Child Of My Right Hand

Rating:
Summary: A Lolapalooza!
Review: I don't entirely agree with T.C. Boyle's description of Goodman's new novel, Child of My Right Hand, as minimalist Carveresque fiction. I consider the book to be uniquely Goodmanesque, a lolapalooza in its quick asides, its generous, though never prolix chorus of family voices blabbing and thinking in synch. The novel touches on many local Ohio issues, but it is more than a roman à clef, more than merely a story about the outing of Simon Barish. It is a family saga embracing three generations and at least six degrees of suspense, humor, and romance. The final sentence (in context) is an example of how masterly Goodman is as a novelist.

Rating:
Summary: a great read
Review: I enjoyed reading this novel tremendously. Eric Goodman writes compassionately, with a great deal of psychological insight, humor and eros, about a family, covering not only the story of a boy's coming out in a small prejudiced town but also several other individual dramas in an unpredictable and highly satisfying way. I am a slow reader but I couldn't put this novel down until I was finished. I stayed up all night and yet in the morning I wasn't tired but rather energized by the writer's intelligence.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning emotionally-rich novel of a family with a gay son
Review: In a novel inspired by the author's own experience with his son's homosexuality, we are invited to share the tentative world of Jack and Genna Barrish, who both teach at small town college in Ohio, where they moved from Cincinnati in hopes that it would be a better atmosphere for their two teenagers. Simon is seventeen and openly gay, and quickly becomes a target of harrassment in the town's lacking school district. Elizabeth (Lizzy) is 14, a budding "goth girl" with a thick skin developed over teasing she receives about her brother. The couple are also hoping for a new beginning following mutual instances of marital infidelity, but neither one completely trusts the other since. Simon's sexuality has also become an issue between them, since they both believe that it is mostly genetic, and Genna never learned the identity of her birth father before her mother's death. Jack, a social science professor, abandons a project on Nazi eugenics to start a study on the biological origins of homosexuality, which Genna resents somewhat as an attempt to "blame" her for Simon's sexuality, and encourages her to find out about her birth father.

A memorable family trip to visit Genna's birth father, with a landmark event for young Simon and a reawakening event for his father Jack, highlights the second half of the novel. The family's love for each other is challenged by the continued harrassment at school and at home over Simon, the discovery of Jack's affair with Simon's guidance counselor, the community's reactions to publicity about threats made against the family, possible charges over a sexually-explicit note passed by Simon to a classmate who is a minor, death threats, and Jack's guilt over his real feelings about Simon's sexuality, make for an emotionally-charged, engaging story that explores the heartbreaks and affirmations that can coincide as a family deals with a member's "coming out" to them, and how they must be strong so it does not erode the love they share. With the additional insights about homosexuality, given in the context of the father's research, I'd especially recommend this for educators and parents of gay kids who have accepted them but have some unresolved "issues" they may not have completely worked through.