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The Year of Ice A Novel Brian Malloy Books

Download As PDF : The Year of Ice A Novel Brian Malloy Books

The Year of Ice A Novel Brian Malloy Books

I am a big fan of gay "coming of age" books - I guess mostly because there were probably only two or three examples of that sort of writing when I was growing up - and they were mostly mainstream. Now that so many gifted and fearless writers have come forth and are sharing their stories with readers (of all ages) it helps to make the younger gay man or woman feel less alone in their situation and is an often bittersweet recollection for us older folks of what it was like - back in the day.

The Year Of Ice is a story that has a subtle impact on its reader. There is often profound imagery that is expressed through a blanket of almost suffocating hopelessness in the life of the young protagonist. Yet, underneath it all - for all his cynical edginess - he has a humanness... as do his ne'er do well father and overbearing aunt and the ladies that come in and out of his life. They never cease to remind us that there is a spirit in all of us that longs for normalcy and love - in whatever way we can find it.

The characters are well developed and often messy and because of that, the truth is punctuated in both their words and actions. The loss of Kevin's mother is keen and the uncertainty surrounding her tragic death weighs heavily on all the main characters... even the ones who didn't really know her. That looming emptiness and anger fuels a lot of what is imbalanced in the world of the book... and it's a world I appreciated inhabiting but I kept looking for an emotional portal from which exit. The author thankfully delivers a satisfying and un-tidy end to the story and I found it refreshing that nothing was sewn up into neat little bundles.

Read this book. You will become invested in the lives of these sad but resilient people. Brian Malloy has my attention and I will happily devour anything else he puts before my eager eyes.


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The Year of Ice A Novel Brian Malloy Books Reviews

It's been years since I read it, but I remember this being one of the best pieces of young adult gay fiction I ever came across. I distinctly remember feeling like I was right inside the mind and thoughts of the protagonist. His volatile relationship with his father, the confusion of becoming a man who can't help but have emotional and physical feelings for other men, and his humorous quips and takes on life's bittersweet situations were all so involving that I couldn't have put the book down. Actually, I ordered this book on my Dad's credit card as a teenager when I was only supposed to be ordering something else entirely. I have to say, the book was well-worth the scolding. I shouldn't have done it, but man it was a good book...and then I accidentally donated it to my school library.
I loved this book so much that I kept up with the author and when he released his next novel I was excited. But that turned out to be a dud. "The Year of Ice" is a one time charm.
Brian Malloy tells his story with simple words but memorable, wholly fleshed-out characters. He puts us inside the mind of Kevin Doyle, a 17-year-old Irish boy in Minnesota in the 1970's, who is gearing up for his eighteenth birthday and adulthood. In reading this story, I learned not only about Kevin's struggles to cope with late adolescence, but also about myself, as the story forced me to look back and re-examine my own late teen years. I'm a 23-year-old young black man in Georgia who is reading this, so that should tell you something about the story's universality. However, don't get the impression that it's a typical coming of age novel. It's hardly anything like the other books that have been put out there.

Apart from both being gay and both having been teenagers, I guess you could say on the surface-level that Kevin and I don't have that much in common. But, though our lives may have been lived quite differently, with different types of drama, I still see myself in this story. Malloy's talent is that he writes the way a 17-year-old boy would actually think. In this way, he appeals to a broad audience.

Malloy helps bring back youthful, vibrant memories of what it was like to once live at that age. Feelings of school daze and invincibility pour off the pages. Kevin, as we shall find, it just like any other teenager, only he's a little bit "different" in way that will soon be big and wild for him. But don't worry, the story doesn't center too much time around him being gay. The author does well in giving him a whole life apart from that.

The novel's material is appropriate for any 17-year-old, but it can be read by older adults. I don't want to give away the plot, but I will say this... It is one of the best novels I've ever read. The characters seem real and not like their serving in token roles. The author surprises you with the turn of every page and you never know what to expect. There are times when I laughed, times when I cried, and times when I felt angry.

Malloy has remarkable talent and thank him for writing this book and allowing me to have this experience. I'll definitely be getting a copy of his next book, whenever that comes out.
I am a big fan of gay "coming of age" books - I guess mostly because there were probably only two or three examples of that sort of writing when I was growing up - and they were mostly mainstream. Now that so many gifted and fearless writers have come forth and are sharing their stories with readers (of all ages) it helps to make the younger gay man or woman feel less alone in their situation and is an often bittersweet recollection for us older folks of what it was like - back in the day.

The Year Of Ice is a story that has a subtle impact on its reader. There is often profound imagery that is expressed through a blanket of almost suffocating hopelessness in the life of the young protagonist. Yet, underneath it all - for all his cynical edginess - he has a humanness... as do his ne'er do well father and overbearing aunt and the ladies that come in and out of his life. They never cease to remind us that there is a spirit in all of us that longs for normalcy and love - in whatever way we can find it.

The characters are well developed and often messy and because of that, the truth is punctuated in both their words and actions. The loss of Kevin's mother is keen and the uncertainty surrounding her tragic death weighs heavily on all the main characters... even the ones who didn't really know her. That looming emptiness and anger fuels a lot of what is imbalanced in the world of the book... and it's a world I appreciated inhabiting but I kept looking for an emotional portal from which exit. The author thankfully delivers a satisfying and un-tidy end to the story and I found it refreshing that nothing was sewn up into neat little bundles.

Read this book. You will become invested in the lives of these sad but resilient people. Brian Malloy has my attention and I will happily devour anything else he puts before my eager eyes.