Rating: 
Summary: A Joyous Storm
Review: This was one of the most honest, touching portrayals of the beauty of love between two people. The relationships of all the main characters are so intertwined, that what finally emerges is a picture of a family - not related by anything biologic - that truly do the best they can to love and support one another. For any gay man, the descriptions of the fear, initial self-loathing, exploration, and finally exhilaration experienced by Noah are so genuine that virtually any reader will think to himself, "I remember feeling this way." A wonderful book and a must-read for any gay youth struggling with self-acceptance.
Rating:
Summary: An absorbingly interesting novel
Review: In "The Coming Storm" author Paul Russell has gifted us with a novel rich in character development, moody evocations of time and place, lyrical phrasing and flow of style. But more important to this reader is the aftermath of closing the last page knowing that there is much to ponder - about mortality, the transience of youth (both in beauty and innocence), the vagaries of love (or the lack of it), the mystery of obsession. Louis, Claire, Tracy, Noah, and even Libby, Reid, Chris and the peripheral characters all are placed in this tale of life in the cloister of a middle school in the East for a purpose: no wasted time in development of filler in this book! And despite the knowledge presented in the first chapter that we are on a journey to visit the inevitable "storms" that come into all our lives, the book propels us along with individual character asides that serve to enrich the final fabric of realizing that it is not so much the coming storms that alter our lives, but how we survive them and their aftermath. This is a novel that is outwardly about gay relationships in about every spectrum of time, but more importantly Paul Russell bridges the gap of placing these relationships in the real world. Whether letting light into the closeted gays' domain or celebrating the senuous highs of men comfortable with their sexual stance, this book is a richly drawn tale that leaves us satisfied and hungry for the next work.
Rating: 
Summary: Another great novel by Russell
Review: As someone who grew up on a prep school campus (not far from where the author now teaches), I was very eager to read this book by one of my favorite authors. He does a wonderful job describing the prep school world and he really makes the reader feel part of the story. The characters are complex and yet, very easy to relate to, no matter what your age or sexuality is. My only criticism is that the chapters about the headmaster are very boring and lend almost nothing to the book. In fact, after reading several of the "headmaster" chapters, I called the friend (another prep school teacher) who recommended the book to me and asked him if I had to read those chapters. He assured me that those chapters did not need to be read and he even suggested skipping them entirely. I finished the second half of the book by skipping over the "headmaster" chapters and it made the book much more enjoyable. On the whole, Mr. Russell has produced another great work. Just be prepared to skip a few chapters that lend nothing to an otherwise fine book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books I've Ever Read
Review: The most striking and amazing thing about Paul Russell's brilliant work is his masterful ability to communicate the depth of his characters. Unlike most books, I did not feel like a passive observer, but an active participant as I read the book. Despite the many differences in the characters, I found myself able to understand and sympathies with their experiences. I went into the book thinking that I'd hate it, because I disapprove of teacher-student relationships, but Russell made it clear that nothing is black and white. He constructed and whole world around his character that, while completely different from my own, was entirely believable and real.
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimately unsatisfying and academic
Review: 'The Coming Storm' is an ultimately unsatisfying and academic excercise in shifting points of view. Russell weaves his way through a sluggish narrative; offering up painstakingly meticulous insights into his characters, while forfeiting almost all of his material's dramatic potential. The illicit teacher-student love affair at the story's core results in only one titillating sex scene. The novel's second half comes off like a coy refusal on the part of the author to acknowledge the issues and ramifications of such an affair. By the final chapters, all of the characters seem to be sleep walking towards a fate that seems unshaped or unaffected by the story's main events. (The final scene is unbearably trite) When one reaches it's conclusion, they feel as if they have spent several days being lectured on a marginally interesting series of events by someone who was only a passing observor.
Rating:
Summary: A Storm-filled Passion
Review: Being one who devours the latest in "gay" fiction, dare I even use such a pidgeon hole category, this was one of the most rewarding books I have read in 2000. I was intrigued by the plotline surrounding a young teacher, his even younger student, and a superintendant and his wife who add a sense of dimension to an already intriguing plotline. I fell in love with Tracy, myself wanting to be an English teacher, and sweet, slightly devilish Noah..... I guess its because I harbor this secret fantasy..... alas, back to the book. We touch upon the hardships of growing up gay; confusion, betrayal, AIDS, the utter feelings of loneliness and abandonment.... every thing the gay everyman knows all too much about. Perhaps this is an escapist piece, as reality seems to suspend itself towards the end, teacher and student unharmed aside of egos and emotions, but it was such a song to my heart to read something that left room for hope and gave me a sense of pride in being a gay man who only wants what his heart truly desires. A delightful novel by a writer who like a fine wine, will only improve with time.
Rating: 
Summary: The Coming Storm
Review: First off, let me say I loved Sea of Tranquility. So Iapproached this new novel as a fan, excited to read it. But once intoit, I was instantly bogged down in prose that seems tired, at best. Every scrap of dialogue, line by line most of the time, is glued down with reflections, reactions, ruminations, memories, allusions, wispy sexual fantasies, subplots, or (sometimes even "and") snide rejoinders. It takes pages and pages of overwrought, adjective-laden prose just to get there. I am not one for Grisham-style speed. But I would like the plot, hackneyed and tired as it is, to move a little faster. After all, from the start, we know where this thing's going. Sure, you can get on the interstate and go somewhere you've been before. You can even take some of the turn-offs. But why do you have to examine every single blade of grass along a route well-traveled?
Rating:
Summary: Astounding and very Important!
Review: Reading Paul Russell's latest outing (pun unfortunate) is like being drawn into the work of one of the greatest pointillist artists of our time. One is first captivated by the over-all beauty of the work, its detailed scenes created by thousands of tiny points of colorful narration, coalescing to evoke a magnificent and somehow ominous landscape. As the reader moves incrementally closer, drawn it seems, against the will, one begins to determine that each point of color is in itself telling its own story. In "The Coming Storm", Russell masterfully does just this. His overall rendering of The Forge School, which houses many troubled teenage boys and equally misguided adults, begins by showing the reader life in such a secluded and even recluded, private boys school. Upon the arrival of Tracy Parker, a charming and charismatic young teacher, and also the story's pivotal protagonist, one senses the imminent and inevitable explosion which draws near. Russell begins adding layer upon layer of texture and color, creating an atmosphere that becomes more complex than one thought possible, it's many possibilities present in every word. Is it perhaps the nature of humans to manifest their own past into a malignant reality, such as Louis Tremper does as the headmaster of the school? Or is it the intense yet misplaced affections of Noah Lathrop III, whose troubling attention to his new teacher, Tracy Parker, brings about a present that perfectly and tragically invokes the past? All the characters in Russell's story are richly painted upon a background of self-deception, lies, and ultimately redemption. This is going to be one of the most important literary works of our time. I highly recommend buying it!
Rating:
Summary: Aspects of desire
Review: I'm a big fan of "boarding school" fiction, a genre that seems to have gone out of fashion but ought to be taken up more often. In what other setting can a writer so thoroughly explore adolescent relationships with all their intrigue of power, friendship, and sexuality? The fact that most such school stories take place in same-sex institutions only raises the stakes: the kids are uprooted from home, and the authority figures who stand in for their parents -- the teachers and administrators -- can keep only a myopic eye on the goings-on. Left to their own devices, the students are able to explore many avenues that might otherwise be far less accessible to them. One small disappointment in Paul Russell's "The Coming Storm" is that, while it takes place in a boys' boarding school in New York State, here the school setting seems mainly to serve as a means of bringing its central characters together. We do glimpse much of the politics and machinations of academia, but these scenes deal mainly with the characters who run or teach at the school. Apart from one scene where a pack of boys pulls a cruel prank on a misfit in their ranks, we see little of how the students interact with each other. This disappointment is in passing, though, because it is clear that Russell has other fish to fry. This is because the main storyline in "The Coming Storm" concerns the relationship between a teacher and one of his students. (On a more universal level, though, what Russell explores is the ways in which each of us must deal with feelings of desire that we may not want to acknowledge.) The four main characters through whom we experience the story are fully realized. Each has an individual way of acting, speaking, and thinking -- something essential in any book that uses an "alternating viewpoint" narrative approach, but all too rare in most cases. In fact, the use of alternating viewpoints has become a bit of a tired device lately. It is to Russell's credit that he carries it off so well, although the predictable rotation of each character up to the podium, so to speak, chapter by chapter, eventually does become a bit distracting. My chief concern with the book is the way in which I think Russell lets down the character of the teacher, Tracy. In the first half of the novel Tracy is capable of articulating the ways in which the attraction he feels toward Noah (the student) are actually representations of deeper conflicts -- ones that can be (and, in one scene, are) brought out by just about any attractive adolescent boy, whether the boy be a friend or a complete stranger. Tracy seems to know that Noah is in many ways just a personification of a more general desire for something forbidden and, in the end, fleeting. Some of Russell's best writing comes about as he gives voice and metaphor to these insights. Many a gay man will undoubtedly recognize himself here. Yet then, seemingly all of a sudden, in one key scene Tracy's self-understanding goes out the window. He becomes irresponsible and self-indulgent. What makes the turn of events all the more disappointing is that, based on the timeframe of the story, he has needed only about four months (!) to achieve this downfall. I was still unsure as to why Tracy would risk his career and reputation for the sake of indulging what he has clearly understood to be a deceptive, misdirected feeling. This leads to something else I missed in the story, which might have given the climactic plot development a bit more plausibility: I wished to know more about the relationship between Noah and Tracy itself, particularly the friendship part. Russell seems so intent on steering the two of them together that he fails to take advantage of many opportunities to flesh out a true friendship between them. Such a vividly rendered friendship might have made the major turning points in this book a little more sympathetic and believeable. This said, however, I do not want to detract from this book's ability to deliver a terrific story. I enjoyed "The Coming Storm" a great deal. The descriptions of sex might seem a little too specific to some readers, but in many ways Russell uses sex as another metaphor. In the end it must be said that I felt more relief than sadness when things concluded as they did between Noah and Tracy. The book's ending is hopeful, though -- for one character even redemptive in a way. This was encouraging to see, although it would be interesting to debate whether Russell is implying that Noah turns out well partly due to Tracy's influence or in spite of it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Gay Novel, "Cross-Over" Literature Too
Review: This novel goes right onto my small "favorite-books" shelf. Here's why. (1) Gay Lit plus Crossover Appeal...Is the novel "way too gay" to appeal to non-gay readers? A same-sex affair plus two latent men. And homosexuality permeates everywhere here, a subterranean force--magnetic northstar for some of the characters, toxic waste for other characters. But like excellent writers, Russell generalizes his material. Specifically, he takes a topic which is still sensitive, hot-button, contested, emotional (homosexuality), and makes it speak to general issues and many readers by deftly employing its grist (namely, conflict between self and society; tradition vs. change; degrees of self-knowledge; duplicity and appearance-vs.-reality). These universal issues are dealt with by all the novel's characters, the heterosexuals too. This dimension elevates the novel out a ghettoized gay-lib piece. Oh, the novel is gay-friendly in portraying "our world too." But usually more subtle than slick. Example: how does Russell portray gay people "coming out" in the novel? Not in the quick-step speed-up of some Coming Out novels. Rather, like in the reality world--namely slowly; with clues and hints, some seen, some missed, some denied; with new insights into earlier events; with backstepping reversals. Complex and true--like life. Ditto for Russell's involuntarily-rich portrayal of internalized homophobia, and people resisting, resisting the beast within. (Early the novel is imbued with such Thomas-Mann type repression. Is the very end of the book melodramatic and politicalized--or a continuation of history and change? You will decide.) (2) Aesthetic Artistry too. Russell can construct a solid novel. Structure? Skilled writers depict chaos within the frame of order, form, structure. (Or, they used to...) Here, the central "storm" analogy is unifying but not overdone, and the lesser echoes foreshadow and reminisce nicely. Narration? Russell excels at oblique narration carrying a character's thoughts which s/he believes are true, but which we the reader can easily question--the "unreliable narrator." Story-line? Russell installs sheer page-turning conflict, action, suspense--even the "progression of effect" whereby near the end, the sub-plots speed up and intertwine madly. P.S. on pederasty. Some readers may raise eyebrows at the "under-age" sexuality. Others may sense a quiet tract in favor of consenting adult-youth (not pre-pubertal) relations. "Whatever..." THE COMING STORM reminds me of (in gay novels) Mark Merlis' craftily-wrought AMERICAN STUDIES, but with more scope-and-depth. If your tastes accord with mine as described above, put this novel on your nightstand. It may go farther onto the "keepers" shelf.....
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