Drapetomania: Or, The Narrative of Cyrus Tyler & Abednego Tyler, lovers by John R. Gordon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


4.9 Stars

Why not 5 stars? See the last paragraph.

This was without a doubt one of the most emotional and moving books I have read in a long, long time. John Gordon’s writing is stunningly beautiful, intimate, and powerful. The story is dramatic, sensitive, almost unbearably cold in its realistic descriptions of human misery, and yet it is also uplifting and hopeful.

If you can get past the first few pages and prepare yourself emotionally for what’s to come in the next 500, you will be rewarded with writing that is, quite simply, superb. Whether it’s a description of abject poverty, hunger, and inequality among men; or the magnificent colors and obstacles in nature; or the feelings of pain a person probably experiences at the doorstep of death either through freezing, hunger, overwork, or inflicted pain; or even the intimate love between Cyrus and Abednego, you will feel like you are there, having those experiences.

The author’s descriptions of cruelty, terror, and inhumanity inflicted upon slaves by their owners and overseers are excruciating to read. I can’t imagine putting those words on paper because I would feel like I was personally committing those crimes, and twice, when I could tell what was going to happen in the upcoming scene, I had to jump to the next paragraph. It was just too much for me.

Yet I couldn’t put this book down. The pace of the story is very fast, and close calls kept my heart thumping. Gordon is a master wordsmith. At times a single paragraph takes up a full page but it’s never daunting. Gordon uses erudite, seldom-used words such as architraves, chiaroscuro, chthonic, coffle, despoliation, desuetude, encomium, gnomon, incarnadine, manumission, ormolu, scotopic, and susurrus, which when juxtaposed against the basics of survival add to the beauty and drama occurring on the page.

This is one hell of a story, and I loved it! Here’s my single complaint. The book could have used another proofread before it was published. I found a few mistakes such as a zero used for an oh letter in one place; at least one instance of run-in words; and too many uses of further and brake when the words farther and break, respectively, were meant. Words are currently styled for a British audience (amidst, amongst, afterwards, backwards, cauterised, crystalised, southwards, towards), whereas American readers are more accustomed to amid, among, afterward, backward, cauterized, crystalized, southward, toward, and the like. But my pet peeve was the constant, unnecessary hyphenation of adverbial phrases (brightly-lit, gaily-painted), which after a while became like a bad tic in writing. If the book had gone through another proofread to catch some of those errors, I would have given it 5 stars. I’m a picky reader, but still, this book is a smashing success!



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The Handyman’s History by Nick Poff

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


3.5 Stars
I read Nick Poff’s first three books in the Handyman’s series, but that was quite a few years ago. When I started reading The Handyman’s History I realized I had forgotten who these characters were, so I stopped halfway through and went back to re-read the first book, The Handyman’s Dream, so I could re-familiarize myself with Ed Stephens and his handsome husband, Rick Benton.

Nick Poff is a good writer. The story moves along nicely. It’s set primarily in 1985, with occasional flashbacks to the mid and late 1970s when Ed was coming to terms with his sexuality and trying to understand and accept who he was. I love that in the intervening years Ed and Rick have carved out good, happy lives for themselves in a small Indiana town where many people would not have been open to accepting people who are different, especially gay men, when nearly everyone in the world was scared thinking they would catch HIV just by touching a homosexual. If I hadn’t moved away from my small town I would never have met my fabulous husband, a man I’ve now known and been in love with for 35 years. Still, it made me wonder what my life would have been like in a quiet town had I stayed put.

An interesting difference between the first and last books in the series is Poff’s language. As I re-read Poff’s first book, I think the only profanity might have been an occasional “damn,” but the fourth book is much more adult, with quite a few swear words. It didn’t turn me off, but I found it interesting to see how Poff’s writing style had changed. It’s bolder, stronger, and better. If you lived through the 1970s and 1980s, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the number of references to popular music and TV shows that may bring you happy memories.

Too many fictional stories about gay men start and end with a single romance, and that’s the end of the story: a young man meets another man, they do the dance of “is he or isn’t he”, and when they eventually fall in love, the story ends. Nick Poff’s Handyman series takes a similar story and stretches it well into the years beyond the lovers’ first meeting. I’ve always wanted an author to tell me what happened to his or her characters rather than just leave me wondering whether their love lasts, and Poff does this well.

Ed Stephens and Rick Benton are nothing but likeable. Ed’s mother is loving but obnoxious. The other characters are mostly supportive of Ed and Rick, although the occasional bully and mean broad show up, which underscores the reality that gay men faced in the 1980s.

Thank you, Nick Poff. I really liked this book.



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