All Is Well |
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Author:
| Vanden, Dirk |
Series title: | The All Trilogy Ser. |
ISBN: | 978-1-4928-5380-0 |
Publication Date: | Oct 2013 |
Publisher: | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | USD $9.99 |
Book Description:
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The theme of All Is Well is liberation, played with deceptive simplicity and not a trace of political bombast. Yet it is political, in that it is a paean to a way of life that is counter-culture all the way. Robert Thorne, who has been receiving illiterate anonymous letters threatening him with death and accusing him of making his son "queer," returns home from a business trip to San Francisco, hoping to catch his son "in the act." On the plane he meets John Adams, who resembles...
More DescriptionThe theme of All Is Well is liberation, played with deceptive simplicity and not a trace of political bombast. Yet it is political, in that it is a paean to a way of life that is counter-culture all the way. Robert Thorne, who has been receiving illiterate anonymous letters threatening him with death and accusing him of making his son "queer," returns home from a business trip to San Francisco, hoping to catch his son "in the act." On the plane he meets John Adams, who resembles Robert's brother Bill, though Robert is hardly aware at first of the resemblance or what it signifies. Adams makes an overture to Robert in the airport tearoom, which Robert violently rejects. At home, with his son absent, he blacks out, then finds himself clutching an envelope containing another nasty note and lurid photos of genital males having sex, and these revolt him. He flees to a steam bath-is driven to take refuge there, of course, as he is driven throughout the novel to make contact with other homosexuals and thus his central self - where he mouth-rapes (yep) another male. Symbolic dreams, more notes, and remembrances of times past when he forced his brother to go down on him, an accidental (and highly beneficial) mescaline trip, finally a moving encounter with his enlightened 15-year-old son, and then one side of his split personality - Bobby - takes over until Robert finally gets himself together in San Francisco. His is a nightmarish closet, though his predicament is uncommonly dramatic and the solution to his "problem" super erotic. John Francis Hunter review, 1971