This Thing Called Love, (Whit & Eddie 7) by Frank W. Butterfield

[Ulysses]

This Thing Called Love (Romantical Adventures of Whit and Eddie, #7)
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2020
Five stars

Why do I love this series? Well, I really like the characters of Whit and Eddie, how different they are from each other, their deep, off-kilter love for each other. I also like that they are the heirs to Nick Williams and Carter Jones, who live on past their fictional lives into this contemporary series. Eddie and Whit represent different kinds of men, 21st-century dudes, guys who would be bros if they weren’t gay. They are complicated guys in a very contemporary way. Whit is young enough to be my kid; Eddie is old enough to be my little brother.

This seventh installment in the romantic married life of these two men, one young, one middle-aged (another nice detail), is richly plotted, incorporating the bizarre world of the pandemic, of right-wing white terrorism, and even of the power of social media in our everyday lives. This is a world where the mainstream “powers that be” (politics, law enforcement, religion) are no longer the enemy, as it was for Carter and Nick. Today, it is the extremes, the angry, struggling fringe, losing their grip on the culture wars and pissed as hell. Because of the events of 2020, we can all relate to that new, weirdly twisted kind of threat in our world. Just as J. Edgar Hoover focused on (harmless) Communists rather than on the real threat of organized crime, our blinkered conservative political leaders and their misinformed followers focus on imaginary monsters like Antifa rather than on the real, rising threat of white supremacy. Well, we all saw that on television, just as Eddie and Whit would in the weeks after this book takes place.

The underlying revelations of this slightly hair-raising plot—in which money helps, but can’t entirely shield Eddie and Whit from trouble—are based on emotional acceptance and honesty within relationships: between Whit and Eddie and their mothers, as well as between our two heroes themselves. No more dark corners. No more shame or secrets. There is a parallel to what happened in Nick and Carter’s life way back when in the Olden Days, but it is tuned to our times.

I held this book on my e-reader backlog for months, waiting for the right time to read it when I could really savor it. I’m glad I waited, but now I’m impatient for book 8. In the face of a long slow rise out of this pandemic, the Frank Butterfield Brand is my best friend.