From Kirkus Reviews: Oliver's first novel tells the story of a not-so-young man who has to come to grips with--take a guess--mortality, as it invades his life through his mother's fight with cancer and his own fear of AIDS. Pete Flowers is a rather staid Philadelphia florist whose homosexuality is the only thing that sets him apart from his prodigiously conventional Main Line family. (Actually, there's also his wardrobe: Pete likes to dress well, and we hear a lot about layering and color-coordination when he's on the scene.) Pete's dad runs a big company that none of the children wants to take over; Pete's mom has breast cancer and becomes incoherent now and then. His sisters and brothers and in-laws are into all kinds of stuff. Everyone makes a lot of money and enjoys good restaurants and talks about sex and how they really ought to have it more often….
This was another really engaging read – a ‘slowish’ start but definitely worth persevering on for. As a family drama which features a gay older male – this works well. A pity there was not more details regarding Pete’s ex-lover and the denouement of that relationship … but then again, I suppose this is not a romance novel. There can be parallels drawn between Pete’s mother’s valiant battle to struggle on living post-operations with his own coming to terms with living in a new reality which now contains the threat of AIDS. Any humour derived from the novel’s more sombre subject material is subtle but satisfying.
The dance Pete makes in trying to somehow integrate his gay identity and life into that of his conservative, emotionally reserved privileged family / background. I got really emotionally connected with Pete as he kept putting off and finally went for his AIDS test ... and then the ending when he has to go to get the results of that test ... I appreciate the open-ended future that Pete faces (health and romance-wise) and the author wisely doesn't neatly sew up every aspect of Pete’s storyline for us readers.
Jim Oliver has only written two other books – of which I also enjoyed Wings in the Snow.
Oliver's first novel tells the story of a not-so-young man who has to come to grips with--take a guess--mortality, as it invades his life through his mother's fight with cancer and his own fear of AIDS. Pete Flowers is a rather staid Philadelphia florist whose homosexuality is the only thing that sets him apart from his prodigiously conventional Main Line family. (Actually, there's also his wardrobe: Pete likes to dress well, and we hear a lot about layering and color-coordination when he's on the scene.) Pete's dad runs a big company that none of the children wants to take over; Pete's mom has breast cancer and becomes incoherent now and then. His sisters and brothers and in-laws are into all kinds of stuff. Everyone makes a lot of money and enjoys good restaurants and talks about sex and how they really ought to have it more often….
This was another really engaging read – a ‘slowish’ start but definitely worth persevering on for. As a family drama which features a gay older male – this works well. A pity there was not more details regarding Pete’s ex-lover and the denouement of that relationship … but then again, I suppose this is not a romance novel. There can be parallels drawn between Pete’s mother’s valiant battle to struggle on living post-operations with his own coming to terms with living in a new reality which now contains the threat of AIDS. Any humour derived from the novel’s more sombre subject material is subtle but satisfying.
The dance Pete makes in trying to somehow integrate his gay identity and life into that of his conservative, emotionally reserved privileged family / background. I got really emotionally connected with Pete as he kept putting off and finally went for his AIDS test ... and then the ending when he has to go to get the results of that test ... I appreciate the open-ended future that Pete faces (health and romance-wise) and the author wisely doesn't neatly sew up every aspect of Pete’s storyline for us readers.
Jim Oliver has only written two other books – of which I also enjoyed Wings in the Snow.