Full Circle - Softcover

Ford, Michael Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0758210582 ISBN 13: 9780758210586

Publisher: Kensington Trade, 2007

Synopsis

History professor Ned Brummel is living happily with his partner of twelve years in small-town Maine when he receives a phone call from his estranged friend -Jack-telling him that another friend -Andy-is very ill and possibly near death. As Ned boards a plane to Chicago on his way to his friend's bedside, he embarks on another journey into memory, examining the major events and small moments that have shaped his world and his relationships with these two very different, very important men. Growing up together through the restrictive 1950's and confusing '60's, Jackson "Jack" Grace and Ned Brummel took solace in their love for each other. But once they arrive at college in 1969 and meet handsome farm boy Andy Kowalski, everything changes. Despite Andy's apparent heterosexuality, both Jack and Ned fall hard for him, straining their close friendship. Soon, the three men will become involved in a series of intense liaisons and bitter betrayals, coming together and flying apart, as they alternately hurt, love, shape, and heal one another over the course of years. From the heady, drug- and sex-fueled days of San Francisco in the wild seventies to the haunting spectre of AIDS in the eighties and the righteous activism of the nineties, their relationship transforms and grows, reflecting the changes going on around them. Now, together again in the most crucial and intimate of settings, Ned, Jack, and Andy have another chance to confront the damage of the past and embrace the bonds of friendship and love that have stood the test of time. "Impactful . . . real . . . Ford's beautiful story makes it all seem possible and believable . . . these are rich characters, heartfelt descriptions and real-life happenings that resonate . . . allow yourself to get lost in this story" -The Lambda Book Report

About this title

About the Author

Michael Thomas Ford is the author of numerous books, most notably the “Trials from My Queer Life” series of essay collections—Alec Baldwin Doesn’t Love Me, That’s Mr. Faggot to You, It’s Not Mean If It’s True, The Little Book of Neuroses, and My Big Fat Queer Life. He lives in San Francisco with his partner and a very large black Lab.

From Publishers Weekly

Following his two previous engaging gay romances (Last Summer and Looking for It), Lambda Award-winner Ford brings loquacious elan to a novel with more heft. This tale of adolescent lust, unrequited love, fumbled friendship and domestic contentment arcs across five decades: Ned Brummel and Jack Grace, best friends since their 1950s boyhoods, have been estranged for years when the imminent death (heart attack, not AIDS) of Andy Kowalski, the charismatic cad they both fell for during college, draws them back together. The trio's lives, recounted in lengthy flashbacks, intertwine somewhat melodramatically through the years: Ned and Andy serve together in Vietnam in the '60s, Ned shares a Castro-neighborhood apartment with Jack and Andy in the sex-drenched '70s, and all three meet again in New York as AIDS ravages the gay community through the '80s-before an accretion of heartbreak and bitterness drive them apart. The characters' many brushes with homosexual history-Harvey Milk trolling for votes in gay bars, the unfurling of the first Rainbow Flag, the sexual energy of early ACT UP meetings-will resonate with gay readers.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Kensington Trade
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0758210582
• ISBN 13: 9780758210586
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448