Vladimir Nabokov and is currently a Professor in the English Department at Vassar College.
His fourth novel, The Coming Storm won the 2000 Ferro-Grumley Award for Gay Male Fiction.
His short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Black Warrior Review, and Carolina Quarterly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
March 19, 2013
interesting, rich characterizations conveyed through four perspectives: a young-ish gay teacher; an older, maybe-gay? headmaster; the headmaster's wife, in whom still waters run deep; a student on the cusp of understanding his own identity... all of them complex, sympathetic, frustrating, and oh so real. the atmosphere of impending doom is also intriguing (title tie-in!)
less interesting is the author's constant fetishization of ankle hair and feet - wtf - that grew old very quickly.
at times i worried that this would turn into one of those novels where Everyone Is Gay, but fortunately the strength of the female voice is carefully and ably conveyed. overall, a worthy and occasionally compelling experience - albeit a trifle overthought and, sadly, underwhelming at the end.
Russell is certainly a very serious gay novelist.
less interesting is the author's constant fetishization of ankle hair and feet - wtf - that grew old very quickly.
at times i worried that this would turn into one of those novels where Everyone Is Gay, but fortunately the strength of the female voice is carefully and ably conveyed. overall, a worthy and occasionally compelling experience - albeit a trifle overthought and, sadly, underwhelming at the end.
Russell is certainly a very serious gay novelist.
August 20, 2024
A wonderful novel from a wonderful writer. This is a complex, fascinating tale. I don't really know what more to say - you can find the story from any of the previously published excellent reviews on Goodreads or simply by reading the synopsis provided. I really don't want to say too much, not because of spoilers, but because the strength of this novel (and really any good novel) comes from discovering it without preconceptions. But also because it is a novel of such complexity, at least in the way the various characters circulate and react, or don't react, with each other means that putting one set of characters to the fore inevitable ignores others and simplifies and, honestly, cheapens, this very remarkable novel.
This is a novel about family, being gay, obligations, desire, money, growing up, being yourself, accepting who you are and also the way actions resonate down the years. The past is never past and although aspects of the novel are particular to the time of its writing (but isn't that true of every novel?) it is not a novel about its time. The real complexities of emotions and relationships are eternal, which is why a whole truck load of authors from Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald are still worth reading. This novel by Paul Russell may not quite belong in that stellar pantheon but he is a better, and more important writer with things to say then for example, Christopher Bram author of the 1995 Father of Frankenstein.
None of Paul Russell's books are likely to be made into films but he is a fabulous writer rather than an author of film treatments. After all, even with Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper, who now remembers, or watches 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'?
This is a novel about family, being gay, obligations, desire, money, growing up, being yourself, accepting who you are and also the way actions resonate down the years. The past is never past and although aspects of the novel are particular to the time of its writing (but isn't that true of every novel?) it is not a novel about its time. The real complexities of emotions and relationships are eternal, which is why a whole truck load of authors from Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald are still worth reading. This novel by Paul Russell may not quite belong in that stellar pantheon but he is a better, and more important writer with things to say then for example, Christopher Bram author of the 1995 Father of Frankenstein.
None of Paul Russell's books are likely to be made into films but he is a fabulous writer rather than an author of film treatments. After all, even with Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper, who now remembers, or watches 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'?
August 26, 2016
I am amazed at how topical and incendiary this novel remains 15 years after its publication in 1999. Paul Russell went on to win the Ferro-Grumley Award for The Coming Storm in 2000 (and for a second time in 2012 for The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov, a much different novel that marks the true skill and depth of this remarkable writer).
I was a bit leery about reading this as I kept on thinking of a gay version of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. However, Russell’s classically simple story of a 25-year-old teacher at a New York prep school having an affair with a 15-year-old student is remarkably free of both cliché and melodrama.
It is written with a clarity and a tenderness that must render this one of the pivotal texts of gay literature. Just as the ‘coming out’ novel is associated automatically with A Boy’s Own Story by Edmund White, so is the ‘under-age romance’ indelibly linked with The Coming Storm.
The novel speaks volumes about free will, love and desire and the long shadows that parents cast over their children’s lives. This is largely due to the immense technical skill and insight of Russell as author, whose finely wrought characters range from the ageing head master and his wife to his younger protégé and his various lovers and acquaintances, to crucially the character of the young Noah himself, whose vulnerability and volatility are heartbreaking to behold.
The reader may think he or she knows how this is going to end, but Russell manages to eke out superlative nuances from what is ultimately such a hackneyed plot. Yes, the resolution is morally problematic, especially in the light of Arthur’s admonition to Tracy to hold onto this beautiful love and never, ever to reject or abandon Noah, which would be a betrayal of the uncompromising nature of their love itself.
There is a fascinating contrast and debate here between the young Tracy, who succumbs to his illicit passions, and the older Louis, who spends the bulk of his life closeted and unrequited. Is the one state of existence preferable to the other, or are both indeed equally morally compromised? And how thin is the divide between love and lust, sex and infatuation?
Russell’s depiction of Tracy’s first weekend away from the Forge School in the flesh pit that is New York City is deliciously lewd, and got me worrying how he was going to handle the inevitable sex scene between Tracy and Noah without it being titillating. Russell deals with this dilemma by having Noah experiencing gay anal sex for the first time with a fellow pupil, and having him reflect on the animal messiness of the act during a buffet hosted by his father:
Suddenly claustrophobic, and focusing on A.J.’s laden plate, Noah said, “Food. That looks like a good idea,” and fled for the buffet table that caterers had set up in the dining room. Shiny metal bins held spicy-smelling Indian food: yellow rice, mercurochrome chicken pieces, unidentifiable lumps in mustardy brown sauce, cheese cubes in spinach. Too many of the dishes looked like one kind of shit or another, and he thought back queasily to the dark matter on himself when he’d pulled out of Chris Tyler’s butt.
Contrast that with the following:
To speak a language that was as intimate and free as certain dreams, saying darkly, thrillingly, My cock inside of you. Your come in my mouth. Already in that dream he was easing his new friend out of those hip, baggy jeans, exposing smooth young flesh to the surprise of cool air. He focused on the boy’s slim, tight hips; with the tip of his tongue he tasted an asshole’s bitter, forbidden mystery.
Russell asks us to consider the separate fates of Tracy and Louis, the former giving in to desire and the latter never acknowledging the possibility within himself. Which is the stronger? Which is truer to his real self? There are no easy answers here, and everyone is culpable to some degree or other.
Is desire itself monstrous? Is love the true enemy of human happiness and achievement? While I was reading this the thought lurking at the back of my mind was: just how is Russell going to end a novel that transects such highs and lows? The end, when it does come, is of course just another bittersweet, exalted beginning.
I was a bit leery about reading this as I kept on thinking of a gay version of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. However, Russell’s classically simple story of a 25-year-old teacher at a New York prep school having an affair with a 15-year-old student is remarkably free of both cliché and melodrama.
It is written with a clarity and a tenderness that must render this one of the pivotal texts of gay literature. Just as the ‘coming out’ novel is associated automatically with A Boy’s Own Story by Edmund White, so is the ‘under-age romance’ indelibly linked with The Coming Storm.
The novel speaks volumes about free will, love and desire and the long shadows that parents cast over their children’s lives. This is largely due to the immense technical skill and insight of Russell as author, whose finely wrought characters range from the ageing head master and his wife to his younger protégé and his various lovers and acquaintances, to crucially the character of the young Noah himself, whose vulnerability and volatility are heartbreaking to behold.
The reader may think he or she knows how this is going to end, but Russell manages to eke out superlative nuances from what is ultimately such a hackneyed plot. Yes, the resolution is morally problematic, especially in the light of Arthur’s admonition to Tracy to hold onto this beautiful love and never, ever to reject or abandon Noah, which would be a betrayal of the uncompromising nature of their love itself.
There is a fascinating contrast and debate here between the young Tracy, who succumbs to his illicit passions, and the older Louis, who spends the bulk of his life closeted and unrequited. Is the one state of existence preferable to the other, or are both indeed equally morally compromised? And how thin is the divide between love and lust, sex and infatuation?
Russell’s depiction of Tracy’s first weekend away from the Forge School in the flesh pit that is New York City is deliciously lewd, and got me worrying how he was going to handle the inevitable sex scene between Tracy and Noah without it being titillating. Russell deals with this dilemma by having Noah experiencing gay anal sex for the first time with a fellow pupil, and having him reflect on the animal messiness of the act during a buffet hosted by his father:
Suddenly claustrophobic, and focusing on A.J.’s laden plate, Noah said, “Food. That looks like a good idea,” and fled for the buffet table that caterers had set up in the dining room. Shiny metal bins held spicy-smelling Indian food: yellow rice, mercurochrome chicken pieces, unidentifiable lumps in mustardy brown sauce, cheese cubes in spinach. Too many of the dishes looked like one kind of shit or another, and he thought back queasily to the dark matter on himself when he’d pulled out of Chris Tyler’s butt.
Contrast that with the following:
To speak a language that was as intimate and free as certain dreams, saying darkly, thrillingly, My cock inside of you. Your come in my mouth. Already in that dream he was easing his new friend out of those hip, baggy jeans, exposing smooth young flesh to the surprise of cool air. He focused on the boy’s slim, tight hips; with the tip of his tongue he tasted an asshole’s bitter, forbidden mystery.
Russell asks us to consider the separate fates of Tracy and Louis, the former giving in to desire and the latter never acknowledging the possibility within himself. Which is the stronger? Which is truer to his real self? There are no easy answers here, and everyone is culpable to some degree or other.
Is desire itself monstrous? Is love the true enemy of human happiness and achievement? While I was reading this the thought lurking at the back of my mind was: just how is Russell going to end a novel that transects such highs and lows? The end, when it does come, is of course just another bittersweet, exalted beginning.
July 13, 2018
An excellent read around a very complex issue...relationship between a private school teacher and his student. However, love the detailed workings of the peripheral characters and how Russell goes to great lengths to provide insights into their lives and relationships and how they all are eventually connected to the two lead characters.
August 31, 2022
Compellingly complicated and compassionate account throughout. Pure, regrettable, silently devastating, and touchingly human portrayal of self-regard and of regard for others.
The finely nuanced layers of self-deceptions in the inner conflicts of the various narrators are so recognizable of a susceptible individual perception; the constantly accumulating tiny self-justifications and affirmations (in)credibly believable of the thoughts and actions.
The characters' shared tendencies make the following of their contrasting approaches and mannerisms ceaselessly fascinating. The precarious treading on various boundaries is stirringly suspenseful, and where left unspoken, truly unsettling.
Persuasive, sympathetic and arresting account, of tumultuous inner workings beneath charming appearances.
Had me affected and entirely captivated.
(So much so, that I want to forgive the slightly overplayed conclusion, even).
____
More in the Reading updates. below
The finely nuanced layers of self-deceptions in the inner conflicts of the various narrators are so recognizable of a susceptible individual perception; the constantly accumulating tiny self-justifications and affirmations (in)credibly believable of the thoughts and actions.
The characters' shared tendencies make the following of their contrasting approaches and mannerisms ceaselessly fascinating. The precarious treading on various boundaries is stirringly suspenseful, and where left unspoken, truly unsettling.
Persuasive, sympathetic and arresting account, of tumultuous inner workings beneath charming appearances.
Had me affected and entirely captivated.
(So much so, that I want to forgive the slightly overplayed conclusion, even).
____
More in the Reading updates. below
December 16, 2012
Paul Russell gives a literary bent to m/m romance, not only his prose, but his ability to leave judgements up to the reader and to avoid sentimentality. This tale interweaves the lives of 4 flawed characters, characters all nevertheless appealing. The novel can be read simply as a m/m romance and succeeds as such. I saw it more as a modern morality play without any correct answers—just like life (outside those of conservatives who need things to be just so, black and white, biblical). This story and its participants lives are gray, to me at least.
It asks what would I have done if I were Tracy faced with a lusty 16 y/o coming out and wanting sex? It asks if it is wrong for a 22 y/o to love a 16 y/o, for a teacher to love a student. It gives examples of possibilities among multiple relationships exploring these questions.
I know how I feel and think and am wondering how others do.
It asks what would I have done if I were Tracy faced with a lusty 16 y/o coming out and wanting sex? It asks if it is wrong for a 22 y/o to love a 16 y/o, for a teacher to love a student. It gives examples of possibilities among multiple relationships exploring these questions.
I know how I feel and think and am wondering how others do.
Read
February 23, 2012I bought this a year ago and abandoned it half way through the first chapter because I really didn't want to read about student/teacher relationships. I picked it up again because there's some other books of Russell's that look interesting but I couldn't let myself buy them unless I'd actually finished the one I already owned.
I don't really know what to say about this book. It's superbly written and I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future. On the other hand, how much do you want to spend almost 400 pages pondering the moral complexities of pederasty? Not a lot right? This is very uncomfortable reading. More uncomfortable than Lolita uncomfortable (Russell's doctoral thesis was actually on Nabokov).
On balance, I'm glad I read this, but dear lord do I want to read something light and fluffy next.
I don't really know what to say about this book. It's superbly written and I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future. On the other hand, how much do you want to spend almost 400 pages pondering the moral complexities of pederasty? Not a lot right? This is very uncomfortable reading. More uncomfortable than Lolita uncomfortable (Russell's doctoral thesis was actually on Nabokov).
On balance, I'm glad I read this, but dear lord do I want to read something light and fluffy next.
August 30, 2016
This novel was excellent. The story was intense and beautiful and horrifying all at once. It raised a ton of questions about life and morality but never sermonized answers. Instead, we watch the drama unfold with wonderful prose and have to make up our minds for ourselves.
The symbols were a bit heavy-handed at times, but it never messed up the flow. This is a must read if it sounds interesting. If you're scared off by some of the controversial topics it explores, you might want to skip it. It's pretty explicit and unapologetic in that regard.
The symbols were a bit heavy-handed at times, but it never messed up the flow. This is a must read if it sounds interesting. If you're scared off by some of the controversial topics it explores, you might want to skip it. It's pretty explicit and unapologetic in that regard.
March 16, 2013
This book is incredibly well written. Russell tells a compelling story with an ending that is one part melancholy and two parts happy and redeeming.
November 28, 2017
A challenging subject matter, but its psychological complexity was dealt with well. Russell writes beautifully, and these characters were flawed but relatable. This is the first of his works that I've read, and it won't be my last.
June 10, 2018
Loved this book. A beautiful and thrilling story.
July 27, 2024
The Coming Storm by Paul Russell
An amazing story of coming of age, falling in love for the first time, being taught by an older man how to make love.
Noah Lathrop III is a 15 y.o troubled boy. Being raised by a very wealthy and absentee father who's on his third wife. He hates both of his parents and all of his stepmothers. He's thrown into The Forge School, a Prep School in Upstate New York for troubled upper-class students headed by Louis Tremper.
Tracy Parker is a vegetarian 25 y/o who starts teaching at the Forge School and becomes enamored with Noah. He happens to a gay man who is somewhat conflicted by the fact that his best friend -- and casual sexual partner, Arthur Branson -- is dying from AIDS complications.
Claire Tremper, Louis wife, is a feminist teacher at a Community College who's stuck in a "comfortable" marriage.
When Noah and Tracy start a relationship that even though is filled with love is nothing more than statutory rape by definition, the four main characters-- all of whom struggle with their own inner demons, desires, and conflicted loyalties -- must deal with dark incidents from the school's past colliding with the current growing confusion that all of them must face. Compelling and poignant, this is one of the finest work I've read in a long time.
Narrated from the third person point of view of these four characters -- Noah, Tracy, Louis, and Claire, the book tries to make sense of love -- as if that were possible.
"...love is the enemy. That's my conclusion. We should all live in our little monk cells and never come out -- which, come to think of it, is what I do these days. But you know what the problem with that solution is? We're not made to live like that. We're born starving for love, and almost by definition, it's what we can't have. Not the way we want it. At least, homosexually speaking. Maybe for straight people, it's different. I wouldn't know, and, frankly, I don't care to." Arthur tells Tracy. page 305.
"'It's the truth,' Arthur said with certainty. 'Love takes us over. It ruins us and never looks back.'" p 305.
"Such love as this, tragic, criminal, impossible, a dream meant only to dreamed and never, never to be lived, such love, once undertaken by the flesh, should burn more brightly, should march proudly forward its own magnificent extinction, not quiver in fear at the very taboos it had sought to break asunder." Louis Laments on p. 328-8.
"But it's one of those things. What I mean is we say we're all for love, then we hem it in on all sides, we prescribe what's allowed and not allowed, we tax it to death, so to speak. But you know what? And this is the great secret we all fool ourselves into trying not to know: more than anything else, Love loves anarchy. It loves to wreak havoc. It loves to dance atop the ruins." Reid Fallone, tells his best friend Louis on page 337.
I had trouble putting the book down. The characters are so alive that they want to come off the page. The theme is complicated -- as love always is -- but it's treated with such care that you identify with at least one of the characters -- there's enough straight love for those who are not gay. I thought it was a wise, tender, and remarkably engrossing story about human affections, whether powerful, illogic, precious, or unpredictable.
Loved it!
An amazing story of coming of age, falling in love for the first time, being taught by an older man how to make love.
Noah Lathrop III is a 15 y.o troubled boy. Being raised by a very wealthy and absentee father who's on his third wife. He hates both of his parents and all of his stepmothers. He's thrown into The Forge School, a Prep School in Upstate New York for troubled upper-class students headed by Louis Tremper.
Tracy Parker is a vegetarian 25 y/o who starts teaching at the Forge School and becomes enamored with Noah. He happens to a gay man who is somewhat conflicted by the fact that his best friend -- and casual sexual partner, Arthur Branson -- is dying from AIDS complications.
Claire Tremper, Louis wife, is a feminist teacher at a Community College who's stuck in a "comfortable" marriage.
When Noah and Tracy start a relationship that even though is filled with love is nothing more than statutory rape by definition, the four main characters-- all of whom struggle with their own inner demons, desires, and conflicted loyalties -- must deal with dark incidents from the school's past colliding with the current growing confusion that all of them must face. Compelling and poignant, this is one of the finest work I've read in a long time.
Narrated from the third person point of view of these four characters -- Noah, Tracy, Louis, and Claire, the book tries to make sense of love -- as if that were possible.
"...love is the enemy. That's my conclusion. We should all live in our little monk cells and never come out -- which, come to think of it, is what I do these days. But you know what the problem with that solution is? We're not made to live like that. We're born starving for love, and almost by definition, it's what we can't have. Not the way we want it. At least, homosexually speaking. Maybe for straight people, it's different. I wouldn't know, and, frankly, I don't care to." Arthur tells Tracy. page 305.
"'It's the truth,' Arthur said with certainty. 'Love takes us over. It ruins us and never looks back.'" p 305.
"Such love as this, tragic, criminal, impossible, a dream meant only to dreamed and never, never to be lived, such love, once undertaken by the flesh, should burn more brightly, should march proudly forward its own magnificent extinction, not quiver in fear at the very taboos it had sought to break asunder." Louis Laments on p. 328-8.
"But it's one of those things. What I mean is we say we're all for love, then we hem it in on all sides, we prescribe what's allowed and not allowed, we tax it to death, so to speak. But you know what? And this is the great secret we all fool ourselves into trying not to know: more than anything else, Love loves anarchy. It loves to wreak havoc. It loves to dance atop the ruins." Reid Fallone, tells his best friend Louis on page 337.
I had trouble putting the book down. The characters are so alive that they want to come off the page. The theme is complicated -- as love always is -- but it's treated with such care that you identify with at least one of the characters -- there's enough straight love for those who are not gay. I thought it was a wise, tender, and remarkably engrossing story about human affections, whether powerful, illogic, precious, or unpredictable.
Loved it!
November 12, 2024
This was a well written novel and overall I liked it. A book that delves into the complexities of identity, desire, power imbalances, etc.
The writing is elegant and thought provoking while tackling heavy and dark subject material.
Paul is undoubtedly a talented writer, however this did meander and drag quite a bit. I think this could have been edited down quite substantially and while this may not be the case with the physical book, the constant grammatical and spelling errors on the ebook kept pulling me out of the story.
The writing is elegant and thought provoking while tackling heavy and dark subject material.
Paul is undoubtedly a talented writer, however this did meander and drag quite a bit. I think this could have been edited down quite substantially and while this may not be the case with the physical book, the constant grammatical and spelling errors on the ebook kept pulling me out of the story.
April 17, 2011
I loved this book. I loved the characters and the situations and the complications. Being a teacher, I could identify with many of the situations. And it captured the atmosphere and characters that inhabit an academic institution. I highly recommend this entertaining and insightful novel.
November 27, 2025
tl;dr part Call Me By Your Name, part Dancer from the Dance, Russell’s morally challenging yet oddly tender novel explores the desperation (and fallout) of illicit desire in the midst of the AIDS crisis
The existential dread of the AIDS crisis seeps tangibly into the literature of the period. When The Coming Storm was published, the number of AIDS diagnoses had only started to decrease three years earlier. Understandably, the writers at the time wished to profess their right to exist despite the social and systemic forces against them.
The AIDS crisis is explicitly present in The Coming Storm, Paul Russell’s 1999 novel about a quartet of boarding school personnel navigating an increasingly volatile situation (portent of, yes, a ‘storm’ both personal and literal). At the center of these choppy waters are Noah, a 15-year-old student of the Forge school, and Tracy, a 25-year old instructor, whose growing relationship leads to a full-on crisis.
I struggled reading many parts of this book, and the tension is the point here. It goes without saying: the older party is at fault, and to reinforce this, in the eyes of the law, the younger party cannot give consent. But by vividly and viscerally painting the inner lives of the two parties involved, we at least have a clear understanding of why it happens. Tracy lives in fear and is, unwittingly, in the process of grieving a friend who is in the throes of AIDS. However, balancing the sympathetic scenes are ones that are morally unambiguous (i.e., bad). His behavior, for better and worse, are fueled by the existential throes of the AIDS crisis, as well as an environment entrenched in homophobia. Meanwhile, Noah struggles with his own sexuality as well as his family life, and sadly latches onto Tracy for solace and belonging. The whole thing, on a human level, is deeply complicated, and the two shouldn’t have been each others’ only option. However, the two ‘being the only option’ for the isn’t absolution nor an out, it only adds to the long list of questions that Russell is asking.
Tracy and Noah’s relationship contrasts sharply to the other half of the quartet, Headmaster Louis Tremper and his wife Claire. A quiet hum of regret underlies every interaction and observation these two make; Louis is heavily implied to be queer himself, leading him to empathize with Tracy as the storm(s) arrive. Claire was probably, by design, the most removed from the main thread of the four. I can’t say that her contributions to the story felt like they gelled with the whole, but I also acknowledge that her outsider-ness, both in her own marriage and the goings-on of Tracy and Noah, offer valuable perspective.
I think that Russell manages a delicate but treacherous balance between empathy and remorse for the characters. We can understand why the characters engage in what they do, and we also understand why they face the outcomes they do. While this isn’t a particularly uplifting story, I wouldn’t say that the topnote of the Storm’s conclusion is exclusively sad. An unexpected pedal-tone (to use music terms, as Louis might) hangs over all at the end, signifying a sense of strange hope.
“But do you want to know what conclusion I’ve come to at my greatly advanced age? I’ll put it to you simply: love is the enemy. That’s my conclusion. We should all live in our little monk cells and never venture out—which, come to think of it, is what I do these days. But you know what the problem with that fine solution is? We’re not made to live like that. We’re born starving for love, and almost by definition it’s what we can’t have. Not the way we want it. At least, homosexually speaking.” (p. 305)
The existential dread of the AIDS crisis seeps tangibly into the literature of the period. When The Coming Storm was published, the number of AIDS diagnoses had only started to decrease three years earlier. Understandably, the writers at the time wished to profess their right to exist despite the social and systemic forces against them.
The AIDS crisis is explicitly present in The Coming Storm, Paul Russell’s 1999 novel about a quartet of boarding school personnel navigating an increasingly volatile situation (portent of, yes, a ‘storm’ both personal and literal). At the center of these choppy waters are Noah, a 15-year-old student of the Forge school, and Tracy, a 25-year old instructor, whose growing relationship leads to a full-on crisis.
I struggled reading many parts of this book, and the tension is the point here. It goes without saying: the older party is at fault, and to reinforce this, in the eyes of the law, the younger party cannot give consent. But by vividly and viscerally painting the inner lives of the two parties involved, we at least have a clear understanding of why it happens. Tracy lives in fear and is, unwittingly, in the process of grieving a friend who is in the throes of AIDS. However, balancing the sympathetic scenes are ones that are morally unambiguous (i.e., bad). His behavior, for better and worse, are fueled by the existential throes of the AIDS crisis, as well as an environment entrenched in homophobia. Meanwhile, Noah struggles with his own sexuality as well as his family life, and sadly latches onto Tracy for solace and belonging. The whole thing, on a human level, is deeply complicated, and the two shouldn’t have been each others’ only option. However, the two ‘being the only option’ for the isn’t absolution nor an out, it only adds to the long list of questions that Russell is asking.
Tracy and Noah’s relationship contrasts sharply to the other half of the quartet, Headmaster Louis Tremper and his wife Claire. A quiet hum of regret underlies every interaction and observation these two make; Louis is heavily implied to be queer himself, leading him to empathize with Tracy as the storm(s) arrive. Claire was probably, by design, the most removed from the main thread of the four. I can’t say that her contributions to the story felt like they gelled with the whole, but I also acknowledge that her outsider-ness, both in her own marriage and the goings-on of Tracy and Noah, offer valuable perspective.
I think that Russell manages a delicate but treacherous balance between empathy and remorse for the characters. We can understand why the characters engage in what they do, and we also understand why they face the outcomes they do. While this isn’t a particularly uplifting story, I wouldn’t say that the topnote of the Storm’s conclusion is exclusively sad. An unexpected pedal-tone (to use music terms, as Louis might) hangs over all at the end, signifying a sense of strange hope.
July 25, 2024
This is a complicated book to review. This book is provocative for sure and I honestly don’t think it would get published today. I thought The Coming Storm was going to be a campus novel, or an AIDS novel, or a psychological literary thriller in a way, or even just a classic Gay Novel™ of the latter 20th century and in a way it is all of these things and none. The writing was excellent and never failed to stimulate my brain. However it deals with a pretty dark subject matter that is not always pleasant to read about (teacher-student relationships) and this book was written in the 90s. I think it is important to remember the author is not approving the actions of his characters and that this is an exploration of four flawed, complex characters. The three adults I found fascinating but remained relatively disappointed in their actions nonetheless.
You have Louis Tremper, the pathologically closeted headmaster with a fetish for German culture; Claire Tremper, his wife and a professor or women’s literature with a penchant for white feminism and questionable morals at times; and Tracey Parker, the teacher going through a bit of an identity crisis in the midst of an HIV scare who ends up infatuated with his student (yes it is gross and hard to read, but this does not equate to an endorsement from the author). Noah, the young boy at the center of all of it was someone who I was rooting for and I’m relatively happy with his ending even if he still has a long way to go.
I do think this author did an excellent job at creating these immensely realistic, flawed characters. They’re all fucked up in ways that make the reader uncomfortable and I think that is 100% intentional and done well. I can see how a character like Noah could be life changing to a young gay person in the 90s and early 00s.
You have Louis Tremper, the pathologically closeted headmaster with a fetish for German culture; Claire Tremper, his wife and a professor or women’s literature with a penchant for white feminism and questionable morals at times; and Tracey Parker, the teacher going through a bit of an identity crisis in the midst of an HIV scare who ends up infatuated with his student (yes it is gross and hard to read, but this does not equate to an endorsement from the author). Noah, the young boy at the center of all of it was someone who I was rooting for and I’m relatively happy with his ending even if he still has a long way to go.
I do think this author did an excellent job at creating these immensely realistic, flawed characters. They’re all fucked up in ways that make the reader uncomfortable and I think that is 100% intentional and done well. I can see how a character like Noah could be life changing to a young gay person in the 90s and early 00s.
May 24, 2007
As posted in [http://www.amazon.com]:
In *The Coming Storm*, there are 3 things going on:
1. The Forge School headmaster, Louis and his wife, Claire, who teaches feminist literature at a college. They're friends with Reid and Libby. Reid travels around the world and has affairs. Reid retells his encounters to Louis. Meanwhile, Louis wonders why he is still friends with Reid after all these years.
2. Tracy is a vegetarian gay teacher who has recently been hired to teach at the Forge School. Tracy's friend, Arthur, is an alumnus of the school. Tracy discovers dark secrets of the school from Arthur. Meanwhile, Arthur is afflicted with HIV/AIDS.
3. Noah is from a wealthy dysfunctional family. Noah is in love with his teacher, Tracy. At the same time, he's somewhat fascinated with the Fatwa, a nickname given to another boy, Chris, who keeps to himself.
Each of these stories is a storm to itself. However, these 3 "storms" eventually merge into one huge storm. The question is who will survive the storm. Will anyone find their true love? Will anyone come out of the closet? Will someone get hurt or burned?
FYI - This is not an easy read as it does involve pedophilia/pederasty. It is addressed in the story.
I gave it 2 stars because the book just droned on and on. Paul Russell could have edited 100 pages out.
In *The Coming Storm*, there are 3 things going on:
1. The Forge School headmaster, Louis and his wife, Claire, who teaches feminist literature at a college. They're friends with Reid and Libby. Reid travels around the world and has affairs. Reid retells his encounters to Louis. Meanwhile, Louis wonders why he is still friends with Reid after all these years.
2. Tracy is a vegetarian gay teacher who has recently been hired to teach at the Forge School. Tracy's friend, Arthur, is an alumnus of the school. Tracy discovers dark secrets of the school from Arthur. Meanwhile, Arthur is afflicted with HIV/AIDS.
3. Noah is from a wealthy dysfunctional family. Noah is in love with his teacher, Tracy. At the same time, he's somewhat fascinated with the Fatwa, a nickname given to another boy, Chris, who keeps to himself.
Each of these stories is a storm to itself. However, these 3 "storms" eventually merge into one huge storm. The question is who will survive the storm. Will anyone find their true love? Will anyone come out of the closet? Will someone get hurt or burned?
FYI - This is not an easy read as it does involve pedophilia/pederasty. It is addressed in the story.
I gave it 2 stars because the book just droned on and on. Paul Russell could have edited 100 pages out.
August 9, 2009
I thought I would like this novel because I tend to enjoy stories set in boarding schools. The main character in this one, in particular, I thought I'd connect with because he's an English teacher.
However...whoa. I didn't expect I'd have such a problem with the relationship between the teacher and student (this is fiction after all), but I did. It skeeved me out a lot more than I thought it would, mostly because I started to think that the teacher was not specifically interested in Noah; rather, I thought the teacher was perhaps interested in teenagers in a more general sense. And that made me uncomfortable.
Also, the page count is much higher than necessary in order to tell the story. A lot of the narration was really superfluous.
However...whoa. I didn't expect I'd have such a problem with the relationship between the teacher and student (this is fiction after all), but I did. It skeeved me out a lot more than I thought it would, mostly because I started to think that the teacher was not specifically interested in Noah; rather, I thought the teacher was perhaps interested in teenagers in a more general sense. And that made me uncomfortable.
Also, the page count is much higher than necessary in order to tell the story. A lot of the narration was really superfluous.
December 23, 2023
What a complicated book. It is perhaps one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read, but the themes treated in it, and they way they are treated, certainly can make you uncomfortable. Yet, the outcomes and the overviews seem to be in line with what seems right…. It is just complex and philosophically “gray.” I give it 4 stars because there seems to be a slight romanticizing and even justifying of things that just shouldn’t be. Enticing read nonetheless.
April 17, 2018
Beautiful writing. Heavy stuff. Surprisingly optimistic.
February 9, 2023
I initially struggled with the highbrow prose, but once I pushed past that I discovered a superbly crafted, modern morality play.
August 14, 2025
I would prefer shorter version, without chapters with Louis and his constant babbling about opera.
But overall it was a good reading.
But overall it was a good reading.
January 5, 2010
This was a good read and perfect for a wintery weekend.
I am not a huge fan of rhythmic alternating point of view though it worked better in this novel than in most. I liked the fact that all four characters whose voices we heard were each queer though in vastly different ways.
The teacher character, Tracy had this whole gay-guy-in-love-with-coming-out-teens/adolescent boy trip. It's been done before, from Edmund White to Dennis Cooper and it speaks to some psychic wound on the part of many gay men. As I get older though, it gets more and more tired.
There's simply no debating the power dynamic at play and it's hard not to just be really judgmental about Tracy's bad decision. More interesting to me were Claire and her headmaster husband's lives and choices.
I wouldn't say that the theme of this novel was well defined in the end. But there was a lot to think about here and a lot of feeling and mood left behind to ponder.
I am not a huge fan of rhythmic alternating point of view though it worked better in this novel than in most. I liked the fact that all four characters whose voices we heard were each queer though in vastly different ways.
The teacher character, Tracy had this whole gay-guy-in-love-with-coming-out-teens/adolescent boy trip. It's been done before, from Edmund White to Dennis Cooper and it speaks to some psychic wound on the part of many gay men. As I get older though, it gets more and more tired.
There's simply no debating the power dynamic at play and it's hard not to just be really judgmental about Tracy's bad decision. More interesting to me were Claire and her headmaster husband's lives and choices.
I wouldn't say that the theme of this novel was well defined in the end. But there was a lot to think about here and a lot of feeling and mood left behind to ponder.
January 16, 2013
Written in the 90s when HIV was still a death sentence and it was still a status symbol to have an office high up in the World Trade Center, this is the story of Tracey Parker who takes his first teaching job in an expensive boarding school for difficult boys in New England, and quickly gets a little too close for comfort to one of his underage students. The narrative alternates between four characters: Tracey, Noah the student, the headmaster (closet) and his wife (possibly closet lesbian) and although I was mostly interested in Tracey and Noah I enjoyed having all four perspectives. It was frustrating to read about the headmaster and how completely repressed he was, especially the scene with Arthur which I found so painful. The ending was a little too sudden and distant for me but I'd still give it top rating.
November 29, 2012
Much more upbeat than I expected, this is a sensitive but not idealistic portrayal of a gay teacher-student relationship - a relationship that clearly breaks the law and moral boundaries too but shows that these things don't have to be as damaging as they often are.
The story focuses on two generations: the young teacher Tracy Parker (that's a man, weirdly for a British reader!) who falls in love with 15-year-old student Noah in the 1990s, and the 60-year-old headmaster who has turned his back on such relationships in the past in favour of a loving, compromising marriage where much remains unspoken.
I was a little afraid to read this book, expecting a lot of pain and angst, but it was actually fine and I appreciated all the different points of view. There is some graphic gay sex involving an under-age boy which could be an issue for some readers.
The story focuses on two generations: the young teacher Tracy Parker (that's a man, weirdly for a British reader!) who falls in love with 15-year-old student Noah in the 1990s, and the 60-year-old headmaster who has turned his back on such relationships in the past in favour of a loving, compromising marriage where much remains unspoken.
I was a little afraid to read this book, expecting a lot of pain and angst, but it was actually fine and I appreciated all the different points of view. There is some graphic gay sex involving an under-age boy which could be an issue for some readers.
May 17, 2011
I can honestly say…once was enough, and I shall not be reading this one again.
It’s in no way ‘bad’ it just wasn’t really my cup of tea. It’s written so that each chapter alternates between the four main characters. First chapter: first character, second chapter: second character, and so on and so forth.
My biggest problem with getting into this book was that I really didn’t connect with two of the main characters. They bored me! And I really didn’t like them. So every time I would come to their chapters, I’d mentally cringe. Those chapters forever dragged on for me. Not until the very end did I warm up to them.
All around the book was okay I guess. I’m just glad I finished it.
It’s in no way ‘bad’ it just wasn’t really my cup of tea. It’s written so that each chapter alternates between the four main characters. First chapter: first character, second chapter: second character, and so on and so forth.
My biggest problem with getting into this book was that I really didn’t connect with two of the main characters. They bored me! And I really didn’t like them. So every time I would come to their chapters, I’d mentally cringe. Those chapters forever dragged on for me. Not until the very end did I warm up to them.
All around the book was okay I guess. I’m just glad I finished it.
August 15, 2014
I really enjoyed this book. It is a story about sexula desire! Not desire for anyone in particular, but for an idea about the desired. It traces the path of what happens when the boundaries between the fantasies we weave around desire are fiixed to a person in a context that is less than acceptable to society and how the translation from fantasy to reality has consequences, for the two never match. It adresses in the particular context of a boys school this human drive to force the issue, to attempt to make reality fit the fantasy. There we have the spectrum of potential fallout laid before us. It is a fascinating study, and an interesting exploration of a stereotypical "gay" archetype.
July 7, 2013
Let's be honest here, I bought this book because there was a gay theme and I like that sort of thing, so I have a fairly high tolerance for other faults if there be gayness! This I found utterly dreadful though. I abandoned it and that has only happened to me a handful of times in my life. Life is far too short to be reading something like this. I hated all the characters, all of them. They were pretentious and vile and exceedingly morally dodgy; but this wasn't even tempered with superb readable writing. It was like the author had just thrown words on the page to show how clever he was. Every sentence was about ten words too long and it just felt supremely smug. I hated it.
March 17, 2009
A tale of prep-school seduction, in which a young male instructor is led into an affair with a 15-year-old boy student. But there are other sub-plots simmering here, too -- including the sexually repressed headmaster watching the affair develop and feeling a mixture of disgust and envy, and the headmaster's feminist wife who implausibly ends up as everyone's Best Pal as secrets get spilled. I had trouble feeling sympathy for the instructor but could imagine how he might feel tempted.
November 16, 2010
On the one hand, this novel leaves you constantly saying, no don't do it. But then also wanting these folks to find their own peace. They're all so troubled, (except maybe for Betsy and Claire.)
The real question is, was Noah better off or not because of his relationship with Tracy?
I'd have to say, yes.
Because it was not one founded on power, but instead, love.
And wasn't that the whole point Claire was trying to get across in her class...?
The real question is, was Noah better off or not because of his relationship with Tracy?
I'd have to say, yes.
Because it was not one founded on power, but instead, love.
And wasn't that the whole point Claire was trying to get across in her class...?
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