The Good Neighbor: A Novel
by Jay Quinn
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jay QuinnEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-06-01
ISBN: 1555839339
Number of pages: 328
Publisher: Alyson Books
Book Reviews of The Good Neighbor: A Novel
Book Review: "Sometimes I think marriage can be the loneliest place in the world"
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in an upscale-gated community in Southern Florida, The Good Neighbor tells of what happens when two families cross paths and inevitably collide in unexpected and surprising ways. Rory Fallon and his partner Bruno have been living at the Venetian Vistas for about two years, when one morning, they meet Austin Harden, his wife Meg and their two young boys Noah and Josh.
Lately Meg has become the "boss" of the family, an aggressive corporate lawyer, and a self-admitted perfectionist; Meg is working hard to provide an elegant and stylish "trophy" home for her devoted husband and her children. Austin has just been retrenched, a victim of downsizing, he now spends most of his days loafing around, working part time pushing medical equipment whilst ferrying Noah and Josh between school and soccer practice.
Rory and Bruno have been off and on since college. Together for nearly seventeen years, they built a life together, spending their years living in family type neighborhoods as Bruno steadily works his way up the corporate ladder. They're both the first to admit they've never met more than a handful of neighbors, certainly none that needed anything other than a nod or smile in the way of interaction.
At first, the arrival of Meg and Austin is seen as a refreshing change. Austin even remembers Rory and Bruno from his college days, and sees them as curiously insular and comfortably coupled now as they had been then. He makes an instant connection with Rory, drawn to the younger man's youthful vulnerability and artistic temperament.
Meg, on the other hand, presents a veneer of pleasant respectably that thinly disguises her scathing homophobia. "Who'd ever thought we'd have gays for neighbors" she comments to Austin. And when she sees the two men out by their pool, she worries her sons might have full view of their lifestyle.
To Meg, homosexuality is an anathema - what kind of life is that no matter how devoted to each other - "no kids to love and raise; it just goes against the grain somehow." As the two couples get to know each other, they begin to pursue separate agendas, uniting in an addiction, determined pursue a type of emotional and sexual reinforcement.
One night, keeping a vigil at his office window, Austin spies Rory and Bruno making love. The incident ignites deep-seated and acutely closeted passions within him. The sight of Rory and Bruno's romantic coupling turning him on in a deeply "male kind of way;" their activities don't disgust him because they are personal, just as his interest is personal.
Austin's desire to be physical with Rory increases, growing from a mild distraction into an ever-increasing itch and he becomes ever more open to the possibilities of an abstract kind of sexual availability that Rory presents. He sees them both as outsiders, accoutrements to their respective partners whims. The friendship becomes intimate and in the growing sexual tension, Rory and Austin become embroiled in an affair, which will leave the weaker to suffer in stillness, an emotionally wrecked and confused man.
In rich, languid and perfectly nuanced prose, author Jay Quinn traces the arc of each character as they are steadily transformed by their experiences living next door to each other. Neither Rory, Bruno, Austin or Meg are particularly sympathetic or likable characters, all are rather fickle, status conscious and materialistic, and all are almost always wounded by their own faults.
Meg is perhaps the least likable. Hardened to the world of men, and often threatened by her husband and two boys - and the world masculinity she sees taking shape around her, she views the world through rose coloured glasses and is threatened by those she sees as different. Yet she's still a woman, and in one instance, she lets herself become flustered by Bruno's physical closeness, all too aware of Bruno's sweaty physicality and well-built mass.
Bruno is the butch he-man, a truculent pig-headed egotist - he disparages Rory's efforts to forge a career in rap music and carries on as though he owns him. Rory, however, constantly plays second fiddle, relentlessly feeding Bruno's ego, telling him he loves him because that's what Bruno wants and needs to hear. His real love for Bruno is a fierce loyalty formed over their many years together.
Materialism, masculinity and sexual fluidity are the central themes of The Good Neighbor, with Quinn ingeniously casting a unique spell over many of the assumptions and stereotypes that we tend make about suburban family life. These are shallow adults - both gay and straight - who've inadvertently mixed up sex, love and friendship, hoping that it all works out in a mature kind of way.
Quinn's characters eventually discover, however, that what really hurts and what really kills is the sense of betrayal that ultimately comes along with messing in this kind territory. This is an elegant novel that mines the murky underbelly of sex and suburbia, where bigotry and acceptance do a delicate dance, often lying uneasily side-by-side.
For Austin, there's a define price to be paid for touching and loving another male, and as these neighbors come full circle, his confusion appears to be far from resolved. Mike Leonard June 06.
Summary of The Good Neighbor: A Novel
Jay Quinn, who memorably explored gay families in Back Where He Started (Alyson Books, 2005) directs his ever-sharpening eye over the enormous cultural shifts playing across the hedges in American society on two families in a manicured upscale suburban south-Florida neighborhood.Austin Harden is downsized when the dot.com bubble bursts, earning less than his wife Meg, who recently made partner in her law firm. He is spending much of his time shuttling his two sons between school and soccer practice. Rory Fallon, whose partner Will has his career on the fast-track, feels increasingly stranded and isolated in their elegant and echoing home. Living next-door to each other, the two couples form a close friendship, particularly Austin and Rory, who share a growing sense of dislocation and the sense that their lives have gone off track and they aren't sure how or why.
The Good Neighbor explores concepts of success, masculinity, ambition, and sexuality in a way that shines a new light on how we define ourselves by them, while allowing them to define us. As the relationships among the four adults evolve, and take on surprisingly complex emotional and sexual overtones, the placid suburban facade cracks open to reveal something more primal and urgent.
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