Job's Year
2 journalers for this copy...
I first discovered Joseph Hansen's wonderful writing via his "Dave Brandstetter" series of mysteries about a gay insurance investigator. Since then I've found many other Hansen books, in a variety of genres. This one, which I hadn't heard about until I stumbled across a copy in the wonderful Avenue Victor Hugo used book store on Boston's Newbury Street, seems to be about a man who's going through considerable confusion about his own sexuality, at a time when he's also confronting the fact that he's approaching 60. Looking forward to reading this one.
Later: I read this some time in 2006, and then filed it in a box of to-be-reviewed books, from which it did not surface until February, 2010. I really do need to keep up with my reviews better! Anyway, this is a poignant, often painful account of a year in the life of a middle-aged man who's coping with the memories of loves lost, choices regretted, and decisions pending. The prose is more lyrical than in Hansen's "Brandstetter" books, and puts the reader into the main character's shoes... It's written in the second-person present tense for the current-day scenes ("He opens the door to his own room...") and uses the past tense to indicate reminiscences, a structure that took me a little bit to get used to but which I appreciated once I'd become familiar with it; it seemed to add a touch of immediacy ("He laughs bleakly at his young self...").
Not a cheerful book, and perhaps even more painful as I near the age of the main character {wry grin}, but worth reading.
Later: I read this some time in 2006, and then filed it in a box of to-be-reviewed books, from which it did not surface until February, 2010. I really do need to keep up with my reviews better! Anyway, this is a poignant, often painful account of a year in the life of a middle-aged man who's coping with the memories of loves lost, choices regretted, and decisions pending. The prose is more lyrical than in Hansen's "Brandstetter" books, and puts the reader into the main character's shoes... It's written in the second-person present tense for the current-day scenes ("He opens the door to his own room...") and uses the past tense to indicate reminiscences, a structure that took me a little bit to get used to but which I appreciated once I'd become familiar with it; it seemed to add a touch of immediacy ("He laughs bleakly at his young self...").
Not a cheerful book, and perhaps even more painful as I near the age of the main character {wry grin}, but worth reading.
This arrived home in my LGBT Bookbox. Thanks!
I think I already have a copy of this on Mt. To Be Read. I'll have to check.
I think I already have a copy of this on Mt. To Be Read. I'll have to check.
