David B. Hopes

I RECEIVED A DRC OF THIS BOOK FROM RED HEN PRESS VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

The thing about historical novels, ones set in a past deep enough to have lost its currency, is that they might as well be fantasy novels. On the other hand, historical novels that take place when one's parents were getting married and having their first children are in a peculiar place between contemporary and stuffy-old-fashioned nostalgia fests.

I went on this journey, to be sure, knowing where I was headed. The historical part wasn't that historical to my frame of reference; the queer part contained my frame of reference; so what was I doing here, exactly? Touristing a bygone age's homophobia, knowing it would end badly? Or listening to the gift of a story told by a person whose life was more firmly rooted in that time and place than mine? In the end, it's a matter of semantics, distinction without difference. I went to the Wyona River and I saw the Falls, felt the way it broke the people of its town into parts. Boys and girls led very separate lives when I was growing up, too, but the river being so exclusively (in the narrator, Alden's, mind) male rang me like a bell. The funny thing for me was seeing how open Vince, the coach's only child, was about his love for Glen...but only by the maleness of the Wyona.

Keep reading at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud after 6:30 EST Sunday, 20 December 2020. Or, you know, don't...I'm not your boss.… (mais)

This book felt like many things to me. The story is one long, campfire tale… or an epic poem of old. It’s beautiful and sad and bears witness to times we shouldn’t be quick to dismiss or forget.

Hopes takes readers on a journey to the world inhabited by young boys just after WWII. The tale is told by Arden, looking back on his youth from his adult life. Perhaps Arden’s reminiscing is colored in some ways by the life he’s lead since his youth, but the memories seem vivid as he begins his tale.

Arden, Vince, and Tilden are inseparable as young men. About the time Arden realizes Vince is his best friend, Glen arrives on the scene. Vince is immediately drawn to Glen in a way that Arden doesn’t really understand. He accepts the new closeness, even when he’s a little envious or feels left out.

The boys come together at Wyona Falls. It’s a location that the town doesn’t speak about really. People have died there, it’s dangerous, but for the boys, it’s a right of passage. The falls are like a secret because bad things can happen there – but that just seems to make it more important that they are found and shared only with close friends.

Vince invites Glen to the falls and when Glen does a reckless handstand on the edge of a cliff high above the falls, Vince feels different for the first time in his life. He sees Glen in danger and can’t put into words the way the emotion whirls dangerously inside him. Arden sees his friend’s discomfort and realizes that there is a bond between Vince and Glen that is unique… even if he’s not equipt to understand it.

As the boys grow older, their relationships ebb and flow. They make misguided choices. They don’t always understand the consequences of their actions. They become young men in a post-WWII world that still has very tight definitions of masculinity.

Hopes’ writing is artful and poetic without ever straying from its intended course.

I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to describe this book. It’s a story about the raw and unbreakable bonds of young friendship, it’s about the love between two boys during a time when it wasn’t accepted at all, it’s about becoming a man, learning to be passionate about things and realizing things aren’t as ideal as we wish they were.

All the characters in this story are on their way to becoming someone different, whether it’s a legend, a tragedy or a man reminiscing about his youth.

This book is full of the heat of almost-forgotten summers, the spark of first love, and the fierceness of friendship. There is misplaced hope, family bonds, promises, and adventure.… (mais)