"Your mother packed you some clothes; she also included the cash you had hidden in your underwear drawer. We assumed it was money you earned from cutting yards, or whatever else you did." Richard spat at him, every word an insult now as he reached down and unlocked the doors.
"But dad..."
"Don't call me that ever again you...you are No Son of Mine!" Richard exploded, grabbing Brandon by the collar of his Oklahoma Sooners t-shirt. Feeling his fury about to burst, Richard let go of the abomination's shirt collar and quickly reached down and pushed open the passenger door. Leaning back from him, Richard warned, "We never want to hear from you again. You are eighteen and are on your own!"
With that Brandon felt his father shoving him out of the truck, causing Brandon to literally fall into the gutter. Brandon landed on his butt in front of a small group of passengers standing outside the bus terminal smoking. The group stood by and watched what was happening silently. Jumping up quickly; Brandon wiped his eyes with his hands just as his backpack landed at his feet. Looking back at the man sitting in the red truck, Brandon felt totally lost.
Eighteen year old Brandon was surprised to see his father, who normally would be at work all day, waiting when he got out of school to give him a ride. But he soon learned the reason why: his father had discovered that Brandon was visiting gay websites on his computer. In tears, Brandon admitted he thought he might be gay, and was shocked when his father abruptly dropped him off at the local Greyhound bus station with a suitcase that had been packed for him, and told him he never wanted to see him again.
After being robbed and beaten on a layover in Houston, Brandon eventually made it to New Orleans, where he spent two nights sleeping in pubic, bathing in a fountain, chickening out at the idea of turning tricks for money to survive, and considering suicide. He was surprised to hear a voice he had heard once before, when he had been rebuffed for staring at a good-looking young guy at a sidewalk cafe. Preston, 20 and a premed student at Tulane, had been getting over a bad breakup, and later felt guilty at having responding that way to Brandon, and followed him when he saw him days later. Finding out Brandon has no place to stay, Preston offered to let him stay, no strings attached, at the apartment over his parents' garage, while they were out of town. As the two boys got to know each other, true love bloomed, and they were looking forward to a perfect future together. Unfortunately, at that time, a storm to be called Katrina was heading for New Orleans, and it would offer them significant challenges.
I *really* wanted to like this book, since it had - what I consider to be - an important message: the plight of "throwaway" gay teens from homophobic parents. And I had read, and enjoyed, Backer's previous novel, "The Preacher's Son." Unfortunately, this book doesn't measure up to that. Despite having some relatable characters, the dialogue between the boys (which makes up most of the book) is unrealistically stilted,trite and clichéd. Overall, the novel drags on way too long (over 400 pages) and seemed even longer. Last, but not least, in a novel likely to be of interest to gay teens, I find his characters obvious preference for sex without condoms to be very irresponsible. Sorry, but two stars out of four is best I can do on this one.
Author disappoints with new novel.
