reviews_and_ramblings | The Agony of Joy by Red Haircrow

There are some elements in common with the recent memoir I read by Red Haircrow, Silence is Multi-colored in my World, such as the connection with Germany and Russia, the bisexuality of one of the two main characters, who is in love, and committed to a gay man, the almost dependent relationship between a younger, poor man and a sophisticated older one. So many in common, that I think the author translated in fiction, with some adaptation, people he knew by hand in his real world; I seem to recognize the boy of Silence in both Adrian than Yulian, but whilst Silence is a memoir, and heart-wrenching since there is no happy end for that boy, here the author wanted to give a spark of hope to his fictional characters. Despite the title, The Agony of Joy, and the sensitive matter it deals with, child abuse, Agony is not without hope, and actually, it ends with an opening to a possible, better future for these guys, one that maybe the author is thinking to share. Knowing the boy in Silence was real, and the author knew him, maybe he “used” Agony like a balsam, to put on the scar the loss of that boy left in him, to soothe the hurting.

Agony is not a refined story, sometime it’s even difficult to follow, my idea is that, like most of Red Haircrow’s writings, it comes from the real life of the author, and as such, it’s like a brainstorming of his mind and heart, and a storm is never planned. Despite that, the love-story plot is there, Adrian and Lexx are almost perfect romance characters, the ending is bittersweet but also romantic. In a way, knowing as Silence ends, Agony is at the same time agony and joy, joy cause in fiction an happy ending is possible, agony cause in reality, in Silence, you know that didn’t happen.

Amazon Kindle: The Agony of Joy
Publisher: Flying With Red Haircrow (February 17, 2013)

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The Agony of Joy by Red Haircrow

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