by Derrick Knight $6.99; 312 pages
First-time novelist Derrick Knight wants us to believe in a gentler world where gay couples are surrounded by loving parents and friends, and mean folk get their deserved comeuppances. Who can't cheer for that?
He may have bitten off more than he can chew. He takes on many weighty topicsgay adoption, homophobia, and AIDS. His device is four gay couples living in small-town Glasburg, Illinoisthe kind of place where everybody knows you. All these men know and support each other. Each couple wrestles with one or more of the issues mentioned.
It is a valiant effort but Knight's inexperience shows through and overshadows the stories he puts before the reader.
John bumps into Dwyer, many years after their puppy love blossomed and then went astray in high school due to an unfaithful action by John. Will they get together again?
Mark, who has AIDS, is receiving mysterious, creepy calls and messages. Both he and his partner Erik teach at Gale College. David is a promising artist who is putting together a show at a local art gallery. His work consists of drawings and paintings of himself and his partner Lance in erotic poses.
John and Dwyer are the couple on whom the main story hinges. But the couple who has my heart are Dustin and Nathaniel. Intent as they are on adopting a child, the road to parenthood is off to a rough start.
I wish the author had dug deeper to reveal the inner worlds of his characters. As this book appears to be the first of many in what Knight calls the Innkeepers Series, one hopes he will share more of the psyches of the characters he has introduced us to as the series progresses. They are good people and we would like to know more about them.
Unfortunately, Knight often gets in his own way. The story structure is plodding. His writing style is often awkward and unimaginative and peppered with grammatical errors, perhaps the fault of his copy editor. The people and world he has created deserve better.
Knight is co-author with John Turpin of The Magnificent Seven, a look at London's seven Victorian cemeteries.