One Night in December by Terry O’Reilly

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I like the little bit of personal life details Terry O’Reilly sometime introduces in the stories: in this case it’s a news on the paper about an homeless man who died for exposure in a particularly cold winter; what could have been if someone had stopped and offered him help? That is what David does for Andrew.

David is a more or less 50 years old widower living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He had a plenty a satisfying life as a married man and father of 4 kids; satisfying above all since his wife knew about him being gay and conveniently closed both eyes in front of his “escapades”. To the reader David reports he was in love with his wife and that he went with men only for sex, but I found it difficult to believe, my idea is that David was simply not in love with his wife, but probably had a strong friendship and common interests, i.e. their family and life together as perfect parents.

But once his wife died, David has accomplished his task as perfect parent, and now maybe he wants something for himself. And Andy, the homeless guy with the beautiful blue eyes is like the answer to his prayers; truth be told, in an ordinary situation, middle age David would have probably had not so many chances with around thirty Andy, but Andy is on a downfall, he lost his wife, his job and his life and now has no option open in front of him. Yes, I’m probably a little hard with David and Andy, I’m not saying David is for Andy the last chance, but what I probably believe is that, being deprived of everything allowed Andy to reconsider his life.

The story is probably a little bit too optimistic, and sometime I found it a bit too “gay”: not only David and Andy were gay, but also one of David’s sons and also another relative I cannot say to not spoil the story… all in a family. But aside for the that, I truly enjoyed that the story spans for a long period of David and Andy’s life together, giving the reader plenty of time and chances to know them better. Actually at the beginning I thought it was strange, they seemed to rush into their relationship, almost from the first moment they met and I did wonder how the author would have filled all the following pages. The answer is easy, this is not only the story of how they met, but also of the aftermath of that meeting and the life they build together and also a little glimpse in their far away future.

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Amazon: One Night in December
Amazon Kindle: One Night in December
Paperback: 158 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (July 26, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1453699953
ISBN-13: 978-1453699959

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