Customer Reviews

This Thing Called Courage: South Boston Stories

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a collection of short stories from the previously unpublished author J.G.Hayes. They all derive from the experience of growing up gay in South Boston - a predominantly working-class Irish Catholic section of the city. Like all good writing the stories reflect off of each other and reveal a collective strength of vision which is unique and powerful. Common themes in these stories are the fragility of love, the proximity of death, and the unexpected intrusion of the magical. The author is especially adept at coveying the emotional vertigo of growing up gay - it's dangers and joys. Most of the stories sent shivers down my spine. His remarkable story The Rain is especially haunting. My only reservation about the collection is the author's occasional lapses into didactic prose - but the emotional resonance of the whole more than compensates. Mark Twain I think once said that the greatest praise for an author is to ask what work he will be publishing next, and that's just how I feel with this book - I look forward to reading more from this author.

This is a fine book; it deserves to reach beyond the "gay literature" genre, to tap a wide, general audience. The stories are full of pain, adolescent yearning, surprises, what-ifs, and--in one case--the best description of a sudden fear of heights that I've ever read. You don't have to be gay to understand, empathize and enjoy it. You don't even have to be Irish, Catholic, from South Boston, or any combination of the three--although that might make the experience even more poignant. This is human fiction, well-written, vivid, relevant to anybody who's ever been young, who has felt--rightly or wrongly--like an outsider, who has stared into the abyss that must be crossed to change his or her life...and hesitated.

These stories are full of terrific characters--from a young man with a horrific secret that makes him quite literally (and convincingly) crazy, to a little girl who creates a uniquely Catholic method for protecting those she loves. There's even a fairy tale. Hayes breathes life into his "imaginary friends"; he made me believe in them so completely--and worry about them so much--that I had a terrible time putting the damned book down.

Susan O'Neill, author: Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam.

J. G. Hayes has written seven stories here, six of which are as good as any I've read in a long time. The stories are all set in South Boston. Most of them are about boys on the verge of being adults who are experiencing sexual awakenings that the Catholic Church, their parents and society have told them are forbidden and shameful. These boys are tough and sometimes bullies. Some of them live in the projects; all are from blue-collar famillies. Their futures in general are bleak. If they survive, they will be forever scarred. For most of these young men, their happiness of loving completely another man lasts for just a moment. Sooner or later, they will die in South Boston.

Who can forget Jimmy Callahan, a fireman with three children, two boys and a fragile daugher, and a shrew for a wife? Jimmy has one night of love with another firefighter. "But under June's [the wife] watchful eye, it wasn't long before Jimmy was back leading the life that had been so carefully planned for him." The reader understands that Jimmy will attend mass every Sunday for the next 30 or 40 years, will never see his friend again and will die a broken, old man.

Then there is the narrator of the title story who has to live with what he has done to help ruin the life of his high school gym teacher who, unlike the narrator, showed great dignity and grace under pressure. You won't quickly forget either the homeless, crazed Joey who sleeps in a "washer machine box" and talks to squirrels. When you find out why he is crazy-- what happens to his beloved Kev in addition to Joey's homophobic parents-- his father thinks all gay people should be put on an island and then have an "A-Bomb" dropped on them-- he will break your heart.

Hayes is a powerful writer who is so good at what he does that you can almost hear his characters breathe with forbidden desire. In these stories, although you are on a roller coaster ride that you know will end in tragedy, you cannot put the book down.

I loved This Thing Called Courage, consuming it in one sitting.
J. G. Hayes' stories reflect the reality of many boys growing up in South Boston and other similar working class communities. The South Boston of the 60's and 70's was a tight knit, insular community characterized by significant poverty and a truly unforgiving code of street masculinity and Catholic sexual oppression. Boys had to be BOYS. If you were queer, you'd had better keep it a deep secret in such a homophobic place. That was often the only alternative because staying in Southie one's whole life was a given in many families. The authenticity of milieu and character in Hayes' stories is created by one who obviously experienced it first hand. Hayes KNOWS what he is writing about and you feel it from his words. Being an interested observer of Southie life, I find Hayes' "Southiespeak" prose and plots ring true, illuminating a shadowed facet of the culture I've often wondered about. The courage in these stories is that of young men who risk it all by reaching out in love to another man, knowing the consequences could easily devastate them. The apparent lack of "happily ever afters" reflects what was undoubtedly the experience of many who dared to be true to themselves, and certainly of those who never did...

Hayes infuses these tales with a subtle spiritual understanding, deepening their meaning and resonance.
The spiritual instincts within his young characters are true (if nascent), belying the harsh and dogmatic claims to spirit drummed into them every Sunday at their neighborhood Catholic mass. Hayes has the generosity, however, to present the reader with an occasional priest or nun who understands the queer boy with deep compassion and acceptance. These unexpected acts of Grace lend mystery and hope to the sometimes bleak emotional landscapes one encounters in the book.

Just about every boy in Southie fancies himself a jock, whether he's good at sports or not. So it's only natural that Hayes' characters are drawn as they are. That is the norm, albeit an oppressive one. The inner conflict that arises when one's dawning sexuality contradicts internalized masculine norms can be tortuous and lead to self-destruction, especially when one is deprived of alternative role models. I can't imagine there were too many out and proud masculine male couples in mid century South Boston to show the kids what is possible. I hope this book finds it's way into the hands of the young men who , even today, have only the faintest hope that their best buddy might be like them. We've all been there. To take the risk to find out is This Thing Called Courage.

J. W. Hayes is one tremendous writer, but I was a bit dissappointed that the short stories in this book were mostly unhappy ending type stories. It makes one wonder if the percentage of young men coming out as 'gay' go through such a trauma. Maybe they do, I just don't know. Hayes second book, Now Batting for Boston has more 'good feelings' when you finish it. But if you want to read J.G. Hayes at his absolute best then I recommend you read his novel entitled. Map of the Harbor Islands. It will give you a wonderful example of Hayes writing skill and the novel is one of the most beautiful 'love stories' I've ever read even though the love story is based upon to young boys growing up into adulthood, where one of the boys is gay the other is straight. Map of the Habor Islands I could rate at 10 stars.

J.G. Hayes' "This Thing Called Courage" is quite simply the boldest, most audacious debut in the past 25 years. Blazing new trails in gay literature, the seven stories contained within offer a thrilling glimpse into the lives of characters male, female, blue-collar, churchgoing and above all proud. These fire fighters, cops, repairmen, recent high school graduates and others are notable for their honesty, their struggles and their genuine voice. None of this would be possible if Hayes' powers as a narrator were weaker. I describe him as audacious deliberately. As a writer, I appreciate reading the work of an author who is growing, stretching and continuing to learn his craft. "This Thing" is not perfect, but I award it five stars deliberately. There is something glorious in the work of an author (like Hayes) who takes the big risks ("The Rain," more below, could have been a disaster, but is instead spectacular); I would rather read an author who reaches and sometimes misses the mark ("Peter Pillsbury's Pride Parade" does not hold up compared to other works in the collection) than one who never reaches at all (remember that Joyce sometimes reached and missed, Chekhov the same, Kafka the same, etc.). "This Thing" has an energy I don't encounter nearly enough in gay literature.

Specifically, I call the would-be reader's attention to Hayes' narrative voice and his willingness to break the rules. Hayes uses unusual punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure and word choice. I believe his choices have integrity, but they might not be for everyone. Hayes does nothing without purpose -- readers must keep that in mind as they approach this work. Hayes' sustains his voice and tone within each story and throughout the entire work.

Hayes is interested in the metaphysical relationship between redemption and despair. Many of his stories pivot on a single choice a character has to make. Sometimes positive, sometimes disastrously negative, always understandable (even though at times I wanted to slap one or another of his character's upside the head), these choices are ones to which we can all relate.

The most successful stories in the collection are:

"The Rain" -- words cannot describe the emotional depth, realism, bravery and honesty Joe Hayes brings to this story. It is a breathtaking work by an author whose powers are still in their youth. Sad, deeply sad but so very powerful. Read it and see for yourself.

"This Thing Called Courage" -- at the core of this story are two characters who have been lain waste by life and their choices. This is the most cinematic of Hayes' stories. Stunning.

"Regular Flattop," the most optimistic story in the collection by my read, features characters I can't help but love.

A note to the publisher: the cover for this book is odd indeed. This is about as far from the "beefcake" collection as can be; I fear that this cover may misrepresent what is inside. And honestly, why doesn't the cover stud have a shamrock tatoo? Did the cover artists read the stories?

Buy "This Thing" at once!

I have just finished re-reading J.G. Hayes's new collection of short stories and I can't stop thinking about them. I'm excited; as though I've just discovered a wonderful secret. I feel like I've just read seven classic short stories in a league with Nathaniel Hawthorne, Carson McCullers, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
and Ferrol Sams to name a few. I mention these writers because they're great and they have disparate styles; and Hayes is both
great and disparate. The stories are all set in and around South Boston, an urban Irish-Catholic working-class neighborhood.
This is a connecting theme as is the awakening sexuality of the
young people in the stories. Most of them are coming to very
uncertain terms with their same sex attractions and the stories deal with how they cope with the overwhelming odds working against them. In "Regular Flattop" the death of a boy's father
causes him to reevaluate his circumscribed life and his feelings
for his best friend. "This Thing Called Courage" is the story
of a man who has to face a crippling betrayl. "Jimmy Callahan,
Married, Three Kids" is the tale of a fire-fighter who finds him-self drawn to a widowed co-worker and as a result he is questioning everything he knows about life. "Sister Bennett's Crystal Ball"
is a mystical story grounded in reality about the passions that
rage just beneath the surface of a group of friends. "The Rain"
is a tour de force story. The centerpiece of the collection.
It is exquistie, moving, thought provoking, sad, disturbing and
strangely elating. To tell too much would be to deprive the reader of an exciting experience. It is about the repercussions
of an event in the life of the narrator. Just read it. "Peter
Pillsbury's Pride Parade" is a Poe-like tale unlike the others in
the book. You won't be able to put it out of your head. The final story, "When Jesus Came To Town", is a wonderful story,
narrated by a twelve year old girl with a biting sense of humor who is trying to come to grips with her own personal demons. It's funny and sad and thought-provoking. All the tales in this collection are. And as I said, you won't stop thinking about the amazing characters you'll find here.
Hayes's prose is succinct yet vivid. It's truly cinematic. Actually, you can't help but see the stories unfolding as movies as you read them. In fact, I can't wait to see the movies that
could be made out of these stories! And I can't wait to see more
of Hayes's writing.