The Coming Storm: A Novel

by Paul Russell

Overview

Lambda Literary Award Finalist; Winner of the Ferro-Grumley Award

Set against the backdrop of a traditional boys' school in upstate New York, The Coming Storm is a delicately and brilliantly rendered tale that reveals the most closely held secrets of the human heart.

Russell's award-winning novel is the story of four interlocking lives - Louis Tremper, the headmaster at the Forge School; his wife Claire; Tracey Parker, a 25-year old gay man and recently hired teacher at the Forge School; and Noah Lathrop III, a troubled student - all of whom struggle with their own inner demons, desires, and conflicted loyalties. When Tracey and Noah become involved in an illicit relationship, dark incidents from the school's past begin colliding with the current growing confusion that all of them must face.

Compelling and poignant, this is the finest work yet from one of best contemporary American novelists.


Stonewall Inn Editions

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312263034
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/09/2000
Series:	Stonewall Inn Editions Series
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	331,077
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Paul Russell is the author of such novels as The Salt Point, Boys of Life, and Sea of Tranquillity, as well as The Gay 100, a work of non-fiction. He is Professor of English at Vassar College and lives in upstate New York.

Editorial Reviews

"Disaster looms over the characters in Russell's (Sea of Tranquillity) accomplished fourth novel, as repressed and expressed sexualities clash on the sedate campus of a modern-day boys' prep school in upstate New York." - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Disaster looms over the characters in Russell's (Sea of Tranquillity) accomplished fourth novel, as repressed and expressed sexualities clash on the sedate campus of a modern-day boys' prep school in upstate New York. Tracy Parker, a handsome, affable 25-year-old, is hired as an English instructor by prim, opera-loving headmaster Louis Tremper. Louis sees Tracy as a prot g , and masks his growing physical attraction as intellectual excitement--his friendship with Tracy inspires him to resume work on his long-abandoned doctoral thesis on the writings of Thomas Mann. Tracy, meanwhile, is drawn into an ill-advised, illegal love affair with Noah Lathrop III, a troubled 15-year-old student. Louis's wife, Claire, is in many ways the calm eye of this tempest--she becomes Tracy's confidant, and understands Louis's deeply closeted homosexuality. But she worries that her passivity and outward composure has dulled her soul, "allowed the flame to burn so low it was in danger of extinction." Russell is adept at elucidating the emotional desert that comes from denying passion ("Sometimes a clear conscience was the worst of all"). By alternating points of view among Louis, Tracy, Claire and Noah, Russell ambitiously demonstrates the longings and repudiations of desire between people who love each other. The storm of the title never hits with full fury, but as Louis believes, "some people, consciously or not, called the storm to themselves." Russell generously, and to melancholy effect, endows his characters with the power to temporally fend off the tempest while suffering the psychic erosion such self-protection entails. Agent, Harvey Klinger. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Russell (Sea of Tranquility) is described in the publicity material as "one of the finest gay literary novelists of our time." Here, through multiple viewpoints (not all gay), he gives the reader a troubled boys' prep school--one of those that caters to the sometimes inept scions of the wealthy--where trouble erupts when a newly hired young gay teacher (quite a charmer, apparently) enters into a relationship with a troubled 16-year-old student. The characters are well realized; the deepening web of conflict at the school makes for an interesting backdrop; and the writing is fine at times, although the book could have been trimmed considerably. While this is certainly a gay novel, it could have crossover appeal, but the often steamy writing will give some readers pause.--Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The lessons of E.M. Forster's carefully encoded fiction and of John Knowles's prep school classic, A Separate Peace, have been skillfully absorbed into this ambitious portrayal of contemporary gay relationships by the author of Boys of Life (1991), etc. The novel is a painstaking interweaving of the lives of four characters (whose several viewpoints observe the story•s action) in residence at the upstate New York Forge School, a Groton or Exeter-like academy that caters to the underachieving sons of the wealthy. Case in point: 15-year-old Noah Lathrop III, a moody, undisciplined bright kid reluctantly confronting the probability that he's homosexual. Noah's inchoate feelings inevitably focus on Tracy Parker, a handsome gay teacher (ten years Noah's senior) whose commitment to the Forge School ostensibly represents "his

Kirkus Reviews