GeneHayworthIn this issue, literary reviewer Gene Hayworth turns his attention to a somewhat less taxing subject and writer, with his review of

Uncle Sean by Ronald L. Donaghe

Gene Hayworth grew up in North Carolina and attended undergraduate school at UNC - Greensboro. He worked for 10 years as a layout artist, technical writer, computer specialist and training instructor before returning to school at the University of Rochester, where he received a Masters degree in English with a concentration in creative writing, and an MLS from Syracuse University. He moved to Colorado in 1995 and worked at CARL Corporation for several years, and in the summer of 1999 he worked for CARL in Singapore, which resulted in the publication of an article about his experiences titled "Singapore Libraries Usher in a New Era," in Computers in Libraries, 20:6 (Nov./Dec. 2000). He is an avid reader and has written several book reviews for Colorado Libraries. In February 2003 he prepared an exhibit at the Fales Library, NYU, on the Gay American novelist and playwright Coleman Dowell. His critical study of Dowell appeared in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Fall, 2002. Currently he works as a reference librarian for the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries.
 
Gene Hayworth would like to hear from you about this review. If you are a writer or publisher with a literary offering or work of non-fiction, please contact Gene directly with your request for a review.

UncleSeanUncle Sean (from the Journals of Will Barnett)
by Ronald L. Donaghe
iUniverse Star, 2004. 
ISBN 0-595-29760-9.
Paperback, 157 pages,$14.95


Uncle Sean: from the Journals of Will Barnett is one of those captivating novels that compel the reader to turn the page and read on until the book is finished. Uncle Sean is a reflective, moving love story, told in restrained prose that is never overly sentimental. Donaghe has concocted a tale that will be familiar to many readers, for he has perfectly captured that age when sexual longing and self-doubt collide.  It will be easy for most readers, both male and female, gay and straight, to identify with the main character, Will Barnett, for his struggles with sexual identity is one that many of us faced in our teens, when uncertainty, naivety, and a lack of education made us question social mores and search outside the normal boundaries of our lives for understanding and companionship.

The story is framed by the account of an unnamed narrator who explains how he came to find the documents which make up the novel while tearing down a barn on an abandoned ranch 20 miles south of Hachita, New Mexico. This frame lends the story verisimilitude for the narrator, himself a writer, immediately understands the value of the documents, which consist of a Big Chief Tablet, a letter, Army dog tags, and a spiral notebook.  Other than minor revisions to the text and organization of the chapters, the narrator presents the documents in the order he believes they were written, starting with the Big Chief Tablet, composed in the sprawling hand of a young boy named Will Barnett. Will is a 14-year-old who spends his days on the family cotton farm, helping his father tend the crops and repair the equipment. When Will’s uncle Sean Martin comes to visit after suffering from a mysterious illness, Will is infatuated with the older man and soon discovers Uncle Sean's secret.  Sean is a gay man whose love affair with Theodore Seabrook, another soldier, ended abruptly when Seabrook was killed by "friendly fire." It is that event which triggered Sean's breakdown.  Will is driven by sexual desire to express his feelings to his uncle, and is confused when those feelings are not returned.  Sean understands the harm his presence on the farm might cause, and decides that it is best to leave.  It is shortly after his departure that Sean writes the letter which makes up the second part of the novel, a letter intended to explain Sean's concern for his nephew and caution Will not to sleep with the first man he meets.

The novel alternates daily life on the farm with Will’s reflections on desire and love. Donaghe’s tight prose captures the rhythms and vocabulary of the young farm boy as he matures over the next few years. The third part of the novel, “The Spiral Notebook,” recounts Will’s feelings about his uncle’s departure and his eventual relationship with another boy, Lance, a runaway he meets by chance during one of his wonderings beyond the farm. Lance and his family have moved into the neighborhood from New Orleans, where Lance has had a series of experiences with older men. He is severely beaten by his stepfather, and Will becomes his “angel,” someone he can turn to for kindness and compassion. Donaghe creates a relationship between the boys that is both emotionally charged and tentative at the same time.

Ronald Donaghe is a prolific author whose works include the fiction series "Common Threads in the Life," and a fantasy trilogy, entitled "The Twilight of the Gods."  He is also the editor of the Independent Gay Writer.

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