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Rating: 
Summary: Engaging "coming of age" novel set in the 1970s
Review: This third novel by screenwriter Gregory Hinton (after "Cahedral City" and "Desperate Hearts") is a coming-of-age story about Kingston ("King") James, a 21 year old gay senior at the University of Colorado, who is trying to reconcile his sexual feelings and his spirituality during the turbulent 1970's. King comes from a working class family outside of Denver, with a controlling, religious mother, an older sibling (Neil) who (like King) is gay, and an alcoholic father. King is a creative writing major, works as a switchboard operator on campus, and depressed over a rough ending of his first love. He meets Sam, a kind of poster boy for gay activism, and through him got involved in the Boulder Gay Liberation Front. The pregnant, former girlfriend of a past roommate enters his life, and Jen becomes a confidant and surrogate sister, especially after King's mother befriends her after learning her own parents disowned her. They become neighbors when they both rent studios in a building owned by Theo, another activist. Like the first two books, "The Way Things Out To Be" is character driven, and Hinton's skilled, almost lyrical writing makes you quickly and naturally familiar with each new character, their hopes and dreams and ... going back to the title ... what they think should be different in their lives. King's problem, which his friends bring to his attention, is that he is too sensitive for an gay man in the free-sex days of the 1970's, and he frightens away guys by professing love to them almost on the first date. He tries to get "with it" more, by going out to the bars in Denver (there were no gay bars in Boulder, apparently) as well as a soon-regretted foray to a gay bathhouse. He also meets two older men, one (Matthew) a married attorney who professes his love to King, and another (Robert) the bisexual fiance' of his favorite professor. The novel takes the characters through the a one year period filled with constant surprises, both good and bad ... ranging from encounters with bohemian poet Allen Ginsberg, a gay marriage, death of a two characters, an affair with the college quarterback, confrontations with ex lovers, a gay rape, as well as uncertainty about their futures. It was a little jarring to read a "new" novel dealing with gay male sex that contained no reference to AIDS or safe-sex, which makes sense since the period (late 1970's) was before the discovery of the disease. Perhaps that was the author's intention for the setting, a time of somewhat innocence and sexual freedom, or perhaps he was just nostalgic for the era for other reasons. In any case, it is a delightful, interesting read, and I recommend it highly ... whether you remember the 1970's, or whether you are too young to do so.
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