This Thing Called Courage: South Boston Stories [Paperback]

J. G. Hayes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002

Gripping Stories Of City Boys And Men Living - And Dying - For Their Outsider Sexuality; Doing their best to come to grips with being gay in a heavily Irish-Catholic working-class community - known for its fierce loyalty and strong, traditional religious ethic, the boys and men in these stories are caught in the crossfire of traditional values, Irish tragedy, and the inevitable intrusion of diversity. The result of this lethal mix is occasionally comic, often tragic, sometimes redemptive and sometimes disastrous, but always compelling.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the rough neighborhoods of South Boston, This Thing Called Courage is a collection of seven moving stories dealing with sexual desire among young, working-class Irish Catholic men. Author J.G. Hayes does an excellent job of capturing the conflicting emotions of his characters as they wrestle with "some bastard child of... shame and desire." In "Jimmy Callahan, Married, Three Kids," a firefighter is drawn to a widowed co-worker; the narrator of "The Rain" suffers a breakdown after a beloved friend plummets to his death; and in the title story, a repairman recalls an ill-fated affair with his high school gym teacher. These stories, often bleak but always deeply moving, are a welcome addition to the Boston Irish subgenre of hard-knocks fiction.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Characters' streams of consciousness and pop-cultural memories collide and overlap in Hayes' impressive stories about South Boston, where a cool D-Street boy would rather die than be thought of as a "faggot," and its resident "southies." In "Regular Flattop," one death conflicts with another, leaving a teen boy bereft, struggling to honor a promise made to his dying father and torn by his desires to live authentically. In "This Thing Called Courage," a butch 30-ish dude proves, seemingly unaccountably, capable of sophisticated recognitions of Aubusson carpets and pricey Balinese masks in the patrician condo to which he comes to fix the heat; but then he has an anxiety attack, because this apartment was once his high-school locker room, scene of the reason for his anxiety. The gentrifying neighborhood cracking down on the guys from the nearby projects is the background for the characters' worlds of internal torment and hope. After such an auspicious debut, we impatiently await Hayes' next effort. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 281 pages
• Publisher: Haworth Press; First Edition edition (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560233818
• ISBN-13: 978-1560233817
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,157,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thing of aching beauty, February 28, 2003

By 

W. P. Barton (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Thing Called Courage: South Boston Stories (Paperback)

I've lived in Boston for thirty years and have had more than a passing relationship with South Boston: tight-knit, tight-lipped, hard-edged, insular, fiercely protective of its own, fiercely loyal. So I was intrigued by the idea of a book of stories on "growing up gay in roughneck South Boston." But nothing could have prepared me for the profound emotional depth and clarity demonstrated by J. G. Hayes in his brilliant, electric collection. The writing envelopes you, pulling you deeper into the lives of his characters; quietly, deliberately, effortlessly. Descriptions of sky and grass conspire to lull you into a false sense of warmth and ease - in stark contrast to the relentless anxiety and heartache born by his protaganists. Mr. Hayes makes physically palpable the sense of a chill running down the spine in the midst of the heat of summer.
A favorite? They have a strangely cumulative effect. One reinforces the next. They have an undeniability about them that stopped me dead in my tracks each time. I want them all and then I want more.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Thing Called Courage has great humanity, August 7, 2003

By 

richard k. hendrie (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Thing Called Courage: South Boston Stories (Hardcover)

Joe Hayes has a gift for storytelling. Ostensibly, these short stories are about gay life in South Boston, a tough community of mostly Irish-Americans. He is anything but a 'gay' writer. The characters'lives transcend issues of sexual preference. Joe provides a poignant, deeply felt glimpse into the importance of loyalty & brotherhood and the price they may extract. He is a wonderful humanist with a enthralling literary voice filled with grit, humor and an unerring ear for the local patois of the denizens of "Southie". I am crazy about this collection of stories.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Revelation!, November 28, 2002

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This Thing Called Courage: South Boston Stories (Paperback)

Literary world take note: JG Hayes has arrived and with his appearance comes a voice utterly honest and unique, a style that carries signature traits that are never cloying, never 'au courant', and never for self indulgent effect. This gifted man knows that elusive skill of storytelling, a skill that is sadly lacking from many better known authors writing in this country today. For the uninitiated, and for the sport of comparison, think Jamie O'Neill ('At Swim, Two Boys'), K.M. Schoelein ('The World of Normal Boys'), and other writers of equal dollops of skill and courage in writing about gay culture, but the comparisons don't stop there. I think Hayes has opened the door to the ranks of Richard Russo, Annie Proulx, Seamus Heaney, Flannery O'Connor, Frank McCourt, JD Salinger, James Joyce, and a throng of others whose voices are unique and timeless.

THIS THING CALLED COURAGE: SOUTH BOSTON STORIES is a rich collection of short stories and novellas that dare to explore a corner of the world that includes a re-evaluation of the macho South Boston Irish image of a 'normal' man, challenging the Catholic Church from a stance of a believer instead of a critic, articulating the wholeness of mental and physical response of young lads coming to grips with their longings/lusts/fears and scintillations/passions/joys of that first encounter with same sex love. A huge bit of information to relate and explore, but Hayes does so successfully in this extraordinary first novel.

For this reader the amazing contribution here is his ability to tell seven stories about South Boston people, give each of the stories its own vocabulary and flavor, keep the stories tied together by soft references to names in other stories within the collections that gives the sense of community to the book, and tells each tale through the eyes of distinctly varied characters from Irish gang members to sexually repressed young adult males, to little girls, to narcissistic gym boys, to the mentally disturbed. Yet even more unique in the field of coming of age/coming out novels, Hayes knows how to describe the strange mixture of dreamy desire, sexual arousal, and abject terror that accompanies first physical encounters whether those encounters be heterosexual or bisexual or homosexual. This writing could never be construed as pornographic: this is sensual, erotic, and yet amazingly pure feeling that all authors attempt, few succeeding because of word traps like 'member' or 'manhood' or 'enter' that act as clods in the path of writing about sexuality. These 'clods' never even come into view with Hayes' stories. He maintains the dignity of his characters while allowing us to sense their passions.

To isolate a portion of this collection as 'best' is not possible for this reader. THE RAIN stands with the finest of tales about the various etiologies of mental illness (or reactive madness) in a completely credible manner. WHEN JESUS CAME TO TOWN slowly unfolds a richly charactered story as related by a cunning little sister with the courage to travel the tightrope of love for two brothers and the discovery of a family secret that threatens alienation from parents and church and the world at large. It is a graceful, tightly integrated story that ends this treasure trove book with lingering food for thought. Personal favorites will arise for the reader of JG Hayes: I was captivated with the title story (THIS THING CALLED COURAGE) and with JIMMY CALLLAHAN, MARRIED, THREE KIDS and REGULAR FLATTOP. I am left in deep admiration for this gifed writer and eagerly await his next book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED reading for everyone.