About this title: Ford McKinney leads a charmed life: he's a young doctor possessing good looks, good breeding, and money. He comes from an old Savannah family where his parents, attentive to his future, focus their energies on finding their son--their golden boy--a girl to marry. But how charmed is this life when Ford's own heart suspects that he is not meant to spend his life with a woman? His suspicions are confirmed when he meets Dan Crell. Dan is a quiet man with a great voice. Behind the tempered facade of the shy hospital administrator is a singer who can transform a room with his soaring voice, ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Acceptable. Ships from the UK. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
Description: Fine. 156512250X SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. Near-Fine, First Edition. Member, Antiquarian Book Dealers Association of South Carolina. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Date Published: 1999-01-10
ISBN-13:9781565122505ISBN:156512250X
Description: New. Brand New Book. All books have barcode sticker on cover. Some other remains from price stickers may be on cover or inside cover. Purchased from out of business book store. read more
Edition: First edition. First Edition so stated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9781565122505ISBN:156512250X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 291 p. Audience: General/trade. EXCELLENT HARDCOVER with dark green/white illus. dust jacket. This book has a like-new appearance with a new brodart d.j. cover. Aqua endpapers and price uncut. Date on title page. read more
"this story is about a man bringing his significant other home to meet his family. he is worried because his family is poor while his boyfriend comes from a wealthy family, and also their relationship has been having some problems. this is a love story with real life problems."
"Dan Krell is an introverted hospital bureaucrat with a painful childhood past. Ford Mckinny is an attractive, successful doctor raised in an old-money, Eastern family. The two meet and form a somewhat shaky relationship, and before it achieves stability, the holidays roll around and they decide to go home as a couple. But the depth of their commitment is sorely tested when Ford's family cannot reconcile themselves to their son's sexuality, and Dan's long-kept family secrets are somewhat revealed. Will strife tear them apart or make their love stronger?
My impressions while reading the first hundred or so pages was, here we go again, another coming out story, that is, searching for love and acceptance, not only between the main romantic-interest characters, but also from friends and family. Admittedly there is much of that, but Comfort&Joy blossoms into a story of thoughtful beauty that explores the complexities of commitment and desire as two men journey towards love.
There were times with the prose seemed too detailed, tediously so. Yet that detail, I realized, transformed mundane situations into glittering moments filled with meaning.
Beautifully written as it is, I had two major complaints about the story. The first was that much of Dan Krell's past that was supposedly so painful, was hinted at but was really never exposed to my satisfaction, which left me sorely disappointed. He was the one character that I liked and wanted to understand, but either I didn't get it, or the story fell short.
The second problem I had was that Ford McKinny's back story was long and tedious, and a bit too cliché. Also, the fact that he was nearing or slightly beyond 30 years old and was afraid to come out to his parents, did not make him a sympathetic character in my eyes. It's a personal bias, but I've grown tired of gay men who are shown as being weaklings who are afraid to come out. I felt that anyone who had the strength and gumption to survive years of medical school and internship would have the nerve to face his parents and say "I'm gay, deal with it!" Had this story happened in the fifties or sixties, I could better understand, but not today.
That said, I still enjoyed the story and recommend it to anyone looking for a sensitive, passionate, and finely wrought love story. The prose is delightfully written, which added greatly to my enjoyment of a truly worthwhile read."
"This is a queer romance, set around Christmas, so I thought it would be the perfect holiday read for me. Um. Not so much. The tone is just so dour-I'm not sure there's a joke in the entire book. Neither Ford nor Dan particularly grabbed me. And Grimsley has this annoying tendency to write sentences. That stop. And devolve. Into fragments. Argh!
There are some nice atmospheric moments, but I never felt involved with the characters and was thus pretty bored."
"The dynamics between the two main characters is astoundingly realistic: they are both so real that their flaws are painful to the reader. They practically spring off the pages. Their relationship is truly astounding through Grimsley stark and clear prose."
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