Surprising Myself: A Novel
3.5/5
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About this ebook
After four years of living with relatives in Switzerland, seventeen-year-old Joel Scherzenlieb finds himself in the United States for the summer, working at a Boy Scout camp. There, he meets nineteen-year-old Corey Cobbett, a fellow counselor who's the only person Joel wants to be friends with. Soon, Joel’s sarcastic, distant CIA father shows up and whisks him away to live with his mother, grandmother, and older sister on a farm in Virginia—he’s not going back to Switzerland after all. As his father pleads poverty and his dreams of going to college vanish, Joel faces his longest year yet. But everything changes when Corey returns to his life, bringing with him the discovery and excitement of reciprocal love.
Christopher Bram
Christopher Bram is the author of nine novels, including Father of Frankenstein, which was made into the Academy Award–winning movie Gods and Monsters, starring Ian McKellen. Bram grew up outside of Norfolk, Virginia, where he was a paperboy and an Eagle Scout. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1974 and moved to New York City in 1978. In addition to Father of Frankenstein, he has written numerous articles and essays. His most recent book, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America, is a literary history. Bram was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2001, and in 2003, he received Publishing Triangle’s Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in Greenwich Village and teaches at New York University.
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Reviews for Surprising Myself
23 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We first meet Joel Scherzenlieb when he is seventeen years old. He has been in the care of his father since his parents divorced. While working as a student at Scout Camp Joel learns that he will not be returning to his Swiss school, and with that go all his hopes of a college education and a secure career in finance. His father, who worked for the CIA has other plans, and Joel finds himself living with his mother and his older sister Lisa on a struggling farm. But there are more shocks in store for Joel. He always considered himself heterosexual, yet a chance meeting with, Corey, an old friend from the Scout Camp leads to an intimate night spent together, and sets his mind in turmoil. He tries to deny his feelings, but eventually he must acknowledges that he must be gay.Three years later we find Joel and Corey living together in New York. But When his sister along with child turn up, she having walked out on her husband, Joel and Corey become inextricably involved. But in trying to help Lisa their own relationship is put in jeopardy.Joel tells his story with candour and frankness, and does not spare himself in the telling, for he reveals himself with all his faults. There are some very touching moments in the story, especially Joel's account of the occasion when he acknowledges to Corey that he does in fact love him. Surprisingly, and a little disappointingly, we are giving very little information about the first intimacy between Joel and Corey. However overall it is a most satisfying and positive tale, with a conclusion that leaves open any number of possibilities.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I first read this back in 1989 and have enjoyed it again as a peak into the past of the NYC scene (that I tasted back in the day). Great dialogue and a wonderful exploration of the pre-plague/pre-condom days when we were probably all more sexually active than we are now. This book has made me appreciate - once again - having come out when I did. The cinematic plot is a tad melodramatic, but the dialogue definitely lends some verisimilitude.
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