By That Sin Fell The Angels

By That Sin Fell The Angles

by Jamie Fessenden

           Paperback: 210 pages

            Publisher: Itineris Press (August 29, 2012)

            Language: English

            ISBN-10: 1613726996

              ISBN-13: 978-1613726990

This was an unusual book for me. Not because the topics of gay teens coming (or not coming), to terms with their sexuality, or self-loathing, or religious self-righteous bigotry, or mass hysteria and false labeling of gays as sexual predators, or teen suicide. All of these have been explored and dissected elsewhere in non-fiction and fiction. What struck me from the beginning was the sense of balance, the yin-yang, Jamie Fessenden strikes in By That Sin Fell The Angels.

The setting is a small New England town. The kind represented in movies where the lens is softly focused and where everyone knows everyone—smiles all around you.

The story begins with Daniel, the only son of Isaac, a Christian fundamentalist preacher, committing suicide in a way that is startling, and dramatic.

Schooled from boyhood in the Bible by his father, Daniel is devoutly Christian, and gay. From this dynamic flow two powerful, and seemingly irreconcilable forces. Forces that Daniel could not resist, so he ended them by killing himself in the very sanctuary of his church.

The chief theme in this story is Isaac the preacher coming to terms with his God, and his understanding of that God. Yet there’s lots going on in By That Sin Fell The Angels, however, Jamie Fessenden focuses not on the infectious bigotry pastor Isaac himself spreads among his flock, nor the triumph of the town’s acceptance of a gay teacher, but rather pastor Isaac’s wrenching journey of a soul in distress toward understanding that we are all fearfully and wonderfully created.  From Daniel’s suicide, to the outing of his school teacher, as well as Jonah, another boy in the school, and of Eric, a boy who is very much out and about as a gay teen, Jamie Fessenden weaves a coat of many colors. 

Mr. Fessenden has written a book of deep understanding. As I read this, I got the sense that he has on some level experienced some of what he has expressed so well. 

Homo Domesticus

Homo Domesticus

Notes From A Same Sex Marriage

By David Valdes Greenwood

Paperback: 224 pages

Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 13, 2008)

Language: English

Formats: Hardback, soft cover, E-book

ISBN-10: 0738211141

ASIN: B005X4DNY8

The year is 1995. The place is Boston Massachusetts. The event is a wedding. David and Jason are getting married. Seventeen years have passed since that event, but the issue is still as explosive as it was back then. David Greenwood begins his story at his wedding ceremony. Like many such events it had its unplanned moments. In David’s case he discovers that, just as the guests are arriving, he’s left his tuxedo pants at home. A madcap race to get his pants on and back to the church reads like something out of a silent era Keystone Kops film. There are many funny anecdotes throughout the two hundred and twenty-four pages of Homo Domesticus, but the overarching themes of love, relationships, the pitfalls of living with a man who is totally your emotional opposite, and the real cost of second guessing another person’s needs and wants, dominates Greenwood’s smooth narrative. Relationships that last many years and then settle into the routine to which all relationships fall victim, either expand and survive, or collapse under the weight of ennui. This urge to grow in a static environment, so often experienced by we humans, strikes David and Jason almost at the same moment. For those who like angst with their humor this part of the story will be appealing.  After many years together, Jason and David decide to split. This is not an uncomplicated thing, because they’ve bought a house.  Their social, financial, and personal lives are so intertwined that it becomes inevitable that they would be forced back to living together, although not on the same terms as before; terms, that is the key word. David and Jason come to terms with not only with each other, but also with themselves as individuals living as a couple. But never fear, as trite as it may sound, true love does, in Greenwood’s case, conquer all. A happy ending to Homo Domesticus is capped with David and Jason adopting a baby. Her name is Lily. Chapter 14 is devoted to Lily. Greenwood begins this chapter thus: ‘People enjoy scaring parents-to-be with tales of the life-altering madness, which awaits them. These dire predictions have a solid basis in fact… On the other hand, everyone who described the instantaneous love we’d feel for Lily was also correct….’

Greenwood ends the book with these words about Lily.  ‘Everything I love best in the world is in that bed,’ I thought to myself, though I didn’t say it out loud. I didn’t need to; Jason just shot me one of his I-know-you’re-being-sentimental looks, and rolled his eyes…. I scooped my daughter up, gave my husband a kiss, and started another day with my family.’

 It is my opinion that anyone who writes like David Valdes Greenwood, deserves to be read.

At the time Homo Domseticus was published, David Valdes Greenwood was a contributor for the Boston Globe and a teacher at Tufts University. Perhaps he still is, I don’t know, but what I do know is this, anyone who reads Homo Domesticus will experience wry humor and professional writing that is engaging on just about every human level.

Wanting much more of Greenwood’s prose, I was truly unhappy when I read the last page.