The Sound of Your Voice by David Sullivan

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book; while I enjoy Torquere Press’s production, I’m used to consider it an Erotic Romance publisher and consequently I’m expecting all the novel to be more about the sex (not that this is bad, on the contrary). The Sound of Your Voice is a romance, no doubt about that, but it’s leaning more on the Contemporary General Fiction than the Erotic Romance, and there are various reasons to lead me to this idea.

First of all the period: it’s set during the ‘90s, when the LGBT community is more heavily impacted by the AIDS plague, and the young gay men are starting to realize they need to fight back since no one will fight for them. John is one of those men, always ready to go to a meeting against, pro, it really doesn’t matter, the important thing is that John is proving who he is… also since he didn’t have the chance to do that inside his family. I had the feeling that John is searching in the community the sense of being part of something he has lost in his own family.

Through a community service, he meets Steve, a deaf man who graduated at the University where John and Steve’s mother are volunteering. Steve is even more committed to being a useful social being that John, but Steve is devoting his fighting to the deaf community; being gay is maybe another obstacle for Steve, but truth be told he feels more ostracized for being deaf than being gay. And so the struggling Steve and John will face to build their relationship is not in them being gays, but for being different, Steve is deaf and John is not.

If I have to be sincere, I didn’t like so much John, and maybe he saved his character for me in the end, but it was a last call. I had the feeling that John is a little bit self-centered, and even a little spoiled brat. From big to little signs during all the novel, I really wanted for him to receive a close call to wake him up to reality: when he kicked a puppy who hadn’t done anything to him if not showing love, I really wanted to be there and kick him instead. Now if you know me, you will understand that I’m making a compliment to the author, since I prefer my characters to not being ordinary, and if they make me feel real emotions, good or bad, it means they are good.

I highly recommend this novel both for being a very good example of romance dealing with disability, and also for the reason that, despite the important matter, the story itself is managed with a light hand that makes the novel developing smoothly.

Amazon Kindle: The Sound of Your Voice
Publisher: Torquere Press (March 4, 2011)

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Comments

[ryan-field.blogspot.com]

This looks like something I'd be interested in reading. And it doesn't sound like it falls into any particular category, and I love books like that.

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Yes, it's actually more general fiction than romance or anything else