Rating: 
Summary: Pedophilia chic
Review: This book is a modern tribute to the Prep-School novel e.g "A Separate Peace" etc. Only instead of powerful relationships between young men on the cusp of war, this author spins out a 90's teen sitcom. Pitch = Dead Poets Society plus My Own Private Idaho.It would be bad enough if Russell stuck to telling the story of an elicit sexual relationship between a student and his gay teacher. Scandal makes good prose. However, the author insists we should approve of these activities. In fact, it is possible to come away from this book thinking (as Dennis Drabelle from the Washington Post did)that the affair between teen and teacher a beneficial academic experience. Or as my friends from National Review put it: "So there you have it: Pedophilia is good for your grades!" When any culture (prep-schools included) removes strong negative sanction from purient sexual activity, it is the vulnerable who suffer, mostly women and children. I suppose this is a victory for sexual liberaation?
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderul and invigorating read.
Review: Russell's first novel in five year (since his equally moving Sea of Tranquillity) presents four distinct voices: Louis, a 64 year-old headmaster of a boy's boarding school; Claire, his loyal and intelligent wife; Tracy, the 25 year-old hired to teach at the school; and Noah, the 15 year-old youth who is searching to find himself. These four characters' voices build a narrative that will eventually center around Tracy's and Noah's illicit affair. Their relationship influences both Louis and Claire very strongly--in satisfying and mature ways. Noah emerges as a dynamic and intersting person--but the reader is left wondering who, exactly, does the author want Tracy to be?
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: An entertaining story that has you question ethics
Review: My recent readings of teaching and learning books reminded me of this great novel I read last year. The Coming Storm tells a wonderfully interwoven story about the personal struggles of three generations of teachers and students. This book really calls into question Banner and Cannon's assertion that teaching "requires a formal distance between teachers and students" (The Elements of Teaching, p. 27). If you are looking for a good "ethical teacher", private boarding school, or just an entertaining gay fiction read, I would recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Nothing will be able to compare to the Coming Storm!
Review: I have to start by saying I'm not the biggest reader in the world. I just got interested in the spring of 2004 reading my first gay novel. So far the books I've read were ones with high ratings due to content. I couldn't find anything else interesting to read other than the topics of homosexuality. It's the only thing that could keep me remotely interested.
The books I read so far I felt have served to be good starts, but it wasn't until I cam across The Coming Storm that I was able to appreciate the value of a good book. The only information that the book offered was that it was about the dynamics of a Student-Teacher affair. I was engaged right at the review. I knew nothing of Paul Russell, or any of his past books. All I knew was I had to read it.
For one, if you're like me just starting out getting involved in reading, save this one till you get a few books ahead of you. I have to say I don't hold the most extensive vocabulary and this book definitely holds advanced vocabulary words, but it's not the vocabulary that makes this book have the 5 stars I gave it.
I very much appreciate Paul's writing style. It was beautiful, poetic, and descriptive. He does such a good job at forcing the reader into his trap. You get engaged numerous times, fall into the trap of "assuming" the outcome, and of coarse you're dead wrong all the time. He has excellent twists to the story. For me, the outcome wasn't at all predictable. You would have never known. It gives me a whole new outlook on life in general.
I started reading thinking to myself, "oh I already know this. It's going to be an easy read." Then in the middle some of the things Paul wrote about I could relate to exactly. I had to see where he was going with this. So the remainder of the book was has served to be a future awareness, as you begin to understand what Paul was really trying to say from the start.
It's an excellent read. I can honestly say that I don't think I'll ever read another book like this one. I'm so happy he has more books out there. I have 2 backed up on my shelf to read next. I think that every book that I read that isn't his will have some sort of partial disappointment.
One other thing that I appreciated most about Paul's book was it wasn't overwhelmed with sex like some novels are. The moments of sexual activity are in fact valued more since he decides to talk about them the least. Instead, Paul writes about the mind of the four characters. He makes the people the focus by inner relating them, and from that the reader gets the opportunity to venture into new perspectives and to better know them-self.
Rating:
Summary: Boring waste of time - only interesting to NAMBLA members
Review: This book is so slow moving and full of tiresome internal monologues. Whenever the character of Louis enters the scene the book grinds to a halt. I almost put it down but I was 60% through it so made myself finish.
The last 25% is fairly interesting (when the "storm" finally arrives) however it is not worth much once you get there.
Plus the teacher is a 35 year old in love with a 14 year old boy. Something really grossed me out about it. Even worse when there is a whole story about him stalking a kid on vacation with his parents. Follows him into the bathroom. Maybe NAMBLA members understand this stuff but I thought it was gross.
I think gay people have it hard enough without romaticized tales of child molestation. ewwwww. What was this author thinking?
Then one of his most interesting characters (Louis' wife) does NOTHING throughout the entire book.
None of the characters take an emotional journey, none of them learn anything (except maybe Louis to appreciate his wife) and there was really no point to this.
What were these other people reading??? SKIP IT
Rating:
Summary: Interesting characters
Review: This novel of repression being lived in a New York boarding school may deal with uncomfortable topics, especially sex with a minor. Behind much of the narrative tension the repressed and suppressed desire influences the lives of various people. Noah Lathrop III, scion of a wealthy nation-maker, is a confused and troubled teen-ager. Prone to accidents, he lives without the nurturing attention of parents and family. Tracy Parker, the new teacher, is his idol and his idol is falling in love with him. But this relationship has had a precedent at the Forge School and headmaster Louis Tremper has had an involvement with it. Tremper himself finds he is attracted to Parker and attempts to share with him his love of music. The storm of the plot gathers and comes to grips during a New Year's Even blizzard that finds repression exploding and brings all the tensions of the characters into direct confrontation. Russell touches on these relationships in a realistic rather romantic manner, but his denouement is somewhat too pat. The deus ex machina ending does not really deal with the effects of the storm. The art of this novel, however, is the blending of several characters as they move to some transition in their lives. They each touch and change and then move on. In some there is growth; in others only acknowledgment. The threads that are not tied reinforce the feeling that human beings may have a relentless destiny to live out interior forces they do not understand and may continue not to understand. Until the next storm.
Rating: 
Summary: Pointless, obvious, 2-dimensional fairy tale...
Review: I really TRIED to like this book, but in the end, it was impossible. I was hoping for a little depth, a little insight, a little of the sexual tension that's so clear in other classic prep-school novels to which The Coming Storm has inevitably been compared. There are a couple of promising relationships established here, but their potential is never realized. This book is characterized mostly by lost opportunity, as the potential for character and situational depth gives way to simplistic stereotyping that could just as easily have been composed by a homophobe as by one within the fold. Obviously, St Martin's Press (a/k/a Stonewall Inn Editions, their queer imprint) has no problem promoting mediocrity. I just hate to think of all the talented gay writers who are having a tough time breaking in while this ditzy author and his fluff novel gets all the glory. P.S. What dimwit picked this title? Did anyone else find it utterly telegraphic and inane???
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