Synopsis
Allen Pasztory, the hearing son of two deaf parents, struggles for a sense of self and family with a view to his Hungarian immigrant heritage, chronic illness, his lover Jeremy, Jeremy's son Toby, and his own nephew, Kit
Reviews
The title of Jeffers's first novel underscores the fragile attempt of its protagonist, Allen Pasztory, a gay admissions officer at a Rhode Island prep school, to make a home for himself, his lover, Jeremy Kent, Allen's nephew and Jeremy's son. A hearing child of deaf parents, Allen enjoyed comfort and seclusion in his early family life, an experience that he tries to re-establish in the new family he is creating. His family's history is related somewhat self-consciously: "These are stories my father never told me," begins the chapter on his Hungarian immigrant parents' experiences at a repressive school for the deaf. Tracking the development of Allen's family and the one he's trying to establish with Jeremy and the two boys, Jeffers draws parallels between deafness and homosexuality but fails to forge a convincing link. Despite his perceptive prose, Jeffers skirts his characters' hopes and the paradoxes of their lives rather than risking a fuller exploration of the tenuous safety that they find in love.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Trying to reconcile the contradictory realities of a family, narrator Allen Pasztory, recently ill, tells the stories of those important to him. He thinks first of his father and mother. Hungarian immigrants, they struggled to exist in a world that tried to deny them their own language. Much of Allen's thoughts also concern Jeremy, his lover, and Jeremy's son, Toby. Their family unit is completed by Kit, Allen's nephew. In recounting these many stories, Allen also reveals much about the difficulties in his life, including the acceptance of his own homosexuality. The novel is rich in language and detail, and it suggests that the many seemingly disparate parts can indeed make a familial whole. Brian McCombie
First novelist Jeffers controls his language to such a degree that background details-flowers, tastes, and scents-accent every scene of this domestic drama. This is a Bildungsroman with a terrible twist: the narrator is dying of AIDS. Allen Pasztory, son of deaf, Hungarian immigrant parents (who are hence twice removed from discourse in the United States), grows up in the ethnicity of the nonhearing. His long-term relationship with artist and illustrator Jeremy Kent involves Jeremy's beloved son, Toby; the extended family of Toby's mother and her lover, Candace; Allen's nephew; and a host of familial irritation, though nothing serious enough to make any of the characters completely reject someone related. Allen's and Jeremy's devotion to each other is the linchpin of this tangled world; by the middle of the story, the bleak landscape of AIDS surrounds them and then envelops Allen, whose own illness progresses until he nears the end. Nothing exciting happens in this book, but Jeffers is first-rate in his ability to portray nurturing growth amid looming tragedy and to engage the reader's interest in each character. Recommended for most collections.
Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
