Sticky Kisses

Sticky Kisses is a bright, innovative novel throbbing with pertinent ideas. It is the story of a family focusing more on the uncommon theme of sibling relationship rather than the more popular area of complexities between parents and children. Thom, a gay real estate agent has been estranged from his family for years. When his sister Abby comes to visit him, both Thom and their mother have expectations as to the reasons for her visit. However, it is Abby's determination to use the visit as a means for exploring her own needs as she was unable to do in the sheltered nest of her mother's home. From there follows a moving story of the changing relations of this family in the midst of confronting unexpected obstacles and overcoming bitter resentment.The characters have slow, contemplative natures. Both Thom and Abby, the most intensely "real" characters, don't seem to make decisions for their future based on moral deductions but through carefully filtering their emotions of the past. This is really against their catholic upbringing in a strong, but understated way. The way they moved between memories of the past and the actions of the present was quite eloquent. It's very sad in a way, not just the multiple tragedies which besiege the characters, but their inability to communicate their pain to each other amidst such close, free relationships. The thing that stays with me the most is thinking of Connie's character. He's quite a perplexing person since he's so outwardly jubilant, but inwardly tortured by drugs and his tumultuous relationship with his father (imagined or not?). It's interesting how the families are paired: the connection that Connie and his mother were unable to form because of death, Thom and Lucille find because they both seem to realize how fleeting their chances are. Or at least this is Thom's realization as we're not given Lucille's "reasoning" for her change of heart rather than her declaration of the importance of family. It is touching also how each tragedy seems paired with a reprieve from suffering, through moments of isolated joy like Thom's encounter with the boy in the public toilet or his "angel" male nurse. At one point Philip quotes to Abby: "Sick people form such deep, sincere attachments." This mysterious quote sets the tone for the rest of the novel. It gives the character's moments of blissful revelation a sinister edge, like deceit and tragedy are just around the corner. This is a novel of compelling strength rendered with a fine talent.

At the heart of Sticky Kisses, Greg Johnson's paean to friendship, is a startling premise: where family divides, friendship re-unites. Abby Sadler flies from Philadelphia to Atlanta to attempt a reconciliation with her brother Thom, who she has just learned has tested HIV-positive. A mysterious lover and Thom's group of interesting friends keep her in Atlanta. Love is fleeting in this novel, but friendships survive. Eventually, this circle of friends attracts Thom's estranged mother and an unhappily married woman whom Abby has recently met. Sexual love and family bonds may be uncertain, but the circle of friends holds. Friends die, but still the circle holds. Johnson sets a realistic scene amid Atlanta's urban society, homosexual and heterosexual. He turns an unflinching eye on the infringements created by AIDS. His management of time and point-of-view is adroit, but it is his characters-Abby, Thom, and their friends-who make Sticky Kisses a story that commands our attention. In the face of AIDS, intolerance, possessiveness and fear, Greg Johnson has given us one of the most uplifting and hopeful novels I've read in years.

If you like stories about family relationships, or about love, or about the South, you will love Greg Johnson's STICKY KISSES. The novel is set in Atlanta, which he portrays beautifully, but the people here could live anywhere. The novel travels through the world of a family in distress over individual issues, but the core problem is the homosexuality of a devoted -- but distanced -- son and brother. Johnson weaves a powerful tale as the family slowly glues itself together,finally welcoming not only one another but the family's extended friendships as well. Johnson writes with an easy tenderness that can make you laugh as easily as it makes you cry. If you haven't yet discovered Greg Johnson, author of the gripping Pagan Babies, two-time winner of the Georgia Author of the Year Award, and biographer of Joyce Carol Oates, now is the time to find him. His work is a jewel.

Greg Johnson's prose is exquisite, effervescent at times; his writing tingles, excites, and then evaporates into the senses, leaving only the faintest and most delicious hint that his words were ever there. Like the snow in novel's opening sentences, the relationships in STICKY KISSES swirl--mother, daughter, son--often with dizzying poignancy against the backdrop of a larger family of friends and former lovers. Yet STICKY KISSES, like all of Johnson's writings, remains clearly focused on its subjects, proving Johnson's talent as a careful, precise observer of life-or, as has been said about Johnson's writing, a careful, precise creator of life.When Johnson is at his best--and STICKY KISSES is Johnson at his best--the reader becomes imbued with the undeniable sense that these are real, living people. Johnson has gained a literary reputation by building convincing characters out of the important details. When reading Johnson, it is almost impossible to believe that one is reading "fiction," so engrossed one becomes in the very real lives of his characters.By fearlessly delving into the complex and irrevocable ties of family and blood (a purposeful allusion to the catalyst of Thom's phone call at the beginning of the novel), Johnson allows us to delve deep into these intrinsically familiar but all-too-baffling human complexities and the connections that bind us all.

I found this story of an HIV-positive man and his sister, and their surrounding network of family and friends, to be absorbing and moving. Thom Sadler is one of the most likable characters I've read about recently, and I loved the way the novel is kept lively through his interactions with those he loves and/or tries to love. I liked the author's first novel, "Pagan Babies," but this one has more maturity and staying power. A great read!