Second Son. This item is unavailable.Second Son

In a family torn apart by a mother's death and lifelong tensions between the four siblings, the devastating illness of one of the children forces each family member to search for hope and the meaning of love

A love story of two gay men dying of AIDS provides moments of exceptional power in the fourth novel by the author of The Family of Max Desir. On what they each know will be their last trip abroad after a terminal diagnosis, Mark and Bill meet in a Chernobyl-clouded Rome through the machinations of a mutual friend, Matthew, who is seen only through the letters he writes from his Florida home. The pair return to the U.S., where Mark must confront the impact of his illness on his father and siblings; the fact of his affliction becomes "something manifest on its own . . . an evil thing set loose" on his already divided family. If the climactic explosion of these tensions lacks the force and immediacy of the central love story, it's because the various players in the family drama are presented to the reader at the outset with their respective roles explicitly inscribed in their characterizations, while the loversand their touching alliancedevelop before our eyes. The union of these two creative people traces memorable images of vitality combating the absurdity of their lot: landscape gardener Mark envisions the terraces he cultivated flowering across Rome for years after his death; lighting designer Bill engineers an electric transformation of a private expanse of forest and lake. The novel ends on two ambiguous notesthe pair's experimental drug treatment may be a cure, and Matthew may have found salvation in the starsa dramatic reminder that, in the face of the fatal definitude of AIDS, it is only in the realm of ambiguity that the possibility of hope resides.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mark Valerian, second son of a wealthy manufacturer, is different from his brother and two sistershe's gay, he's artistic, and now he has AIDS. The beautiful Cape May beach house bequeathed by their mother to all her children is Mark's solace in his illness, but it is also the family's major asset when the family business suffers setbacks. There is dissension about the house, just as there is uncertainty also about how to treat Mark. Ferro ( The Family of Max Desir) here dilutes his theme with fanciful correspondence between Mark and friend Matthew and talk of a gay colonization of the star Sirius. The Valerians are a well-drawn family; more of their dealing with AIDS might have made a stronger book. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.