Comfort And Joy [Paperback]

Jim Grimsley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Algonquin (1999)
• ASIN: B000OIPAY4
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Comforting, October 29, 2003

By 

James Hiller (Beaverton, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Comfort and Joy (Paperback)

I must admit to not be a true connoisseur of gay fiction. Some of the stuff I tried reading in the past is a conglomeration of a convoluted plot that usually ends up with the main character sleeping with all of the other characters in the book before the yawner close. However, my boyfriend, who reads far more gay fiction than I, has been steering me around this world and introducing me to gay fiction that's not only rich, but compelling. Thus is the truth about Jim Grimsley's book, "Comfort and Joy".

He writes the story of Ford, dashing doctor who's struggling with his identity despite his intense feelings, and Dan, an introverted, kind man with secrets to hide. Off the bat, the pairing of these two characters grabbed me: that the handsome Ford, who so easily could have fallen into caricature, finds within Dan a world of possibilities, not entirely based on appearances. In fact, what initially grabs Ford is Dan's voice, after hearing him sing in a hospital Christmas concert.

In fact, Christmas keeps rattling around this couple as they decide to spend the holiday with each other first, and then to travel to meet Dan's somewhat accepting parents in North Carolina. This scenario is played out well, as we know Dan's initial shyness would be such a huge barrier to truly get to know him, that we finally learn more about him through his interesting family. Grimsley here too doesn't fall into stereotypes, but makes Dan's poorer family diverse enough to question Dan's sexuality but still welcome the couple with open arms.

As all of this swirls around, the main focus is the couple hood of Dan and Ford. From it comes a sense of honesty, and permanence. You know, despite the major issues they must deal with, the strong undercurrent of their affection and love will hold them steady.

In an age where breakups are a dime a dozen, and we celebrate the disposable relationships, "Comfort and Joy" adds its beautiful discordant tone to that chord, and makes for a wonderful, engaging read.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goodbye Gothic: Grimsley's Upscale, Hopeful Tidings, June 21, 2000

By 

"[e-mail]" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comfort and Joy (Hardcover)

Readers of Jim Grimsley's earlier novels--"Winter Birds," "Dream Boy," and "My Drowning"--might be surprised by the title of his new novel, "Comfort & Joy," for there is little of either in his other writings. But this one has both as Dan Crell and Ford McKinney put their fragile, unlikely relationship to the test of coming out to their families--because they refuse to spend another Christmas apart.

Grimsley's style is unadorned and understated. His familiar gothicism is replaced by a modern South with conflict set amidst affluence--the conflict of two men's vastly different backgrounds and their families' vastly differing expectations of them. Their pasts constantly threaten to swallow up their chances. Dan is an HIV+ administrator in the Atlanta hospital where Ford McKinney is completing his residency. (Readers of Winter Birds remember Danny, the hemophiliac child who narrates the drunken binges of a father who terrorizes his family with violence just short of murder.) Ford is the privileged, only son of old Savannah gentility: his parents have his life planned. Like grandfather and father, he'll be a physician and marry into Country Club society. They even pick the girl. When Ford insists he'll make his own choices and may not be the "marrying type," they still don't get it.

Dan's mother isn't exactly comfortable with her son's homosexuality, but her life on the brink of disaster has taught her that what counts is the love between herself and her children. That Danny is gay could never diminish her love for him, and when he brings Ford to her trailer in the back woods of North Carolina, she welcomes them.

As divisive as the strain between Ford and his family is, the most intense struggles are waged within the lovers themselves as they fight against their own cultures and natures. Both have pride bred in the bone, and Dan's dirt-poor heritage and hemophilia along with Ford's inability to conceive how money could be an issue often threaten to undo them.

"Comfort & Joy" is about uncovering the self and discovering a relationship. While every gain is forged in pain, it is a book of hope--a story ending on the day after Christmas full of tidings of comfort and joy.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tender romance with a dark past, August 28, 2001

By 

klavierspiel "klavierspiel" (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Comfort and Joy (Hardcover)

Although _Comfort and Joy_ shares characters with an earlier work by Grimsley, _Winter Birds_, the two novels could not be more different. Whereas the earlier work is a dark, harrowing tale of violence and domestic abuse, the present novel chronicles the hesitant, tender romance between a grown-up Dan Crell, coping with hemophilia and HIV as well as the scars left by his upbringing, and Ford McKinney, a handsome doctor from a rich family. They meet at the hospital where Dan is an administrator and Ford is a resident, fall in love and struggle with the issues so many gay male couples face: intimacy, money and their families. Though occasionally there is clumsy expository dialogue, surprising for a writer as skilled as Grimsley, and a false note or two in the romance, ultimately the author convinces the reader of his central argument. The contrasting holiday scenes in the Atlanta household and the humble residence of Dan's mother, now remarried, in South Carolina show that the rigid gentility of Ford's well-to-do Atlanta family constitutes its own kind of domestic abuse. One roots for the survival of this unlikely couple, and is uplifted by the ambiguous but hopeful ending. I read the earlier _Winter Birds_ some time after finishing _Comfort and Joy_ and realized that, despite the dramatic contrast in tone between the two, knowing the former adds depth to the later story and increases one's appreciation of both works.