Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
I really enjoyed reading a book where the MC is actually elderly, so unusual in the world of romances! The theme of coming full circle, of finding what you really want out of life and finding the courage to pursue it even at that age, was truly compelling for me.
John Paravati is a now 77 year old man who left his home in the small town of Shakersville, Illinois, for the bright lights of Hollywood in 1956. We meet him when his movie career is essentially over, but he is still acting in commercials for cruise lines, and he and his costar are thankful they aren’t shilling adult diapers — now that is some realism, people! He gets a letter from a developer in Shakersville who has renovated the old Crown Theater, site of his happiest and most painful memories from childhood, asking him to attend a grand reopening. His initial response is seemingly irrational anger, because he’s never told anyone about his life in Shakersville, why he left, or the boy he left behind. He’s afraid of going back to face old demons, but his assistant eventually convinces him to accept the offer because it will be good for his career.
Thus begins his adventure to confront his past, and the reason why he left home over 50 years ago and never looked back. There are a few brief flashbacks, where we are introduced to his best friend and love of his life, Frank Henson. And this is when I started taking points off my review, for several reasons. Mainly, there was too little detail about John’s life, both in Shakersville, and the intervening 50 years. The Crown is supposedly integral to why he became an actor, and why he fell in love with Frank, but there are only 2 brief scenes about that, and they certainly don’t justify his strong connection to the place. And what happened to him after he left that continued to shape his feelings about his hometown and The Crown? He’s out now, but was closeted for at least part of his career. When? Why? All we are told is that he’s never been in love. So I never did get a good feel for who John is now, and who he was as a teenager, though I feel it is to the author’s credit that I really wanted to know him better.
Frank is necessarily a much more minor character, but I still felt there was a lot more I needed to know about him to understand why his life turned out as it did. His initial motivations for leaving John were very understandable, what with McCarthyism and homophobia so rampant at that time. But why did he wait so long — even when changes in his life made it possible — to contact John if his feelings remained so strong for all those years? I loved the idea of a man deciding to pursue his true feelings and coming out for the first time when he’s in his 70s, but I feel there was so much more that could have been said about that. Keeping Frank somewhat peripheral was really a missed opportunity for the book.
And that is my rant about what I didn’t like about the book. Increase the length, provide more detail and feeling, and this would have been a 5 star read for me. But bottom line, this was a well written, sweet story, with a lot of self-deprecating humor about age and ageism, and likable primary and secondary characters that I want to know even more about. Definitely worth the read!
Cover art is terrific and unusual for this genre.
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Book Details:
ebook, 2nd Edition
Published August 6th 2016 by JMS Books (first published September 22nd 2013)
ISBN139781634861854
Edition LanguageEnglish
Published August 6th 2016 by JMS Books (first published September 22nd 2013)
ISBN139781634861854
Edition LanguageEnglish
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