The Purging

Excellent read

This book is a short novel, however it quickly becomes a grabbing story. Any gay man raised in the south will immediately identify with Chitwood's excellent ability to portray that region and the diverse feelings inside the head of someone who is very very bright, analytically thinking almost every single action and notices how out of place he feels, mainly because of the type of friends he decides to spend time with, except for one particular character that he is infatuated with.

I happened to read this book while attending a music festival in Live Oak FL, part of the SoGA/NoFLA area. It really deepened the experience for me. Suddenly the stark contrast of the place, the music, and the people provided me with the perfect background to read this book.

"The purging" itself is the culmination of the final acceptance of the main character as a young gay man. It is a process that does not come naturally to him, but is forced by a number of situations converging on a breaking point.

The book also provides quite a few musical references, cleverly thrown around to suit the mood or sometimes even complement a major twist in the book .For those who like the way dry humor, love, and irony meet to make or break one's life, I particularly found that quoting The Smith's Morrissey perfectly set the tone for the coming of age feeling of a repressed individual.

Mostly the book is punctuated with musical references from the 80's and 90's alternative music, mostly The Smiths and Ministry. At one point it's even a plot element as the main character tries to convey a message while one of his friends is performing a Smiths song. You don't have to be a fan on those groups to get the book, but knowing the elegant nature and hidden messages in the lyrics of the Smiths adds another dimension to the book.

I completely recommend this book to anyone. I hope this is the first of many books to come by this talented author.