Into the Gray, by F.E. Feeley Jr.

[Ulysses]

Into the Gray
By F.E. Feeley Jr
Published by the author, 2019
Four stars

This tender, hopeful short novel is something of a departure for F.E. Feeley Jr. It follows the lines of a classic gay romance, exploring characters and offering a loving study of a new relationship born of misfortune and unhappiness. Feeley writes from his heart, from his understanding of the world as it is. That matters.

Aaron Roberts and David Collins are both lost, adrift in lives that no longer fully make sense. Aaron, a veteran and college student, has come back to the Midwest to escape ugliness and confusion as he faces an uncertain future. He takes a job as a janitor in a grand old office tower in Detroit. David is the founding partner of his own law firm, holed up in his office late one night, having left a marriage that, after ten years, he realized was a sham. David catches Aaron singing as he works, and they end up in a karaoke bar.


As each of these men faces the gray uncertainty of an unseen future, Feeley brings on a snowstorm as a physical and metaphorical backdrop that forces these two strangers to look at each other and think about who they are and what they want out of life. Physical intimacy is inevitable in this romantic genre, but Feeley gives his broken heroes an innocence, a hesitation, that belies the urgency they both feel. Is David simply a hook-up designed to sooth a hurting heart? Is Aaron just an adventure intended to welcome a new beginning?

“Into the Gray” is a book written to conform to expectations, but it is written from a place of personal understanding and awareness that makes it thrum with a vivid truth. The ending is hopeful but inconclusive, which is appropriate and realistic.

I hear that Feeley is planning a sequel. I’ll be there.