Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

IF you want to know what it's about, read the published reviews. I'm beginning to think that it is the emotional response to books that is important.

(view spoiler)[Tell the Wolves I'm Homeis a coming-of-age story of a family in 1986 dealing with the consequences of their gay uncle dying from AIDS. As Uncle Finn points out, they knew nothing about the disease when he became ill - it hadn't even been named yet. 14-year-old June, her sister Greta, and their mother, Finn's sister, have been visiting Finn each month. The girls are sitting for a portrait painted by their famous uncle. June doesn't even know yet that Finn is ill. As the months carry on, Finn becomes weaker and weaker, and eventually June is told.

June suffers a great deal. Finn is her favorite Uncle, the only person who understands her, as she understands him. But she cannot understand how he could die and how no one in her family has told her until almost the end.

And Finn's "good friend", Toby, is never seen or mentioned in front of the girls. Their mother's condition for making the visits. After Finn's death, Toby sends June some gifts that Finn has set aside for her. She eventually meets Toby, realizes he is alone, and cares for him as he dies. (hide spoiler)]

Reading the book, I remember vaguely those first days of AIDS. No one knew what it was, except that it was fatal, and endemic in the gay community. There was no end of cruelty based on ignorance from the general public and medical personnel. Medical personnel were infected accidentally. Some AIDS sufferers intentionally infected others. Infected hemophiliacs were ostracized in their communities. Reading the book brought all of this back to me. But to be in the midst of the suffering of June, of Greta, and of their mother as they watch Finn die. June develops a toughness she didn't have before. She and Greta go through alienation, then becoming loving sisters again. Greta deals with her own anxieties, and suffers a crisis. They all suffer, grieve, and grow, and allow us to vicariously do the same.


P.S.  This book is also considered a YA novel by some.  It is the 2013 pick for the Alex Awards, awarded to literature for teens 12 - 18.  I would recommend it for teens, but also for anyone who was a teen or young adult at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.





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The Talk-Funny Girl

The Talk-Funny Girl: A Novel by Roland Merullo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very powerful. A powerful tale of a girl who has grown up in isolation in rural Connecticut, who speaks an unusual form of English. Her parents, afraid of contact with other people, are under the spell of a wicked preacher. Reverend Pastor Schect preaches that children are evil, and must undergo "penances". Now 17, Marjorie Richards is beginning to pull away from her fearful & cruel community. Her aunt engineers a job for her away from her parents where she works with a slightly older young man. Sands (his nickname) is building a stone "cathedral" on the site of an old church which had burned down. He teaches Marjie stonework and construction.

Margie is strong and determined to escape her parents' miserable existence. Reading her story is a highly emotional experience that will open your eyes to the evil lurking in the world.  Although some have placed this book in the YA/teen book category, I think it is more than that.  Any woman, young or old, will identify with Marjie, Sands and Aunt Elaine, who saves her.  The book is suitable for older teens, but equally so for adults.

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