Tell the Wolves I'm Home
question
So Did Finn Give Toby AIDS?
L. G.
Oct 13, 2013 08:11PM
"'You...you don't mean Finn was your first love ever. You don't mean real first, right?' I turned away, embarrassed to be asking. But I needed to know.
"He didn't say anything for a long time. I sat there listening to his wheezy breathing, thinking it was probably wrong to ask a question like that. That maybe sometimes what's private should stay private...[Toby] spoke in a small thin voice.
"'Finn never knew. It's just between you and me now, right? It doesn't matter. It's nobody's fault.'"
This passage confused me a little. It has overtones as though they are not speaking about literal first love, but that Finn was the first person Toby had sex with, thus establishing that Finn gave Toby AIDS, not the other way around. Did anyone else understand what Brunt was attempting to say here?
"He didn't say anything for a long time. I sat there listening to his wheezy breathing, thinking it was probably wrong to ask a question like that. That maybe sometimes what's private should stay private...[Toby] spoke in a small thin voice.
"'Finn never knew. It's just between you and me now, right? It doesn't matter. It's nobody's fault.'"
This passage confused me a little. It has overtones as though they are not speaking about literal first love, but that Finn was the first person Toby had sex with, thus establishing that Finn gave Toby AIDS, not the other way around. Did anyone else understand what Brunt was attempting to say here?
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I though it was pretty clear that Finn was Toby's first (and only) sexual relationship, therefore the AIDS came from Finn. To me, this served to emphasis the unfair assessment made by Finn's sister and the unfairness her treatment of Toby treatment that resulted from it. Sharon
I interpreted this as meaning that Toby had never loved or been intimate with anyone before Finn. And apparently Finn never knew this because he never asked Toby about it. Or maybe he did ask Toby later when Finn first became sick, and Toby might have lied about not having prior lovers in order to spare Finn some grief in knowing he'd been the one to acquire and transmit AIDS. He let Finn believe that it could have been transmitted by either of them.
Wow. Never even picked this up. What an idiot I am. Great catch.
deleted member
Oct 24, 2013 11:40AM
0 votes
I read it and felt it meant that yes, Finn passed the HIV virus on to Toby, not as the other characters in the book understood it, the other way around. The main characters mother sees Toby as the causing Finn's destruction, both by making him love him and then by passing on the virus. Toby kept it a secret from Finn in order to save his love the guilt of knowing for definite which of them had caught it first. I found the whole book incredibly moving and sobbed at this part.
I loved this part as well. I too understood it to mean that Finn was Toby's first love and first lover, meaning that Finn was the one who gave AIDS to the other. I loved Toby throughout the book, but that part broke my heart. He did so much for Finn.
It was kinda hinted at that no he didn't, but it was never revealed.
I also interpreted that part as Finn having passed the disease to Toby. So sad, and really a beautiful book. I was a kid in the 80's when AIDS became widely known and well remember Ryan White and learning that Magic Johnson had it.
I also believe that the author meant to indicate that Finn passed HIV to Toby. I believe this was to counterbalance the fact that Finn's sister believed that Toby was the one who gave HIV to Toby.
I don't think that was ever established. Maybe Finn gave it to Toby ...
I love this book though.
I love this book though.
It was when I just thougt that "yeah... we have prejudices." But... but the other side that we do not catch, there is a lover who doesn't wanna hurt his sick lover by telling him that he got the disease from him. Toby... is just... oh, dear Lord! What could I say more? LOVE IS LOVE and do not ruin people's life by insisting on having prejudices. Ms. Brunt is an amazing writer. I adore this book <3
I'm glad I found this question/discussion. I noticed this part in the book and was 'on the fence' about whether it meant that Finn gave Toby AIDS, leaning more towards 'yes'.
L. G. wrote: ""'You...you don't mean Finn was your first love ever. You don't mean real first, right?' I turned away, embarrassed to be asking. But I needed to know.
"He didn't say anything for a long time. ..."
Yes, I thought that also. Toby was humble/accepting about it and 'matter of fact', not blaming at all, but willing to accept any misplaced blame by Finn's family.
"He didn't say anything for a long time. ..."
Yes, I thought that also. Toby was humble/accepting about it and 'matter of fact', not blaming at all, but willing to accept any misplaced blame by Finn's family.
Yes, so glad to find this thread. It felt very clear to me today.
I assumed Finn had AIDS first because he was the first to die from it, and agree with others this made the feelings of Finn's family toward Toby all the more unfair. But as this was during the confusing early days of the AIDS epidemic with little real knowledge about it I assumed Finn did not know he had it when he passed it to Toby. I found it to be a well written, touching, thought-provoking, but very sad story.
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