Scissors, Paper, Rock: A Novel - Hardcover

Fenton Johnson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671795414 ISBN 13: 9780671795412

Publisher: Pocket Books, 1993

Synopsis

Raphael Hardin, a young gay man, returns home to visit his dying father--who disapproves of his son's lifestyle but is unaware that his son may be dying as well--in an attempt to reconcile before it is too late.

About this title

About the Author:

Fenton Johnson is the author of award-winning fiction and literary nonfiction, including the novels Crossing the River and The Man Who Loved Birds, as well as Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey among Christian and Buddhist Monks and Geography of the Heart: A Memoir. He is associate professor of creative writing at the University of Arizona and teaches in the MFA program at Spalding University in Louisville.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A tender, haunting account of a rural southern family's demise as the parents sicken and die, the gay son contracts AIDS, and other siblings leave for greener urban pastures. Written in stories, each one dated, Johnson's second novel (Crossing the River, 1989) manages to be both intimate and panoramic. Raphael, 36, is the gay son of Tom and Rose Ella Hardin, but the point of view here moves easily from family member to family member--including sister Elizabeth, who near the end collects Raphael's ashes in 1990, and next-door neighbor Miss Camille Perkins, a fount of common wisdom. The story, set in the west Appalachian town of Strang Knob, begins with Tom working wood and musing on his wife's death and his own cancer, which is killing him: he ``has lost the will to ward off the voices and visions.'' Meanwhile, Raphael, the youngest of seven, muses at various places throughout about his long coming-out process, which turned him into ``a human being instead of a rock.'' Son Clark dies in 1970 in Vietnam in the chapter story ``All Fall Down.'' In ``Little Deaths,'' set in 1942, Tom in Rose Ella's presence saves a dog from drowning in a flooded river, thereby sealing the unbreakable bond between them. The book is especially strong in its exploration of the varieties of grief that accompany deaths and losses, though on occasion--as when Raphael in 1972 faces intimations of his sexual orientation in the person of self-described mechanic Willie-- Johnson also displays an antic streak. Thoughtful and poised: a careful family chronicle with a gay twist is brought to a poignant close with a haunting plea--``Who will remember me?'' -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0671795414
• ISBN 13: 9780671795412
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 226