Hide
-
- £11.99
Publisher Description
An ALA Stonewall Honor book and a finalist for the Lambda Literary and Publishing Triangle awards, Hide is a tender, aching story of a hidden life in the recent history of gay love in America.
*The hardcover was an ABA Indies Introduce Pick, an Indie Next List Selection, and an
Amazon Best Book of the Month.*
Wendell and Frank meet at the end of World War II, when Frank returns home to their North Carolina town. Soon he's loitering around Wendell's taxidermy shop, and the two come to understand their connection as love-a love that, in this time and place, can hold real danger. Cutting nearly all ties with the rest of the world, they make a home for themselves on the outskirts of town, a string of beloved dogs for company. Wendell cooks, Frank cares for the yard, and together they enjoy the vicarious drama of courtroom TV.
But when Wendell finds Frank lying outside among their tomatoes at the age of eighty-three, he feels a new threat to their careful self-reliance. As Frank's physical strength and his memory deteriorate, the two of them must fully confront the sacrifices they've made for each other-and the impending loss of the life they've built.
Raw, gently funny, and gorgeously rendered, Hide is a love story of rare power.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Griffin's forceful debut novel examines the lives of two men who meet and fall in love in North Carolina shortly after the end of World War II. Wendell Wilson, a taxidermist, falls for war veteran Frank Clifton, and they live cautiously as a couple at a time when being outed as gay meant a prison sentence. They buy a house on the edge of town and rarely venture outside together, instead spending evenings in front of the television watching the broadcast of the local "Debbie Drowner" trial. Flashbacks illustrate their courtship and early years, and illuminate the difficulties in being forced to live a closeted life. They cannot even ask a stranger to take a photograph of them together as a couple. After Frank suffers a mild stroke and is subsequently diagnosed with a deteriorating heart condition, Wendell has to pretend to be his brother in order to visit him in hospital. As Frank's physical and mental health both begin to unravel, Wendell fights to keep their lives from falling apart. The novel's descriptive passages are too long at times, but Griffin manages to paint a compassionate portrait of a lifelong love that will linger with readers.
