Customer Reviews

Say Uncle: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was one that I just grabbed while wandering through a bookstore, and I fell in love with it as I read it. The characters are charming, well developed, and engaging. I laughed out loud, I cried real tears, I wanted the story to keep going. Each character was somehow flawed, and yet each had at least one redeeming quality. I have lent my copy to a number of my "bookish" friends, and every one of them has enjoyed it. It's a fantastic read.

Shaw did a wonderful job in this book. After reading it, I gave copies to all my gay friends, who love it. It carries a wide range of emotions and is highly entertaining. I think anyone who knows anyone who is gay should read this book. The characters are warm and the story line is full of surprizes. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I loved this book. it is well written, and includes very moving plot themes. i laughed outloud at several points, and at others was left wishing for some fast acting prozac. i just wish i could find other books by this talented writer. in the meantime, i suggest christian mclaughlin.

This is a book I could not put down. It touched me on so many levels. As a gay parent myself, it was wonderful to read the story of another gay man who became an accidental parent.

The author was quite clever in using three different points of view in the story. The book started out third person, describing the life of Michael and his legal battle to adopt his nephew. The second part of the book was told from the nephew Scott, and it was wonderful to see the world through his eyes. The third part was in Michael's voice, and that is where I cried again.

This book is heartwarming! It should help people realize that love doesn't come in preconceived notions of who parents are....it comes in many types of packages. I've recommended it to many!

A well-balanced child is raised by an eccentric, gay uncle in the wake of controversy and tragedy: Who but the most intolerant could argue with that storyline? But good intentions don't always make for good writing, unfortunately, and this book tends toward flat, unrealistically presented stereotypes and too-convenient plot devices. But the title "uncle" is indeed a character -- if not likable, a clearly drawn funny, outspoken CHARACTER. A cute read if you don't take it too seriously and expect more than is there.

I absolutely loved this book. Being a book cynic, it's rare for a modern work of fiction to move me - but this one made me laugh and cry and come away feeling good that there are still some writers out there that can touch me. Uncle Michael was a hoot!

I disagree with the review (above) in Publishers Weekly.

Of course, liking or disliking a writer's work is mostly subjective...and, more often than not, affected by the mood the reader is experiencing at the time.

I liked this book. I was moved by it. I laughed until the tears came. I like the author. He has a wonderful sense of what is valuable and fine in family relationships. His perspective on things that are important and things that are foolish or plain stupid is obvious -- as is the care he exercise not to put people down in a way that is mean.

This book is not perfect. It starts slowly, and ends too quickly. But somewhere between the first few pages and last few pages it becomes impossible to put it down.

Yes, the comparison with Patrick Dennis ("Auntie Mame")is obvious (it also reminds me of "Breakfast with Scot" by Michael Downing -- another of my favorite novels). Except for one incident (the elevator sequence), I think Quinn succeeds hilariously. But he also brings more to this story than Dennis -- great warmth and humanity.

All in all, a marvelous first novel. I'm looking forward to the next one!

This book was quite enjoyable and entertaining. I found it refreshing to find a Gay work of fiction that anyone of any age could read. Definitely "G" rated, yet it held my attention and proved to be a warm and positive adventure.

When Michael Riley is left to care for his baby nephew Scott his life is about to change on every front. His sister and her husband designated him in their will as Scott's guardian, and shortly after that a tragic accident takes both parents, leaving Michael to raise the baby, but is is not all so simple. Scott's grandfather on his fathers side is a traditional Southern Senator, and is outraged at the prospect of Michael, a young gay advertising executive raising his grandson, and so proceeds to challenge the will through the courts.

The story begins, third person narrative, shortly before the tragic accident, and follows Michael's initial refusal, and then determined at all costs efforts, to take on Scott. To help raise Scott he takes on Gray, a gay young French Canadian vegetarian hippie and part time Montessori teacher as a 'governess'. We follow them through the ups and downs of the court case. Scott takes over the account in Book II. Scott takes us through is life with Michael and Gray, his schooling and on into young adulthood, and describes the effects of Michael's progress from the initial struggles to growing financial success and becoming famous and very rich. Book III, is a short conclusion in Michael's voice.

This promised to be a fascinating story, but I was disappointed mainly because the humour got in the way. It is undoubtedly a very funny book, witty at times but often the humour degenerates into pure slapstick. There is no doubt the author can create some extremely funny scenes, and if that is what you want from this you won't be disappointed, but I felt that a lot of the potential here was lost for the sake of a laugh. Some of the characters are more caricatures; Michael comes across as excitable, eccentric and overly prone to histrionics, Gray as a excessively motherly to both Michael and Scott, and most of the other characters are extreme in one way or another. One of two incidences of the humour some might find to be in bad taste, and some scenarios are included purely for comic effect having little to do with the story at hand.

So for me this book did not really deliver, it had its moments, but it did not come anywhere near to touching on the real life of a young gay man raising a child from babyhood. All the possible intricacies, subtleties, problems or tender moments where regrettably thrown out in favour of farcical humour or acerbic wit.