Customer Reviews

Full Circle

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

FULL CIRCLE is one of those books that satisfies on many levels. First, it is a novel about the struggles facing gay men from childhood to advanced age in a manner that reads more like a non-biased fiction story than most gay novels. Second, author Michael Thomas Ford writes well, allowing his complex story to unfold in elegant prose that takes as much time embracing the beauty of living as it does in depicting the sour notes of existing. And third, it serves as a fine historical survey of life in the US from the 1960s through the end of the century - no mean feat in itself, but when woven so carefully with the intertwining lives of the three main characters it becomes a scrapbook of memories both good and bad of the times in which we have lived.

The plot is well outlined but other reviewers: suffice it to say it is the story of two close friends - Ned and Jack - whose childhood needs and differences bond them in a union that accompanies them through the coming out phase in college, through the bliss of a relationship, through the introduction of a third 'straight' young college man Andy who focuses his life on living at the expense of others but eventually becomes their communal lover, and accompanies the new triad through the horrors of Vietnam, of life in San Francisco and the era of drugs and free sex, of AIDS, of loss of loved ones, of impaired relationships, of the sociopolitical climate that resulted in the Act Up phase, through the fears and problems of the 1990s. It is the resilience of this friendship that carries the book through all of its avenues of the experiences that life challenges us all to survive or succumb.

If there is a flaw in this long novel it is the author's tendency for name dropping, as though mentioning Bernadette Peters and Ileana Cotrubas etc will lend credence to the story: for this reader that is unnecessary information flaunting. A minor point this, but one that stops the eye from the otherwise generously warm and fascinating flow of a story very much worth telling. Reading FULL CIRCLE does indeed drive the reader to a hunger for reading the author's other books, and that is always a solid marker for evaluating a book. Grady Harp, November 06

Neil Brummel is a 56 year old history professor, living in small town Maine with Thayer, his lover of twelve years. An unexpected phone call from his boyhood friend, Jack, awakens memories (both good and bad) in Neil, and Thayer inquires about the obvious effect the call had on him. To sort out the memories in his own mind, and realizing that Thayer deserves to know about his past, Neil spends the rest of the book relating his past with Jack, who was his first lover, and their mutual friend Andy, who is likely responsible for changing both of their lives tremendously over the past forty years. It's a story of lifetime male bonding, of two inseparable boyhood friends dealing with teenage lust, peer pressure and unrequitted love, going on to college and its natural rebellion and experimentation, interrupted by the reality of the VietNam, which they deal with in very different ways, then on to adulthood, seemingly changed into roles they would not have imagined before.

Through these three characters, the author expertly captures the spirit of the gay "everyman" through the late 60's war protests, the 70's growth of the Castro district in San Francisco, and the devastating presence and frustrations of the AIDS epidemic in New York City during the 1980's. But, above all, "Full Circle" is an epic love story of the ages, realistic and wonderfully told by an author who previously enterained me with his insightful, humorous essays, then impressed me further with his two excellent earlier novels, though this one is absolutely his best work to date. It is also somewhat unique among current gay fiction works, in that it tells the story of a group of gay men who are not the usual "twentysomething" or "thirtysomething" focus of such novels, but are baby boomers in their late fifties. While it will be especially embraced by gay men in that age group, anyone can and will appreciate this heartfelt tale of love, friendship and lifetime bonding. I call it a masterpiece, and give it five bold stars out of five.

Ned Brummel has always had a love for history, so when his partner Thayer encourages him to apply for a position at the University of New England, Ned jumps at the opportunity. The past is important for Ned; after all, the man has lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in American history - the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the rise of the 70's gay liberation movement, and of course the scourge of AIDS.

Ned hasn't seen Jack, his childhood friend in years. They parted hurriedly in New York when Ned confessed his love for him, the adoration shaped by an angel's message, a dream of Jack, showing him dying from love. The past, however, has apparently decided not to stay buried. An urgent telephone call from Jack opens a door that Ned thought to be long shut and locked.

At best, Ned has spent years trying to erase his tarnished memories, and what remains are faded possibly beyond recognition. Now he must travel to Chicago, for his best friend Andy - a companion to both Ned and Jack for almost thirty years - is dying. Both friendships were laid to rest when Ned came to Maine to start his life over again, when he left behind everything he knew and everything he was, to become something else.

Born almost exactly on the same day, Ned and Jack grew up suburban 1950's Philadelphia at a time when most new little about homosexuality. A funny thing, however, happened around the twilight time of thirteen. Ned's head began to swim with feelings of loss, coupled with a growing excitement he couldn't explain. Realizing that both he and Jack were gay was only tempered by the fact that they hadn't a clue how to act upon their feelings.

The boys developed a powerful and mysterious bond and at fifteen they fell in love with each other. Ned, caught between his affection for Jack and a society, which gives him no direction, felt as though he had woken up and found almost everyone else gone, having no idea how he and Jack could find their way on their own. They muddled through with the sex as best they could, "just two boys who loved one another."

It is in 1969 at college when their relationship faces its greatest test. Purportedly straight, the young and handsome farm boy Andy Kowalski casts a seductive spell over the boys, particularly Ned, who eventually gives way to his cautious desires. Only through Andy, can Ned begin to "crack from the inside out," sloughing off the old ways of thinking and being. And although Jack had been Ned's best friend for nineteen years and his lover for four, Andy is the man that Ned wants and Ned is all too willing to enter into the role as provider of sexual favors.

Author Michael Thomas Ford charts a formidable course as he skillfully integrates this fated trio with the convergence of world events, their lives shattered by the conflict in Vietnam, and the AIDS epidemic of the late seventies and the activism of the nineteen eighties. Covering almost fifty years of American life, the author presents the world from a uniquely gay perspective, detailing all the confusion, denial, anger and finally acceptance of a world where a group of people must fight to fit in.

Full Circle is undoubtedly a novel of memory, where remembrances are held like "a living scrapbook" and where Ned especially, wonders through, touching and seeing. But this is also a tale of history and how history can shape our life perspectives, and along with this, Ford manages to bring so many figures - pivotal to the gay rights movement - to life.

The author's prose is always perceptive, profoundly compassionate and nonjudgmental, as he focuses on Ned, Jack and Andy's individual struggles for connection and also for sexual liberation as they turn from boys into men. Although these three may have walked the same road together for many years, faced difficult choices, encountered crossroads, and traveled in different directions, friendship and love, and the unpredicted prize of forgiveness, will always bind them together as one. Mike Leonard July 06.

I have been reading Michael Thomas Ford books and novels for a long time now. This is the first time that his work made me cry. I'm used to laughing at his humor. I have a friends who is a little older and from time to time tells me what it was like in the 70's and 80's as a gay man. For a while I felt like my friend was telling me this story.

When I got to the last few chapters I was reading and noticed that I was crying all of the sudden. It's not often that a book can have that effect on someone. I would recommend this book for sure.

I've read Michael Thomas Ford's other novels with great pleasue, starting with the novels and only lately have discovered the other books. (The my queer life series, for instance)
I enjoyed last summer easpecially, and this last book, full circle, I simply LOVED! It is different from the other novels, the protagonist is narrowed down to one person,we are allowed to follow him from childhood into middle age. This gives a very good exposé ofhow gay life has changed in the US since the 1950's until this day, from the first gay lib and Harvey Milk through AIDS and to the actual era we are living in now.
By follwing this protagonist through his life and loves we get a deeper understanding of the tremednous changes modern society has gone trough, from the gay point of view.
But not only this; the portaits of the people are very precise, written with a lot of compassion and tenderness. The narrative is often moving, I found myself more than once almost crying during the reading of this book.
I have known some of the historical facts, but put like this in a novel, I've learnt more about what it was like to live during all the changes in the 1900's. And as the psychological portaits of th people in the book are credible and moving, even touching, I really enjoyed it a lot.
I find this Michael Thomas Fords best book to date.

Michael Thomas Ford has written the story of my life. If you were born in the fifties and you are reading this, he has written the story of your life. And if you were in Vietnam and are reading this, he has written the story of your life. He has done so movingly and beautifully. It is fair to call this an epic story, accurately mixing the stories of Ned, Jack and Andy with the monumental events of history in the second half of the Twentieth Century. Add to this great sex and you've got one of the best reads ever. The few minor oddities, like Richard Nixon being described as the predecessor of Lyndon Johnson and the characters' surprisingly consistent tendency to walk into a room just as a person is climaxing with someone he shouldn't, do not detract from the generally superb writing in the rest of the 422 pages. The author's previous books, at least his novels (I have not read any of his short stories), have been well regarded. This takes him to a whole new level and will hopefully be recognized by the mainstream literary cognescenti.

One of the most enjoyable books that I've read in a long time and the longest book that I ever read non-stop. It's a wonderful romp through gay history in the first person. Highly recommended.

WOW! Ned's life reached out and touched me in ways I didn't imagine when I first started reading this novel. I found a few similarities in my own life - growing up in the 60s - being a Boy Scout (I hated it!) - feeling inadequate - moving to San Francisco (I did it in 1981) for the freedom it appeared to offer - watching so many friends die from AIDS. I was moved and touched in so many ways throughout the story - his friendship with Jack - their breakup due to Andy and then Brian - and the ever increasing death of friends that numb you to life. Mr. Ford is an amazing writer!

I love this guy's work! Having read all of his previous works I must say that this was among the best (not that the others failed in any way). The story centers around three good friends: Ned, Jack, and Andy. It takes us from Ned and Jack's adolescence through their young adulthood, where one goes off to fight in Viet Nam and the other enters the seminary, while Andy finds a way to live his life off of sick and dying men. The relationship of the three does run "Full Circle" as we see at the end of the story. A terrific plot, great characterization, and a story that is very well told. You can't miss with any novel from Michael Thomas Ford.

Rarely in today's mass-market paperback world does a reader have an opportunity to savor the depth and breadth of a novel like Michael Thomas Ford's "Full Circle". Epic in scope while intimate in story, "Full Circle" chronicles nearly six decades in the lives of two longtime friends and sometimes lovers and the enigmatic third wheel who becomes a driving force in their lives. Ned Brummel and Jack Grace are inseparable boyhood friends growing up in a 1950's middle-class Philadelphia suburb. As they enter adolescence, they add sexual exploration to the usual teenage pastimes of scouting, star gazing, and comic books and seal a seemingly impenetrable bond. As the boys morph into men and enter their formidable college years, they meet the free-spirited and sexually ambiguous Andy Kowalski. With the shadow of the Vietnam War looming, Andy becomes the catalyst for bittersweet lessons in loyalty, betrayal, expectations, sexual identity, and the lasting bonds of love and friendship. The book follows the three friends through the ensuing thirty years, as they encounter an eclectic and thoroughly believable cast of secondary characters who crisscross the various intersections of their lives.

Ford, the author of the immeasurably pleasurable "Last Summer" and "Looking For It", has hit a creative stride with "Full Circle" and reaches a career highpoint in what those earlier novels promised to be an enduring literary career. "Full Circle" is a marvelous interweaving of page-turning fiction and gay history, where a memorable cast of characters weave in and out of a sweeping tapestry of imagined personal events set against an epic historical canvas. Indeed, history is at the core of "Full Circle", both in narrative and theme. Readers are treated to fascinating backdrops of war-torn Vietnam, San Francisco's golden-age of sexual liberation, and AIDS-ravaged New York while celebrating the lives of the characters who live, love, and die amidst the history unfolding all around them.

Ford has an uncanny talent for creating moments of candid intimacy, as in the heartbreakingly poignant scene where Ned's homosexuality is finally acknowledged by his mother. The poignancy of the novel is balanced with tongue-in-cheek nods to pop culture that harken back to Ford's earlier writings, and it is a pure joy to read as the characters marvel at the shoulder-padded delight of "Dynasty" or discover a serialized newspaper column about an unconventional group of San Franciscans written by a guy named Maupin. But at the heart of Ford's skillful blend of sentimentality, history, and humor is the idea of community and how gay men, in particular, come to rely on the steadfastness of that kinship with others that stretches beyond biological families.

With "Full Circle", Ford graduates from the ubiquitous "beach read" literary category to the more meritorious "rainy weekend read". And, at the end of this accomplished novel, readers will undoubtedly pray for more rain. Let the accolades and awards begin...