The Year of Ice

Terrific Plot Line, Great Characters, Brilliant Prose Tyle, Great Humour.

While Malloy is certainly a talented writer, I found myself not liking the main character at all. My distaste for him made me stop reading, because I didn't care about him or his story. The format is very much like a list of events that happen instead of a story, but it works (which is impressive). I felt like the story hadn't really started yet and there was too much fluff in the beginning. All in all, the writing was good but I wasn't impressed by the main character, and it wasn't for me.

Brian Malloy's sensitive debut novel provides enough jumping-off topics to keep any book club talking well into the night...a high school senior named Kevin out in Minnesota, it provides generous food for thought on all of the following: dealing with the death of a loved one amid comflicted feelings about the person; the difficulty of parents and children to ever really see one another for who they are; the loneliness experienced by the most individual of individuals trying to fit into the society at large. Not just a serious novel, however, there's more at work here: like wry humor, a strong protagonist whose survival-against-the-odds beyond the end of the novel is a comfort to imagine; and the fact that that protagonist is allowed to be achingly human to the point where he's borderline annoying, not in a truly annoying-annoying way, but in a nostalgic-annoying way that will make older readers fondly remember, "God, I remember when I was young and the whole world moved all around me."...

It's 1978, and Kevin and his father are still adrift after the death of Kevin's mother two years ago. Kevin's due to graduate from high school, and in the pecking order, Kevin's near the top, despite his grades, but he has a secret crush on one of his friends. As the year progresses a series of shattering secrets surface, and the bond between father and son becomes thinner, which isn't helped by Kevin's aunt who blames her sister's death on Kevin's father. "The Year of Ice" is a beautiful story of anguish and grief, of finding oneself amidst a chaos of family trauma, of growing up gay and having to hide. Malloy deftly writes with a sarcastic wit that brings Kevin and the other characters of the story to life, and pushes this novel closer to the reader's heart. Definitely one of the best books of 2002.

So many books are typed as "coming of age" or "coming out" but neither of those terms does full justice to the voice and character that is 18 year old Kevin Doyle. You can almost hear him speaking the story to you as you read, and his wit, empathy and hope come through on every page. A book that is filled with the ache of what it means to be young in a world you do not understand, where you do not often know how you should take part -- Brian Malloy has created a story anyone who was once 18 knows all too well.An excellent use of setting, an array of well-drawn secondary characters, realistic dialogue -- these are the marks of a writer who will be with us for many years to come.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say at the outset that I can't be totally objective about this book. Brian Malloy is one of my oldest friends (we met in a group for people newly out of the closet). I've watched him write several books before this "first" novel came out. So I sat down with this book well disposed and I wasn't disappointed. Malloy has written a fresh book that really sneaks up on you. The main character is someone unusual in gay fiction. His is not a classically smart, bookish outsider. Rather, he is a high school insider, cool, good looking, a jock. And yet, his story rings more true because of that. You feel Kevin Doyle's deep sense of alienation from himself and consequently, from everyone around him. His tone rings true...by turns smart aleck, moody, angry, sensitive, and finally vulnerable. The best thing about the novel is that the gay angle is only one part, and not the most important part of the story. Mostly, this book is about the unraveling of secrets. Kevin has his own secret, but so does his bumbling father, his dead mother, his strong Irish Catholic aunt, even his friends. And as the secrets unravel the novel takes a surprising turn into grey territory. And the book ends paradoxically unresolved and yet satisfying. It mirrors life well...though by the end of the book you hope that Malloy is planning a sequel. You want to know more about these fascinating characters. All in all, this is a wonderful debut, even if I'm biased. Readers of gay themed fiction should appreciate this book, but I also believe that it should find a wider general audience. The truths about adolesence and family found in this book are universal. Thanks Brian, it was a great ride!

I'm not sure any of the presentation of this book shows how funny it is; Malloy's wit certainly makes this book stand out from your ordinary coming-of-age tale. And there is nothing icy at all about Malloy's narration; he has nothing but empathy for his young narrator as he navigates through life. It is quite an accomplishment to write with intelligence and wit and never lose sight of your characters' humanity--these are skills undervalued in American fiction. An impressive debut