What are the gay "stations of the cross"? If a "straight" coming-of-age novel tends to involve dating, followed by commitment, followed by the start of a family, then how does a gay writer work with "straight" conventions?
Thomas Grattan's "In Tongues" involves a young gay man who is lost in Minneapolis. His father runs a red light and almost commits (unintentional) homicide--and this leads to a rupture in the family. Dad slips away and finds Jesus--which means that he has an excuse to disown his son. Later, this son, Gordon, buys a train ticket to New York City, where the disaster of his twenties will unfold.
By chance, Gordon finds himself employed as a kind of domestic assistant to an older wealthy gay couple. (The two older men own a gallery.) Gordon acquires some helpful tips: how to dress, how to handle yourself in a European city. But there is a steep price. The older men are lecherous; one seduces Gordon, and the other encourages Gordon to "bed" a random waiter in the (acoustically ideal, centrally located) living room. While feeling used, Gordon begins to "use" the older men; he steals from them, and he stages loud parties, in secret, in the kitchen. It's increasingly clear that a fight will occur--and, because Gordon seems so real, and so lost, you can't help but feel for him. You hold your breath as the runaway train chugs along toward the skyscraper.
Literally everyone in this book is at least just a bit ambiguous and careless, which makes me think of actual life. It seems "unsexy" to write about morals, and character--but that's what Grattan is doing, in a subtle, compelling way. He looks carefully at apparently simple interactions. He seems to hear the music that is humming along underneath our mundane world--the music that most of us ignore.
I really liked this book.
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