The Coming Storm [Hardcover]

Paul Russell (Author), Russell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

Told through the alternating viewpoints of four characters, The Coming Storm centers around a traditional upper class boys' school in upstate New York. As each of the characters' lives move towards a crisis point, dark episodes of the school's past collide with the current, growing confusion that reigns when a newly hired 25-year-old gay teacher and a troubled 16-year-old student get entangled in an illicit relationship. Brilliantly conceived and wonderfully executed, this is likely the masterwork of one of the finest gay literary novelists of our time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Disaster looms over the characters in Russell's (Sea of Tranquillity) accomplished fourth novel, as repressed and expressed sexualities clash on the sedate campus of a modern-day boys' prep school in upstate New York. Tracy Parker, a handsome, affable 25-year-old, is hired as an English instructor by prim, opera-loving headmaster Louis Tremper. Louis sees Tracy as a prot?g?, and masks his growing physical attraction as intellectual excitementAhis friendship with Tracy inspires him to resume work on his long-abandoned doctoral thesis on the writings of Thomas Mann. Tracy, meanwhile, is drawn into an ill-advised, illegal love affair with Noah Lathrop III, a troubled 15-year-old student. Louis's wife, Claire, is in many ways the calm eye of this tempestAshe becomes Tracy's confidant, and understands Louis's deeply closeted homosexuality. But she worries that her passivity and outward composure has dulled her soul, "allowed the flame to burn so low it was in danger of extinction." Russell is adept at elucidating the emotional desert that comes from denying passion ("Sometimes a clear conscience was the worst of all"). By alternating points of view among Louis, Tracy, Claire and Noah, Russell ambitiously demonstrates the longings and repudiations of desire between people who love each other. The storm of the title never hits with full fury, but as Louis believes, "some people, consciously or not, called the storm to themselves." Russell generously, and to melancholy effect, endows his characters with the power to temporally fend off the tempest while suffering the psychic erosion such self-protection entails. Agent, Harvey Klinger. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Russell (Sea of Tranquility) is described in the publicity material as "one of the finest gay literary novelists of our time." Here, through multiple viewpoints (not all gay), he gives the reader a troubled boys' prep schoolAone of those that caters to the sometimes inept scions of the wealthyAwhere trouble erupts when a newly hired young gay teacher (quite a charmer, apparently) enters into a relationship with a troubled 16-year-old student. The characters are well realized; the deepening web of conflict at the school makes for an interesting backdrop; and the writing is fine at times, although the book could have been trimmed considerably. While this is certainly a gay novel, it could have crossover appeal, but the often steamy writing will give some readers pause.ARobert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312205147
• ISBN-13: 978-0312205140
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,910,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a beautiful treatis on contemporary gay life, November 20, 1999

By 

Michael Leonard ([e-mail]) (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coming Storm (Hardcover)

The Coming Storm is a beautifully written quartet of differing voices each encompassing the different ages of gay life. This is a remarkably eloquent and stunningly realised fourth novel from gay writer Paul Russell. From the outset I was totally captivated by the lives of the four main characters - older, stoic, repressed Louis Trempor, his loyal, forthright, compassionate wife Claire, the self confident spohisticated gay grade school teacher Tracy Parker and the naive and emotionally troubled school boy Noah Lathrop whose sexual awakening and subsequent illicit relationship with Tracy provides the stormy catalyst.

Russell has a remarkable ear for dialogue and a gifted capacity fo creating contemporary , believable and compassionate characters. Characters who at different stages in the novel are forced to deal with their inner conflicts and emotional demons.

Russell also paints a beautiful portrait of quiet, sleepy upstate New York and juxstaposes this effectively with the urban, hip life of gay Manhattan. The issues of the novel are also its strength - friendship, honesty, companionship, and the beauty and honesty of romantic relationships that can mark the "rite of passage" between older gay guys and younger teenage men. Relationships that are made all the more volatile by the societal restrictions and pressures which are placed upon them.

At times funny, sexually frank and brutally honest. The Coming Storm is a "must" read for anyone who is interested in reading a portrait of the gay generations. Paul Russell has written yet another lyrical, edgy, sexy and fine work. I can't wait for his next one!

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Gay Novel, "Cross-Over" Literature Too, January 30, 2000

By 

Brian Kevin Beck "infovoyeur" (Whitewater, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Coming Storm (Hardcover)

This novel goes right onto my small "favorite-books" shelf. Here's why.

(1) Gay Lit plus Crossover Appeal...Is the novel "way too gay" to appeal to non-gay readers? A same-sex affair plus two latent men. And homosexuality permeates everywhere here, a subterranean force--magnetic northstar for some of the characters, toxic waste for other characters. But like excellent writers, Russell generalizes his material. Specifically, he takes a topic which is still sensitive, hot-button, contested, emotional (homosexuality), and makes it speak to general issues and many readers by deftly employing its grist (namely, conflict between self and society; tradition vs. change; degrees of self-knowledge; duplicity and appearance-vs.-reality). These universal issues are dealt with by all the novel's characters, the heterosexuals too. This dimension elevates the novel out a ghettoized gay-lib piece.

Oh, the novel is gay-friendly in portraying "our world too." But usually more subtle than slick. Example: how does Russell portray gay people "coming out" in the novel? Not in the quick-step speed-up of some Coming Out novels. Rather, like in the reality world--namely slowly; with clues and hints, some seen, some missed, some denied; with new insights into earlier events; with backstepping reversals. Complex and true--like life. Ditto for Russell's involuntarily-rich portrayal of internalized homophobia, and people resisting, resisting the beast within. (Early the novel is imbued with such Thomas-Mann type repression. Is the very end of the book melodramatic and politicalized--or a continuation of history and change? You will decide.)

(2) Aesthetic Artistry too. Russell can construct a solid novel. Structure? Skilled writers depict chaos within the frame of order, form, structure. (Or, they used to...) Here, the central "storm" analogy is unifying but not overdone, and the lesser echoes foreshadow and reminisce nicely. Narration? Russell excels at oblique narration carrying a character's thoughts which s/he believes are true, but which we the reader can easily question--the "unreliable narrator." Story-line? Russell installs sheer page-turning conflict, action, suspense--even the "progression of effect" whereby near the end, the sub-plots speed up and intertwine madly.

P.S. on pederasty. Some readers may raise eyebrows at the "under-age" sexuality. Others may sense a quiet tract in favor of consenting adult-youth (not pre-pubertal) relations. "Whatever..."

THE COMING STORM reminds me of (in gay novels) Mark Merlis' craftily-wrought AMERICAN STUDIES, but with more scope-and-depth. If your tastes accord with mine as described above, put this novel on your nightstand. It may go farther onto the "keepers" shelf.....

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Calming of Russell's Coming Storm!, August 28, 2000

By 

Shannon L. Yarbrough "Shannon L. Yarbrough" (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming Storm (Paperback)

After picking Paul Russell's book as a first read for a newly formed gay and lesbian book club, it has become my top suggested title of the year! I have read gay fiction all summer long, and Russell's book is top on my list. I quickly became absorbed in his characters, and his style of writing is just amazing. There are few books that I have read that leave me wondering where these characters might be now or what would be going on in the lives today. There are few books like The Coming Storm that touch me in such a way that I wake up seeing my own life from a different perspective. Paul Russell is a master of the page, completely predicting a "coming storm" in every reader's life. This is a book you better be prepared for! Our discussion of the book at the book club was truly touching to each and every reader, and I am sure Russell's book will do the same for you.