"Disappear With Me," by L. Dean Pace-Frech

[Ulysses]

Disappear With Me

By L. Dean Pace-Frech

4 stars

It struck me while reading “Disappear With Me” that it is essentially a gay Book of Job. Set in the decades on either side of 1900, it is the chronicle of a young Anglican priest coming to grips with his homosexuality, by living his life with integrity—and by reading the Bible.

Yes, you read that right. This book is full of biblical passages, including some of my very favorite, and they’re peppered all through the narrative, even repeated in some cases. It is not the first book with a gay theme I’ve ever read that used Bible citations; but it’s the first one I can ever recall that used them so professionally. I’ll only paraphrase one passage from Corinthians that is my personal favorite, and, to be honest, the motto of my life.

In the end, faith hope and love survive; and of these, the greatest is love.

Ultimately, this is the message of this book. It is not a romance, or at least not in the conventional sense of the genre. It is a story filled with heartbreak, tragedy, and every sort of undeserved sorrow that can be heaped upon a gay man’s head. But “Disappear With Me” is also filled with faith, hope and love. It is about the quest for happiness, and the novel belief that we, as children of God, deserve happiness.

As it happens, I am a fairly devout Episcopalian, which is the American version of the Church of England. If you have turned away from organized religion, or simply don’t know anything about the Church of England you might find this book heavy sledding.

Or you just might find it inspirational.

There are four gay men who are part of Leander Norris’s journey from orphan to priest. Raphael Melvin, Charles Greene, Emil Strong and Basil Shocking. Although the last two sound like characters from Dickens, out of this group only Emil Strong even approaches Leander’s character for goodness. Leander Norris, is the most Christian, the most forgiving, the man most confident of God’s love that I have ever encountered in the pages of a book. He’d be annoying if I didn’t love him so much. One of the key points in this book is that almost everybody else, particularly those who are especially fervent in their Christianity, falls far below the standard set by Father Leander. And yet he does not judge them.
I kept wanting to shake him and scream: “For God’s sake, BREAK SOMETHING. HIT SOMEONE.” But no.

I have completely forgotten how this book was recommended to me, but I’m glad I read it. I can’t say I was entirely satisfied, but I truly admire L. Dean Pace-Frech for writing it with such obvious care and thoughtfulness.

I will add one fairly strong quibble: there is far too much incorrect grammar scattered through the book. Pace-Frech needs another set of eyes to edit, because no book written by a Brit in the early 1900s would ever have appeared with these kinds of grammatical errors. It is jarring enough to nearly spoil the nicely authentic atmosphere and setting that Pace-Frech creates.

Pace-Frech has promised a sequel, to carry on Leander Norris’s story, and I do feel that, having been more faithful to Leander than most of his supposed friends, I deserve it.

I will be waiting in my study. With the bishop.

[PaperMoon]

This does sound good Ulysses - thanks for the reccie.

[PaperMoon]

I quite enjoyed the characters and the pacing wasn't too sedate Uly. There were definitely moments when I did want to scream - don't just lie there and take this - either fight or run away! And I feel very ambiguous about how the book ended - too open for interpretation for my liking.