Yes, Daddy
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- ¥1,500
発行者による作品情報
"A gut-churning, heart-wrenching, blockbuster of a first novel . . . Parks-Ramage is an extraordinary new talent and Yes, Daddy is truly something special." —Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things
A propulsive, scorching modern gothic, Yes, Daddy follows an ambitious young man who is lured by an older, successful playwright into a dizzying world of wealth and an idyllic Hamptons home where things take a nightmarish turn.
Jonah Keller moved to New York City with dreams of becoming a successful playwright, but, for the time being, lives in a rundown sublet in Bushwick, working extra hours at a restaurant only to barely make rent. When he stumbles upon a photo of Richard Shriver—the glamorous Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and quite possibly the stepping stone to the fame he craves—Jonah orchestrates their meeting. The two begin a hungry, passionate affair.
When summer arrives, Richard invites his young lover for a spell at his sprawling estate in the Hamptons. A tall iron fence surrounds the idyllic compound where Richard and a few of his close artist friends entertain, have lavish dinners, and—Jonah can’t help but notice—employ a waitstaff of young, attractive gay men, many of whom sport ugly bruises. Soon, Jonah is cast out of Richard’s good graces and a sinister underlay begins to emerge. As a series of transgressions lead inexorably to a violent climax, Jonah hurtles toward a decisive revenge that will shape the rest of his life.
Riveting, unpredictable, and compulsively readable, Yes, Daddy is an exploration of class, power dynamics, and the nuances of victimhood and complicity. It burns with weight and clarity—and offers hope that stories may hold the key to our healing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Parks-Ramage debuts with an uneven exploration of abuse at the hands of powerful men in the New York City theater world and the aftermath of violence. In 2011, college student Jonah Keller's preacher father forces him into gay conversion therapy, and Jonah flees his home in Illinois for New York City, where he hopes to become a writer. There, he works as a waiter and meets Pulitzer-winning playwright Richard Shriver, and is thrilled to receive continued attention via text messages ("Daddy could be my new drug," thinks Jonah, in between bumps of cocaine during a shift). Just months into their relationship, Richard invites Jonah to stay at his compound in the Hamptons for the summer. Jonah is thrilled, yet after arriving he notices the young, handsome gay waiters in Richard's employ are speckled with bruises, and considers leaving after receiving a warning from one of them. Then Richard manipulates Jonah into staying, and Jonah is raped by Richard and his friends. The final act, which finds Jonah working as a magazine writer in 2017, adds some depth as Jonah processes how he handled the abuse. Unfortunately, Parks-Ramage's frantic pacing and thin characters leave little breathing room, making Jonah's reckoning difficult to connect with. Despite the explosive material, this ends up fizzling.
