The mid-40's are that time in a gay man's life when his major paradigm shifts from sexy to Sansabelts. But when Barry Grooms's partner of twenty years is killed on Barry's forty-fifth birthday, his world doesn't so much evolve as it does explode.
After navigating through the surreal conveyor belt of friends and family, he can't eat another casserole or swallow much more advice, and so, still numb, he escapes to Key West, then New York. He embraces a new mantra: Why the hell not?
First, he gets a thankless new job working for a crazy lady in a poncho, then has too many drinks with a narcissistic Broadway actor. Next, it's a nude exercise class that redefines flop sweat, and from there he's on to a relationship with a man twenty years his junior, so youthfully oblivious he thinks Karen Carpenter is a lesbian woodworker.
Yet no matter how great the retreat from the man he used to be, life's gravity spins Barry back to the town where he grew up for one more ironic twist that teaches him how to say goodbye with grace.
After navigating through the surreal conveyor belt of friends and family, he can't eat another casserole or swallow much more advice, and so, still numb, he escapes to Key West, then New York. He embraces a new mantra: Why the hell not?
First, he gets a thankless new job working for a crazy lady in a poncho, then has too many drinks with a narcissistic Broadway actor. Next, it's a nude exercise class that redefines flop sweat, and from there he's on to a relationship with a man twenty years his junior, so youthfully oblivious he thinks Karen Carpenter is a lesbian woodworker.
Yet no matter how great the retreat from the man he used to be, life's gravity spins Barry back to the town where he grew up for one more ironic twist that teaches him how to say goodbye with grace.
Highly Recommended! Don't miss out.
Title: THE COOL PART OF HIS PILLOW
Author: RODNEY ROSS
Genre: ROMANCE/GENERAL FICTION
Publisher: DREAMSPINNER PRESS
Novel
Reviewed by: Maven
I wasn’t real sure I wanted to read this book when I read the blurb and found out Barry’s partner of twenty years was killed, but I pushed past that, sat down, and read. Let me say, this isn’t a book filled with romance, but a book more about healing, yet it was an amazing story. The author
does an excellent job of taking the reader into the unfairness that life throws at us by the loss of a soul mate, and done through the “voice” of Barry, who is written so well he becomes real as you read. I’ve always felt there is something to the telling of a story in first person than forms a special
connection to the characters as we read, and The Cool Part Of His Pillow did just that. It was well
written.
I’m not going to give a lot of the story away, because I believe it is important for the readers to discover this book on their own. But be aware there are times you might need a tissue. Though this story is sad, it’s not all sad, and there are moments of humor and insight, with some colorful
characters.
Just like real life, we find Barry moves past grief and heartbreak to finally find healing, and closure.
I laughed and cried, and by the end was glad I read Barry’s story, because it wasn’t your typical m/m romance, it was so much more.
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