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NB: Includes Spoilers…
This novel sets the stories of Daniel and his late namesake Uncle side by side, separated in time yet finding themselves walking different paths. The tales of unfolding understandings of sexuality come to us piece by piece, which feels very authentic to the ways we learn to understand our own sexualities.
The younger Daniel is a student, paired with room mate Sam, they become friends and then even lovers, a blissful first year at University that takes a turn when Sam’s fledgling awareness of his sexuality takes a step back.
An email breaks the news to Daniel that Sam is ending their relationship, ending even their friendship.
A phone call breaks the news to Sam has died in an accident.
Heartbroken Daniel travels to Mexico to spend the summer with family their. During this time he learns move about the Uncle whose name he carries, including eventually that elder Daniel was also Gay.
In Mexico younger Daniel has a fling, but the grief for Sam prevents him being open to it being move, and when he communicates this the response is toxic and coercive.
There are moments when it can feel that this is heavy with the baggage of so many “bury your gays” plots – elder Daniel and Sam both dying young. That would be to miss the point, and the beauty, of this all – love and self-discovery are not always easy, but they are always essential.
I read this on the flight back from REG Conference in Bermuda – there is something intense and claustrophobic that feels suited to encountering this in a single session. Although there is a passage of time, and narratives occurring in different times, younger Daniel’s narration of it all his intense recollection of it.
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