Discussion time!

I rather enjoyed the story until I started thinking further about one of the plot points.  The plot point that bothered me was the 'noble gay guy dying of AIDS.'  To me, this is such a cliche.  People who die of a condition (as opposed to accidentally) are usually written as these noble, brave souls with all sorts of insight as they die.  They're there to teach us a life lesson.  And the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.  Especially because whenever a gay man needs to die in a story it is AIDS that takes him down.  I know it is all part of the plot device to set up the disapproving family member who thinks AIDS is G-d's punishment for being homosexual, but that too is becoming too much of a stereotype.  If the guy needed to die, there are plenty of other conditions he could've gotten that would allow a similar kind of slow fading death.  And perhaps there's more sensitivity for me on this subject now that I actually know people with HIV, but once I started thinking about it, it really bothered me.

Other than that, I thought the book was a quick read.  I could really relate to the black sheep of the family coming home kind of thing since I am that person in my family.  It really did make me think about my own family in that I sometimes wonder if my sister resents me the way Brad resented Joe for escaping and abandoning the family.  I didn't write a scathing tell all novel about them (yet) but she definitely bears the brunt of their parenting. 

I also found it interesting, and rather sad but true, that the big basketball players were kind of always the big basketball players, even years later.  But I was touched by their attendance of Wayne's funeral.  And I did not cry until the end of chapter 36.  (I think it was them all showing up for the funeral that did it.) 

What did you think? 

Comments

[Dana]

I enjoyed this book. I read almost all of it on the plane, and love how Joe was a self-aware ass who wasn't a complete ass, if that makes sense. No one was a total good guy or a total bad guy, and there were moments of redemption and forgiveness without it turning into Velveeta. I teared up at Wayne's funeral and when he ashes exploded into the sky. And I liked that Joe was so much of a schmuck that he was miserable when life was good, because I totally understood where he was coming from.

I do agree that the "noble, insightful gay man dying of AIDS" is a total cliche.

[mtlm]

The other gay guy killed himself so it wasn't the only gay death but I think they were both crucial to the story line.

I'm glad that someone else picked up on the angry Christian stereotype. This seemed linked to the storyline as well. The writer doesn't seem to have much hope in there. It was kind of depressing.

Actually it seemed like there were a lot of stereotypes now that I think about it. Some characters were more developed but otherwise they were pretty shallow and uninteresting.