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Jay Quinn's lovely new novel, Back Where He Started about what happens when families dissolve once the kids are grown, explores the nature of parenthood and home while unassumingly breaking new ground in fiction. Set in the outer banks of coastal North Carolina, Back Where He Started showcases Quinn's unadorned, heartfelt style, which can best be compared to Anne Tyler or Sue Miller, and also shows deep affection and respect for the author's Southern heritage.
48-year-old Chris Thayer has spent most of his adult life as a house husband to Zack Ronan, and mother to Zack's children Trey, Schooner and Andrea. When Zack leaves him (for his female secretary) Chris packs up the dog and moves to the beach community of Emerald Isle, North Carolina where he discovers that starting life over at 48 is just as complicated, frustrating, and thrilling as the first time around.
As he becomes involved in the patchwork lives of his new neighbors, which include a young husband-and-wife psychiatric team expecting their first child, the priest of the local Catholic Church, the town veterinarian, and a rowdy jack-of-all trades with an unnervingly direct stare, Chris begins to enjoy his new status as a man unto himself who is valued for his own contributions to his community.
To his unending surprise, he also finds himself the object of a new man's affections: the sexy local handyman who in turn sweeps Chris off his feet.
From neighborly interactions to the drama of a hurricane, Quinn, a native of Eastern North Carolina who now lives just outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. captures the feel and the sound of his home state with flawless ease.
But it is the movingly portrayed show of loyalty by Zack's children, who never let Chris forget his place as the heart of the home, that forms the soul of this remarkable novel. As he realizes how his choices have shaped the lives of others, he comes to understand that no part of a life lived well and lovingly can ever have been wasted. The stunningly realized final section of Back Where He Started, finds Chris, letting go and forgiving as the only way to embrace his future.
In the same quiet, understated manner that he demonstrated in his critically acclaimed first novel, Metes and Bounds, Jay Quinn gives the traditional Southern novel a decidedly untraditional twist.
I couldn't really blame Alicia. Certainly she'd want the first child of Zack's new life (I'd say latest if I were unkind) to be surrounded by fresh memories-not cluttered with the slightly smudged and frayed things that carried someone else's history. And what a history it was: incontinent pets, impromptu indoor field goals, cherished planned purchases, and nonchalant hand-me-downs. Many items bore the scars of sudden teenage rages-poorly patched and mended porcelain, chipped plates, and dramatically dinged furniture.
I didn't blame her a bit. Then again, I felt a small rush of amusement wondering how long Zack would have to postpone retirement in order to buy new things for an obviously ambitious and selfish new wife. Discarded for Alicia, I had certainly enjoyed buying new things for myself to start again. I'd put most of them on Zack's credit cards before he asked me-quite nicely, really-to stop.
I rinsed out the coffee pot and loaded the maker with fresh water and freshly ground beans, just like I'd done more times than I could count, standing in just this spot. Night fell with the full weight of late November's fatigue as I waited for Zack. It wasn't yet registering that this was probably the real last time, after so many dry runs over the past year.
I put another log in the fireplace in the kitchen, got a dog cookie for Beau, and watched him turn stiffly and settle on the bare floor by the fire. With a nod from me, Trey's wife Susan had put the old dog's long-loved, smelly, old rug out by the curb with the pile of other unwanted things that were too worn, dirty, or useless either to be kept or given away. I didn't even have a threadbare towel left in the house for poor ol' Beau to lie on. It didn't really matter. From tomorrow on, Beau and I would be living down at the beach in my new, neat cottage. With two bedrooms, two and a half baths, a loft, a deck, and a sun porch-even an energy-efficient gas log fireplace in the "great-room"-Beau and I would be living well, if alone. I considered the cottage my partial-ocean-view consolation prize. Still, after 22 years and three inherited children grown and happy, it was hard not to feel like Beau and I had been asked to leave the show just before the last commercial break, with nothing but Rice-A-Roni-"the San Francisco treat"-to thank us for our time.
I found my cigarettes on the counter along with the new red plastic lighter I'd bought on the way back from the beach. I thumped one from the pack and lit it with all the panache of a smoking veteran. Immediately I remembered how much I'd missed the habit. It had been seven years since my last cigarette, but I figured I deserved the little pleasures in life. Bitterness could kill you quicker than anything else, and I had decided not to be bitter.
I heard Zack's car in the drive, the purring motor clicked off with German efficiency, and the door closed with a satisfied, solid thump. Beau lifted his head, thumped his tail, and looked eagerly to the door through rheumy old eyes. I wished I could say my heart didn't leap anymore at the familiar sounds of Zack's homecoming, but I was bad as Beau. It was hard not to feel like he'd put us both out to fend for ourselves or find a new master. While I considered that, Zack came in large and filled the room, crowding out my thoughts along with the last echo of the sheer happiness I'd always felt at his homecomings.
"Hey-o, Beau! Who's a good boy?"
Beau struggled to stand, but his bad hip wouldn't let him. He rose on his front legs and whined. Zack took off his coat, laid it on a chair, and knelt to shake the old dog's ears and receive his wet tongue on his cheeks. Zack looked up at me and smiled.
"Would you like some coffee? There's fresh ..." I offered.
I saw the quick struggle in Zack's eyes. There was somewhere else he wanted and needed to be, but I knew he wanted to end this well. He'd never really been mean. There wasn't any meanness in him. He had just heard his life rushing ahead to its conclusion without him and grabbed onto something that made him feel young and manly and strong. "I can't stay long," he warned.
"No probs," I offered in return. "I'll get it. There's only Styrofoam cups left, I hope that's okay."
Zack stood and nodded. I felt him watching me, but as I poured the coffee, creamed it, sugared it, and stirred it just the way he liked, he said nothing. Taking the cup, he looked at the fire and said, "Is this wise?"
I sat at the table under his gaze and picked up my cigarette from the ashtray. "I still have a little packing to do, not much. Just my pots and pans. Susan and Trey wanted the everyday dishes and glasses. They're coming back in the morning with a friend's truck to get the kitchen table and chairs. You know our Susan: It was a last-minute decision."
Zack laughed and shook his head. His daughter-in-law's sentimentality was always a cipher to him.
"Andrea and David took the china and the old KitchenAid mixer," I reported. "Schooner wanted the blender and most of the other stuff. Anyway, I'll make sure the fire's out before I leave."
"You should spend the night. It's too far for you to drive after dark."
"Can't. There's not a blanket, pillow, mattress, or sheet left in the house after three trips to Goodwill in Schooner's truck. The kids took what they needed and we've put the rest out for a trash pickup."
"Did you remember to call to schedule it?"
I just smiled and nodded. Even with everything nearly said and done, Zack still got a smile off me. I'd lived with the man most of my adult life and he still thought I was the dumb, gullible 26-year-old I was when I met him. I dropped my spent cigarette into an empty beer can the kids had left from supper.
"When did you start smoking again?" he asked.
"Last week ... Sunday, actually. I stopped on the way home from Mass and got a carton at the grocery store."
Zack shook his head. "A carton. When you make up your mind, you never gone at anything half-assed." He chuckled and looked around. "The kids were like locusts. I thought there'd be more left, even after they took the big pieces to Goodwill."
"There were plenty of small things," I said. "I only took the Karr paintings." Zack and I had accumulated several oil paintings and oil pastels by a particular artist down at the beach over the years. Most of them were small, but there was a fairly good-size portrait of the kids on the beach we had Karr do one year. Trey was 16, Andrea 13, and Schooner was 12 when some weekend guest took the picture we had Karr paint it from.
Funny, I couldn't even remember who took it. I only recall I was bound and determined to have a painting done from it. Those were the years when I read Veranda and Southern Accents, which were littered with pages of ads for artists who specialized in portraiture for the young scions of proper Southern homes. As improper as our family was, I was absolutely committed to providing the kids with all the traditions and accoutrements that their daddy's money and my aspirations could give them.
"Chris, you shouldn't have let the kids have everything. You can't eat off those paintings."
"It's okay," I said. "I've had a good time picking up some great stuff cheap on eBay and at Target. I have everything I need, and Wade Lee has been keeping an eye out for a few pieces of furniture for me in some places up in Norfolk."
"What did you get on eBay? I hope to hell you haven't run through your settlement. I tried to give you enough for some security. I didn't mean for you to go hog wild spending money you don't have on interior decorating. If Wade Lee is looking for stuff in Norfolk, I can image he's looking for antiques, knowing him."
Zack looked tired, a little out of patience, and a little overwhelmed. He'd gone out of his way to make sure I got what he felt I deserved. God knows, he didn't have to give me anything at all.
"Don't worry. I haven't gone crazy. I just want to start fresh and new. Not to be bitchy at this point, but you understand that, I'm sure."
Zack nodded, then said, "I just want you to understand, once this goddamn barn of a house closes, I'm going to pay off the beach place and I'm putting the rest of your share in the annuity I set up for you. That's it, Chris, there won't be any more from me. Have you found a job yet?"
I looked in the fire, then very carefully got another cigarette out of my pack and lit it. Stalling until my fit of temper passed, I wanted to scream, No, I haven't gotten a job! A 48-year-old faggot who's spent the best part of his life raising another man's young 'uns and washing another man's clothes and dishes and sheets and towels and running to the dry cleaners and cleaning up dog shit and waiting on the furnace repair man doesn't have a job skill in hell that anybody'd pay anything for!
Beau raised his head and looked at me from the hearth as if he could hear the shouting in my mind. He shuddered like he expected a scolding of his own.
"I'm very much aware of our arrangement and my own responsibilities, Zack." I said as my temper cooled. "I don't think there's any more of that we need to discuss."
Zack sighed. Either he was too tired to fight or he was impressed with my equanimity. "Well, I'm going to take a last look around. Do you want to go with me?"
I couldn't look at him just then, so I just shook my head. I knew in a minute I'd be okay. I'd made it so far without being a bitch. I could make it through 20 more minutes.
Zack scraped his chair on the hardwood floor as he pushed back from the table. God, I thought, after all these years, you'd think there'd be grooves in the old oak boards underneath his chair. That was a sound I would never have to hear again, and I was glad. I was fucking delighted.
After Zack left the kitchen, I poured out his coffee and reheated mine. If I was focused, I could pack up all the past Christmas-gifted All-Clad, piss out the fire, load Beau into my Expedition, and haul ass. My leaving this house was long overdue. If Zack needed a long last look to torment himself, that was okay by me. But I had spent days, weeks, months saying goodbye to the life this old house had sheltered. I was beginning to feel if I didn't get out soon, I would somehow fade into the walls to become a creaky but unmenacing ghost that the new owners would have to contend with.
The floorboards upstairs betrayed Zack's presence in each of the rooms. I heard the upstairs commode flush while I shoved lids and cooking utensils into a box. I'd have to go back upstairs myself to take the lid off the toilet tank, and pull up and reset that fucking flapper thing so the water wouldn't run for days. I got so caught up fussing over my old resentments and freshly scabbed hurts that I didn't notice Zack in the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen.
"I guess that's it," he said, startling me. I turned to see him looking at me with what I didn't want to believe was remorse in his eyes. I still loved him enough not to feel good about that.
"You'll have the attorney FedEx the papers for me to sign for the closing, right?" I asked.
Zack nodded and looked around the kitchen. I thought, Please God, don't let him say anything sentimental. I'll not be able to hold on to myself anymore if he does.
"Aren't you taking the Christmas ornaments?" he asked.
For a moment, I was confused. The Christmas ornaments? I was sure I'd heard the kids arguing about them earlier that afternoon. "Oh, Christ, don't tell me ..."
"They're in the attic, still," Zack said.
He looked like he was going to lose it himself, and I couldn't stand that. Not now. That bridge was cinders and smoke. "Are there any of them you'd like?" I asked.
Zack left the doorway and walked to his chair, carefully stepping over Beau. "Do whatever you want to with them," he said as he pulled on his coat.
"Zack, I thought I heard the kids arguing over them. I had no idea they were still up there."
"Well, I suppose the kids will want them, they were our family's."
I nodded. It was up to me to settle it. But then, it always had been me to settle such things. "I'll take care of it, Zack, I promise."
Zack rattled his keys in his pocket, then pulled them out and laid them on the kitchen table before stooping to rub Beau's ears. "Bye-bye ol' boy. Bye ol' boy dog." Beau tried to stand. Zack reached across the table for my hand, took it, and squeezed it. "Bye-bye, ol' domestic partner," he said without looking at me.
I moved toward him, and as I did, he let go of my hand and picked up his keys. Without another word Zack made it to and through the kitchen door. Beau finally managed to stand and he tried to follow Zack. But when he got to the doorway I caught his collar and held him half in and half out of the cold, watching Zack as he left for the last time.
Beau and I stood in the chilly air long after the BMW's taillights had disappeared. Beau finally looked up at me reproachfully. "In or out," his eyes said. "Pick one." I let go of his collar and he returned to his bare spot by the fireplace and settled down heavily. At a sudden loss, I closed the door against the cold behind me and followed Beau back into the warmth of the kitchen. I had lost my momentum for leaving. I dumped the dregs of my last cup of coffee, now suddenly grown cold, into the sink and made myself another fresh cup. I wanted nothing more than to sit awhile longer in what had been the center of my home and my family. After being so adamant about not accompanying Zack on his sentimental journey through the house, now I didn't want to leave my kitchen. What lay down the road was only a sketch of a life, an idea. Even bare, the kitchen held the complete work of what I considered the best years of my life.
I sat at the table facing the fire and reached again for my ashtray and cigarettes. Over the past 22 years, I'd probably logged more time in that seat than in any other spot in my life. I'd listened Zack's dreams there. I'd nursed the kid's hurts there, as well as my own. Now, Zack's dreams had pulled him away and the kids were gone. Only my hurts remained. I decided to tend them there for just a little while longer, just a few more minutes, before it was time to get up, face the music, and move on.
Given the choice, I doubted I'd ever have moved on. My life with Zack and the kids was far more secure and comfortable than anything I'd ever believed I'd get or deserved.
Continues...
Excerpted from Back Where He Started by Jay Quinn Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Anonymous
Posted July 14, 2008
I have read many books by gay authors and gay themed. I loved this book of starting over. Finally someone has credited the fact that long before gay marriage there was gay divorce or longterm relationships. THe drama that unfolds and the self learning and realization of Chris and the others in the book is wonderful. I laughed and cried with the characters in the book. I was left wanting to be privliged to the rest of there lives and how the second half unfolds.
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Posted October 13, 2006
Quinn seems at first similar to Joanna Trollope in his focus on family life and in the study of lives disrupted by the death of relationships and restored in the discovery of deeper truths. Yet as you enter into Quinn's story you are confronted with a domestic diva and a quiet if persistant egomaniac, a Scarlet O'Hara writ small, very small. Not that Quinn or his hero(ine) Chris ever notice. As a novel of wish-fulfillment it is remarkable only for the gentiliy of its shallowness. No character in this novel is developed more carefully or described more lovingly than the interiors of the houses Chris inhabits.
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Posted June 20, 2006
Jay Quinn is an extraordinary storyteller, one who understands the masculine/feminine balance of both male and female. My own kids called me Mom for years, especially when they wanted a 'Mom' thing. It took them several years to break themselves of the habit because I never disabused them of what they called me--either Mom or Dad would be just fine. This book is one of the finest stories of a gay man who understands himself, his world, the limitations that it would put upon him, and how he must become his 'own man' in order to truly find fulfillment and happiness. Woven throughout the story are his religion, his concept of family, and certainly his place in a complicated world. As the author of an autobiography that carries much of the angst that this story embodies (See: Worth the Room: An Autobiography of Survival and Service, iUniverse 2004) I can promise the reader a book that will not be put down easily. Read it!
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Posted November 10, 2005
Jay Quinn tells us on every page, through the character of Chris, what a great mom he is, how pretty he is, how good his butt is, how he did the best he could, sacrifice, martyrdom and constant constant self congratulatory rhetoric. I found the concept of the story fascinating, but the writing sophomoric and its purpose to make everyone else in the book secondary to the greatness and grace of Jay Quinn. I had to keep reading just to laugh out loud every time he had another character tell him how fabulous he was. It gets ridiculous. It is a surface novel which screams 'love me' at the top of its lungs. I kept imagining one of Charles Busch's characters saying his lines. It's that corny. Too bad. If he weren't so wrapped up in himself and his need for approval, Jay Quinn might allow himself to go deeper and actually turn out to be a good writer.
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Posted October 6, 2005
Chris Thayer has been with his partner Zack for over 20 years. He has shared a home and helped raise widowed Zack¿s 3 kids. Suddenly he is thrown into a mid-life change. Zack¿s secretary is pregnant and he is going to leave his life with Chris and marry her, starting a new family. Chris is now middle aged, divorced and looking at starting his life over. He gets the family home and promptly sells it. He buys a beach house, fulfilling a dream of his. With the support of Zack¿s children, he is settling in and creating a new world for himself. Within that new world are new friends and loves. Jay Quinn guides us through, pain, fear, love and joy in Back Where He Started, Alyson Publications, April 2005. Quinn¿s piece is very timely and up to date, incorporating gay marriage in Massachusetts and other events from the headlines. This is a beautiful story about love, bonds and life in a nontraditional family. Having witnessed life in a nontraditional family, and aware of the rhetoric about family values, I enjoyed reading this book that highlights the strength of family no matter how it is constructed.
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Posted June 12, 2005
Starting Over, June 12, 2005Reviewer: Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews Jay Quinn has a gift for creating three-dimensional characters who become so visual on the written page that they seem like people out of a scrapbook from our own past. He tells a story that keeps our interest in a page-turning mode until the conclusion and along the way he manages to render some very fine prose and metaphors and always encourages us to become involved not only in his story but in some self-introspection.BACK WHERE HE STARTED is a tale of a poor kid Chris who happens to be attractive and whose life changes when he meets the Man of his Dreams Zack, a man whose is recently widowed and is left to raise three children - Trey, Andrea and Schooner. For 22 years Chris and Zack have a near perfect 'marriage' and while Zack continues his successful profession, Chris becomes the mom to the kids. When Zack abruptly ends his relationship with Chris in favor of marrying his pregnant associate Alicia, Chris' life turns upside down and he is faced with losing everything - despite the fact that Zack has provided for Chris' life monetarily under the guardian ship of Trey, the oldest son.Chris mourns then rages at his new single status, but with the complete support of his well-raised children he takes a big breath and begins a life alone. In time he meets Steve, a hero with a big heart and a passion for the sea and the land around where Chris has relocated - the beach of Emerald Isle off North Carolina. Steve and Chris eventually bond and are accepted by Steve's extended family and Chris' children and begin a second life together. Along the way we meet Chris' friends - a psychiatrist and his wife who provide work for Chris, the Catholic priest of the parish, Chris' children¿s mates including a touching 'coming out' of Chris' youngest son Schooner for whom Chris provides a loving atmosphere for the pairing, Chris' decorator friend, the local vet, etc. Chris and Steve weather a hurricane that not only secures their bond but also leads to open windows on each other's lives.It is refreshing to read Jay Quinn. He avoids most of the melodrama that can seep into a tale of this sort and he manages to provide a manual about family and parenting that is as sound as to be found in any book. Some quirks can become wearing - for some reason Quinn's constant emphasis on smoking borders on a commercial for cigarettes and in a time when smoking is a proven medical problem it is not only not additive to the story (must everyone smoke?) but also mildly annoying. This reader kept expecting some revelatory sidebar of having one of the characters die of lung cancer!But small issues aside, BACK WHERE HE STARTED continues Quinn's reputation as a fine writer of well molded and deeply felt fictional novels and just makes us eager for the next one! Highly recommended. Grady Harp
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Overview
Jay Quinn's lovely new novel, Back Where He Started about what happens when families dissolve once the kids are grown, explores the nature of parenthood and home while unassumingly breaking new ground in fiction. Set in the outer banks of coastal North Carolina, Back Where He Started showcases Quinn's unadorned, heartfelt style, which can best be compared to Anne Tyler or Sue Miller, and...