Full Circle

Rarely in today's mass-market paperback world does a reader have an opportunity to savor the depth and breadth of a novel like Michael Thomas Ford's "Full Circle". Epic in scope while intimate in story, "Full Circle" chronicles nearly six decades in the lives of two longtime friends and sometimes lovers and the enigmatic third wheel who becomes a driving force in their lives. Ned Brummel and Jack Grace are inseparable boyhood friends growing up in a 1950's middle-class Philadelphia suburb. As they enter adolescence, they add sexual exploration to the usual teenage pastimes of scouting, star gazing, and comic books and seal a seemingly impenetrable bond. As the boys morph into men and enter their formidable college years, they meet the free-spirited and sexually ambiguous Andy Kowalski. With the shadow of the Vietnam War looming, Andy becomes the catalyst for bittersweet lessons in loyalty, betrayal, expectations, sexual identity, and the lasting bonds of love and friendship. The book follows the three friends through the ensuing thirty years, as they encounter an eclectic and thoroughly believable cast of secondary characters who crisscross the various intersections of their lives. Ford, the author of the immeasurably pleasurable "Last Summer" and "Looking For It", has hit a creative stride with "Full Circle" and reaches a career highpoint in what those earlier novels promised to be an enduring literary career. "Full Circle" is a marvelous interweaving of page-turning fiction and gay history, where a memorable cast of characters weave in and out of a sweeping tapestry of imagined personal events set against an epic historical canvas. Indeed, history is at the core of "Full Circle", both in narrative and theme. Readers are treated to fascinating backdrops of war-torn Vietnam, San Francisco's golden-age of sexual liberation, and AIDS-ravaged New York while celebrating the lives of the characters who live, love, and die amidst the history unfolding all around them. Ford has an uncanny talent for creating moments of candid intimacy, as in the heartbreakingly poignant scene where Ned's homosexuality is finally acknowledged by his mother. The poignancy of the novel is balanced with tongue-in-cheek nods to pop culture that harken back to Ford's earlier writings, and it is a pure joy to read as the characters marvel at the shoulder-padded delight of "Dynasty" or discover a serialized newspaper column about an unconventional group of San Franciscans written by a guy named Maupin. But at the heart of Ford's skillful blend of sentimentality, history, and humor is the idea of community and how gay men, in particular, come to rely on the steadfastness of that kinship with others that stretches beyond biological families. With "Full Circle", Ford graduates from the ubiquitous "beach read" literary category to the more meritorious "rainy weekend read". And, at the end of this accomplished novel, readers will undoubtedly pray for more rain. Let the accolad

I've read Michael Thomas Ford's other novels with great pleasue, starting with the novels and only lately have discovered the other books. (The my queer life series, for instance) I enjoyed last summer easpecially, and this last book, full circle, I simply LOVED! It is different from the other novels, the protagonist is narrowed down to one person,we are allowed to follow him from childhood into middle age. This gives a very good exposé ofhow gay life has changed in the US since the 1950's until this day, from the first gay lib and Harvey Milk through AIDS and to the actual era we are living in now. By follwing this protagonist through his life and loves we get a deeper understanding of the tremednous changes modern society has gone trough, from the gay point of view. But not only this; the portaits of the people are very precise, written with a lot of compassion and tenderness. The narrative is often moving, I found myself more than once almost crying during the reading of this book. I have known some of the historical facts, but put like this in a novel, I've learnt more about what it was like to live during all the changes in the 1900's. And as the psychological portaits of th people in the book are credible and moving, even touching, I really enjoyed it a lot. I find this Michael Thomas Fords best book to date.

Michael Thomas Ford has written the story of my life. If you were born in the fifties and you are reading this, he has written the story of your life. And if you were in Vietnam and are reading this, he has written the story of your life. He has done so movingly and beautifully. It is fair to call this an epic story, accurately mixing the stories of Ned, Jack and Andy with the monumental events of history in the second half of the Twentieth Century. Add to this great sex and you've got one of the best reads ever. The few minor oddities, like Richard Nixon being described as the predecessor of Lyndon Johnson and the characters' surprisingly consistent tendency to walk into a room just as a person is climaxing with someone he shouldn't, do not detract from the generally superb writing in the rest of the 422 pages. The author's previous books, at least his novels (I have not read any of his short stories), have been well regarded. This takes him to a whole new level and will hopefully be recognized by the mainstream literary cognescenti.

I have been reading Michael Thomas Ford books and novels for a long time now. This is the first time that his work made me cry. I'm used to laughing at his humor. I have a friends who is a little older and from time to time tells me what it was like in the 70's and 80's as a gay man. For a while I felt like my friend was telling me this story. When I got to the last few chapters I was reading and noticed that I was crying all of the sudden. It's not often that a book can have that effect on someone. I would recommend this book for sure.

Neil Brummel is a 56 year old history professor, living in small town Maine with Thayer, his lover of twelve years. An unexpected phone call from his boyhood friend, Jack, awakens memories (both good and bad) in Neil, and Thayer inquires about the obvious effect the call had on him. To sort out the memories in his own mind, and realizing that Thayer deserves to know about his past, Neil spends the rest of the book relating his past with Jack, who was his first lover, and their mutual friend Andy, who is likely responsible for changing both of their lives tremendously over the past forty years. It's a story of lifetime male bonding, of two inseparable boyhood friends dealing with teenage lust, peer pressure and unrequitted love, going on to college and its natural rebellion and experimentation, interrupted by the reality of the VietNam, which they deal with in very different ways, then on to adulthood, seemingly changed into roles they would not have imagined before. Through these three characters, the author expertly captures the spirit of the gay "everyman" through the late 60's war protests, the 70's growth of the Castro district in San Francisco, and the devastating presence and frustrations of the AIDS epidemic in New York City during the 1980's. But, above all, "Full Circle" is an epic love story of the ages, realistic and wonderfully told by an author who previously enterained me with his insightful, humorous essays, then impressed me further with his two excellent earlier novels, though this one is absolutely his best work to date. It is also somewhat unique among current gay fiction works, in that it tells the story of a group of gay men who are not the usual "twentysomething" or "thirtysomething" focus of such novels, but are baby boomers in their late fifties. While it will be especially embraced by gay men in that age group, anyone can and will appreciate this heartfelt tale of love, friendship and lifetime bonding. I call it a masterpiece, and give it five bold stars out of five.