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October 16, 2012

Comments

Matt Mikalatos

Hmm. I've been curious about this book. Mostly, I wondered if the author dealt with the whole "lying to the LGBT community for a year" aspect of it, and whether that ultimately felt like a caring action from their point of view. Was that addressed at all?

Greg Horton

Matt, yes, he does, at length. He takes the fake boyfriend to minimize romantic damage to others, and then he is very straightforward about his fears about hurting the ones he lies to. Some are upset when he comes clean, but most believe he did the right thing and are forgiving. It would be hard to be mad at someone for long who had tried his best to understand your pain, I suppose.

Leighton

I hadn't heard of this book until you posted about this on FB a little while back (pre-review I think), but I had the same question Matt did. Tragic that a culture could be so insular that the only way to connect deeply with those outside it is to lie.

Phil

RE: Beer comment. I wrote this in a review of Marcus Borg's stab at fiction (Putting Away Childish Things, 2010): One does not "order a Guinness" and then "take another sip of their Guinness" and then "take a long draw of Guinness." It's beer. Call it a beer, damn it! Incidentally, if you want to make yourself sound interesting, at least have the decency to pick a better beer. Something local for godsakes. Ironically, most liberal folks know this already."

Borg's fiction writing is painful.

Leslie

Much of my youth was spent drinking and dancing in gay bars. The music was better and I got to lead when the two-steps were good. I swear, though, in all that time, I don't believe I ever, ever saw anyone (assuming that the drinkers are either gay or are at ease with the gay bar culture) order a Guinness in a gay bar. Not done. Well, East Coast Not Done. Can't speak for the world, but I would hazard that eyebrows were raised right there.
I would love to have seen that bartender's face.
And by all means, just call the damn stuff "beer." Sheesh.

Leighton

So I just reread your post and am curious about this part:

The sections where he deals with his mother are genuinely moving, especially when he reads her journal and discovers what she's not saying aloud.

Did she give him permission to read her journal, either directly or by some obscure method like "accidentally" leaving it open on his desk?

Greg Horton

Leighton, he called it snooping. I honestly can't remember if it was in the book or just in the promo/interview material I had to read too.

Leighton

Thanks. That seems like a really shady and manipulative thing to do. I'm starting to like this project less and less.

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