Customer Reviews

The Boomerang Kid: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am used to heavy drama in gay and straight novels. To read a story where both parents (although separated for many years), not only still love each other, but offer unconditional love to their bipolar son whose life is difficult at the best of times.
At the worst of times, Kai, comes home to his loving and supportive mother. They have a wonderful relationship. She accepts he is gay even though Kai doesn't.
Kai's mother has a boyfriend who also supports Kai. Maura's boss, supports Kai and wants to help him through a bleak period.

All in all the story unfolds, very neatly, very steadily with no drama, no outbursts. Just understanding and love for a young man who needs emotional help with his addiction and disease and to see his way through to the love of his life Robin.

A gentle heartwarming story of love. Love between separated parents, love between a mother and boyfriend, love of a mother and son, a man and his lover.
Not something I read intentionally, but a nice surprise and well written. A nice light, gay book to curl up with.

The other reviewers have provided a synopsis of the characters and the plot, especially Mr. Leonard who practically reproduces the entire novel, so I won't repeat all of that.

I am a big fan of Jay Quinn and have read all of his work. He is a skilled writer who makes you emotionally attached to his characters, even those with flaws. He also includes realistic references to the South Florida locale where his stories are set. The Boomerang Kid is no exception and is a beautiful story which you are sure to enjoy.

My minor quibbles are that there is a great deal of introspection on the part of the main character, Kai (great name, by the way), as well as almost too much information about bi-polar meds and painkillers, where the story would have been better served if there were more action and things happening. Kai also smokes an average of three cigarettes per page and this gets old fast. Incredibly, between a Friday evening and a Sunday afternoon, Kai manages to pack and move into a new house and paint and frame eleven portraits! (Maybe it's all that nicotine.) Typical of Quinn, although there is a sexual angle to the story, there is almost no sex.

I pre-ordered this book the moment I learned it was coming out. I'll do the same for Mr. Quinn's next novel.

Kai Ostryder is a 27 year old with bipolar disorder, functioning well enough on medication to find work as a custom trim carpenter. As the story opens, Kai leaves his boyfriend's home in the Outer Bank beach area of North Carolina, to return to his mother's home in Southern Florida, in order to deal with multiple issues, including a growing addiction to Oxycontin (which he obtained illegally from a girl he was seeing), general uncertainty about his life, and to reconcile the fact that, contrary to his earlier denials, his attachment to Robin would seem to indicate that he was indeed gay.

His mother, Maura, is a 51 year old advertising executive, who had Kai as a single parent, fathered by an immature surfer-hippie in North Carolina. She is trying to build a new life with her current live in boyfriend, Matt, a divorcee, who fathered the baby she is now carrying. When her ex calls to tell her Kai is heading down to her home, she has to deal with the conflicting feelings of motherly concern for her son as well as the fear that he could upset the direction she was taking her life without him. Kai is off his bipolar meds, causing severe mood swings between manic behavior and severe depression, and she has doubts as to whether she can help him get his life together, or if he will even allow her to do so. Ultimately, it is up to Kai, to set his priorities and direct his life in the path he wants it to follow.

Quinn is a master storyteller who creates dynamic, emotionally-rich characters who drive his stories, and this is no exception. His insight into the challenges facing bipolar individuals is extraordinary, as he takes us through Kai's mindset as he juggles his prescribed medications while weaning himself off his painkillers. Maura's reflections on Kai's situation are also revealing, as she carries a certain amount of guilt about Kai's genetic condition, and secretly worries that it might also afflict the baby she now carries. While the character studies were great, I did find the overall story a bit simplistic and predictable. Still, it is recommended, with four clearheaded stars out of five.

With most of its action set in South Florida The Boomerang Kid is a comforting exploration of what it means to be a family, the power of love, and the all-embracing need for emotional security. At fifty-one Maura Ostryder never imagined that her twenty-seven year old son Kai would be returning to the fold. Emotionally damaged and unable to live in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, Kai seeks solace in the home of his childhood, desperate outrunning everything he's left. Only the leaving of Robin, his new boyfriend is his one regret, but he knows he most escape his bad year and his growing addiction to pain killers. It is imperative, however that Kai return to his medications for his bi-polar disorder, even as he feels weighed down by his never-ending responsibilities, that of finding work as a carpenter and dealing with his increasingly confused affections for Robin, who almost overnight seems to have become the love of his life. Certainly his mother's home is seen as a refuge from potential calamity, a place where Kai can seek to redefine himself and the relationships with those around him.

Maura is at first surprised when she gets the worrying phone call from her ex-husband Rhett telling her that Kai will be returning, the news coming at a strange and positive time when things have been going so well for her. Even as she senses that her only son is slipping, her own life has recently been full of blessings. Just a month earlier, Maura had discovered she was pregnant again. After the initial shock, she has decided she was quietly pleased. She feels nothing but affection and love for her new partner Matt, their lives as neatly arranged "as the bowl of red apples on the dining room table." Maura just wishes that Kai would finally get his act together even as she remains haunted by Kai's suicide attempt when he was only nine, the signs of her son's uniqueness and then the shifting diagnosis, each grimmer than the last, and that of the final rapid-cycling conclusion of Type ii bipolar disorder.

After the diagnosis Maura's life became more than ever about her son as she found herself bending to shield him from the emotional winds that seemed to come at him like a hurricane. Now, back at home, and surrounded by all that is familiar, Kai is drawn to his mother's understanding ways while also deeply cognizant this only she can perhaps help him through this difficult and emotional period. Gravitating between mania and fatigue, Kai begins to talk to his mother, his hands trembling as he smokes and drinks endless cups of coffee. But even as he sits in Maura's kitchen, staring vacantly out over the bay window across the table, he just can't seem to erase the tape and its endless loop that torments him afresh with every repetition, his moods descending and cycling ever more rapidly from low to high, then to low.

Something is certainly wrong or he wouldn't have decided to come home. Maura's mission is to understand her son again even as she must cope with her own flurrying needs and the realization that Kai has gone off his meds and that he's probably hurt Robin terribly. A deeply empathetic woman, Maura understands that its only natural that her son would seek comfort from painkillers so that he's not anxious and scared all the time. Certainly their journey is one of love and understanding as Maura and Kai must navigate a complicated set of circumstances. It isn't hopeless - Maura had seen him through worse and she'd see him through this. But it is in this delicately written domestic drama that the bonds of mother and child are only ever loosened and never broken. Maura wonders how her son is going to resolve his relationship with Robin and go about rebuilding his life in this world of his adulthood. Meanwhile, she must continue to deal with Matt`s needs: "a man of action, and not a lot for glib promises," Matt proves to be so wonderful and understanding about Kai even as he has initial reservations about integrating Kai into their lives.

Much of the action in the Boomerang Kid takes place in Maura's kitchen, in her living room, or on her porch as Kai quietly sits and contemplates the brown prescription bottle and the lovely little blue pills in his chest of draws right underneath his bedroom window. A gateway to just letting him float and think, Kai must find a way to overcome their lure, a feat that can only be accomplished when Robin, by the grace of his good intentions, turns up in center of this drama, accepting an invite to spend Thanksgiving weekend with Kai, Maura, and Matt and Maura's gentle but solitary boss Bill Kellogg. All the while, Kai secretly hopes that his lover will move down to be with him for good.

Jay Quinn seems to capture perfectly the essence of a conflicted young man, both at war with his sexuality and his bipolar disorder, and that of his mother who gravitates sometimes selfishly between wanting to be free of Kai's anxiety yet constantly bound by her motherly love. Naturally her life has become so intertwined with Matt's that she has a nagging sense that Kai's return isn't going to be as easy as she had hoped. While the business of her son frequently keeps nagging at Maura, "like a dingy tied up at her stern," Matt remains her pillar of trust and a trusted soul mate who is virtually irreplaceable. For Kai though, there are far too many memories and this sense of emptiness that threatens to claim him. Perhaps it is only through his bourgeoning love for Robin that he can perhaps finally put some of his long-held demons to rest. Mike Leonard 2008.

Jay Quinn is not a "queer writer" - he is a first rate author who has written one perfect book after another and who has, fortunately for us, a grand career ahead of him.

The Boomerang Kid is an illuminating story of what it means to be bi-polar, a heartwarming love story and a great read. Jay has absolutely hit the nail on the head with his description of the transaction that takes place between an addicted or very sick person who has repeatedly disappointed those he loves and his lover. Word for word and sentence after sentence this is exactly what is felt and what is said.

Yes, the story is about a gay couple. It absolutely proves that there is little difference between the essential dynamics of a gay or straight couple. Loving is hard, no matter who you are or how old you are. If you work at it, the rewards are like nothing on earth.

We are lucky to have Jay Quinn write for us.

Jay Quinn never leaves me hanging. I loved The Good Neighbor & I was certain I would love The Boomerang Kid. This is a wonderful book, with an amazing plot & amazing characters. This book will be enjoyed, & will not disappoint you.

Great Summer read. Thank you for this wonderful book. I enjoyed every moment of it. Can't wait to read other books from the author.

I've read all of Jay Quinn's novels, and although I thought he couldn't top "The Good Neighbor", he did so with "The Boomerang Kid". Wonderful character development and ancillary technical knowledge/information. I highly recommend it.