If you’re like me and enjoys character driven plots with loads of family relationship issues ... then this book may well appeal. For those who are looking for a light poolside-read with a humorous storyline, filled witty bon-mots, sprinkled with romance and some M-on-M erotica – this is not for you. Aside from the fact that Pip (shades of Great Expectations!) is gay and has a lover, the focus of the book is more on his very strained relationship with his dying father, and whilst Pip attempts to provide care to a cantankerous and unpleasant man who clearly resents him even being there – we uncover the background behind the filial estrangement, Pip’s grief over losing his mother much earlier in life and his own love-hate relationship with a sister who is clearly more successful in life than he.
I found the exploration of Pip’s relations with his mother and sister very satisfying – the encounters with his dying, just-found-oldtime-religion father quite harrowing and painful (I kept yelling him to leave the old fella to die in his vitriol). Much more could have been done with the side-plot dealing with Pip’s ‘missing’ lover Callum – but I suppose that might have been adding too much pathos and crisis into an already turbulent mix. Not every thread is neatly tied-off at a to-be-expected terminal ending but I found it to be a hopeful vista facing Pip post life-after-dad.
Overall a good treatise on a son (who happens to be gay) dealing with grief, loss, letting go and accepting what cannot be regained.
I found the exploration of Pip’s relations with his mother and sister very satisfying – the encounters with his dying, just-found-oldtime-religion father quite harrowing and painful (I kept yelling him to leave the old fella to die in his vitriol). Much more could have been done with the side-plot dealing with Pip’s ‘missing’ lover Callum – but I suppose that might have been adding too much pathos and crisis into an already turbulent mix. Not every thread is neatly tied-off at a to-be-expected terminal ending but I found it to be a hopeful vista facing Pip post life-after-dad.
Overall a good treatise on a son (who happens to be gay) dealing with grief, loss, letting go and accepting what cannot be regained.