By Bruce P. Spang, $16.99; Piscataqua Press; 448 pages
Bruce Spang begins his book pointedly in 1964a coming-of-age, journey story that occurs right in the midst of large scale socio-political upheaval in the U.S. and abroad. Spang frames the story as a classic hero's journey through the life of a closeted gay college student, Jason Follett.
Following the archetype of a hero's journey, Spang utilizes historical moments as the "initiation" and "return" to juxtapose Jason's personal struggles with his secret in addition to pleasing his domineering father, pledging for a fraternity and playing college football. All of these events lead to Jason's being drafted into the Vietnam War which serves as a moment in the book in which Jason is finally forced to decide between appeasing his parents and facing his identities.
Jason's character is initially confronted with high expectations of him in college, sports, and a fraternity following his brother's failed attempt at bringing the family honor. He later gets caught up in the anti-war and civil rights movement and through addressing war and racism, he is forced to face his own struggle around his identity. Chicago, as one of the settings, functions as a place for Jason to go to be exposed to the gay world.
Spang, burdening himself with the task of representing the vast political moments between 1964 and 1968 doubled with the layer ( word? ) of homosexuality, is able to do justice to these intervening tales and identities. Rocky in terms of flow at moments, Spang's honest portrayal of this historical moment, raw recantations, and strong storyline make this book a worthwhile read.
While the book particularly appeals to the Pre-Stonewall generation, Spang successfully writes a story that appeals to all generations and audiences through detailed depictions of the era and well developed characterizations.
Talking with Spang
"I didn't want it to be a gay bookI wanted it to be a journey book" said Spang.
On Oct. 16, Spang returned to his hometown of Glen Ellyn to give a book talk for Deception of the Thrush for homecoming weekend. He expressed his intentions for the book to address many different forms of evil, especially internalized evil within an era that portrayed evil as external, and coming to terms with one's own evil.
Spang estimated that about 80 percent of the book is based on his own life events that are exaggerated or slightly changed and then compacted into four years.
"So the novels are kind of telescoped" expressed Spang as he explained the process of crunching an entire era of history into four years.
Prior to writing this book, Spang was a teacher of English and poetry. Spang has multiple poetry publications and is the third Poet Laureate of Portland 2011-2013. He expressed that he had always loved to write and wanted to write a novel but knew that wouldn't pay the bills and so waited until now to write one.
"I've been journaling since I was a young kid, so when I started to write this book I would go back to the journals and literally type up what I'd written" said Spang. "Then the art was trying to get it into a book and make sense."
After going through his journals, making his life into a piece of fiction was the fun yet difficult part for Spang.
"It's all hereI've been writing a novel my whole life" said Spang.
Spang narrated some moments in his life that were mirrored in Jasonyet altered for the purpose of the story. For example, his "return" in the hero's journey, or his moment of reflection, didn't come until much later in life when his wife sat him down one evening to tell him she would leave him for another woman.
"Oh shit, I guess this is the moment I need to check out who I really am" said Spang.
Now Spang is recently married to his partner, Myles, and they have been together for 16 years.
"I was always at war with trying to live up to this image of who I should be versus who I actually was and fear that if I did come out those close to me would abandon me."
Spang pointed out the novel's timely aspect as a sports coming-of-age story during a time when football players are starting to come out. He references Michael Sam's coming out to highlight the stark difference in what Spang terms the "don't even think about it rule."
"In 1964, there wasn't even a 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' rule but a 'don't even think about it' rule for any football player," asserted Spang.
Spang also expressed the pertinence to gay youth now because although there are role models now, he expressed the continued difficultly around homosexuality in this hypermasculine arena.