Book: Left In His Closet
Author: Mary A. Krome
Release Date: Advanced Review Copy, available in prerelease (Tate Publishing)
http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61566-153-4
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Pages: 296
Review Date:2/13/2010
Review:
As a phoenix is born from his own corpse
And his false image dies…
There is no honor in being alive
Unless in his closet they still reside
(excerpts of a passage from In His Closet by Mary Krome)
In his closet is one of the more genuine stories I have read in years. Sad, but sincere, this multiperspective story shreds the invisible taboo of gay versus heterosexual philosophies into a brilliant and ingenious study of human philosophy, connection, sexuality, and identity. Krome, the author, is a doctorate who has won awards for her research, which she brilliantly spins into the prose without it ever feeling like an academic lecture. This reviewer has a background in clinical psychology, and therefore it was easy to identify the sound research perspective and thoughts Krome spins into the web of human frailties recorded throughout Left In His Closet, but never once did I feel I was being talked at, but rather let into a privacy and undiscovered world that so few know.
Rephrased, I felt that Krome’s subtle poetry, and soft-lit inner dialogues mixed with a story really moved more by conversations than events in a way a pointillist painter might blend the blurriness of inane color dots, that seem hazy at first glance, but from far away form into a beautiful whole that is too easy to miss if one’s review of the art at hand values Polaroid over Picasso (yes I know Picasso was not a pointillist, it’s a metaphor).
The point is that Krome sets out in Closet to do more than tell a story, she seeks out to bleed it into your own veins, merge it into your own thoughts, press it into your own vulnerabilities, and triumph it into your own hopes, and she achieves in a glorious way the untold story of the other spouse left in the closet when a gay lover wanders into a new life, and all without demonizing human beings in general along the way. This story will trouble you, move you, make you smile, make you frown, make you cry, but in the end, make you a better person for having suffered through the darker with the lighter parts of the human landscape.
On the writing style: mainstream fiction, brilliantly written and softly guided. Krome is undoubtedly a fine artist including a great writer. She also mingles poetry throughout in a way that doesn’t feel foreign or surreal, as the poetry is written by a character who writes poetry, but the words highlight the points too easy to miss to the untrained reader.
On the Target Audience: Women do appear to be a better fit for much of what is discussed, although there are scenes and storylines written for the male experience of the book’s message, so there is wide appeal to all who have loved and lost, and loved some more—or at least wanted to. However, the style screams to me that a woman who enjoys the gentle but direct analysis of life could curl up on a rainy day and explore herself and life more thoroughly with Krome as the host for a day.
On the best parts. I think more than anything, and consistent with the tenets of mainstream writing itself, Krome expertly connects people with people. If you do not feel the power of the human drama while reading this book, you may as well give up on reading altogether and spend your life doing something else!
Closing thoughts and overall summary: An EXCELLENT read. Both for the lover of fiction, and the professor trying to get students to get life and not just research. I highly and thoroughly recommend this book, and look forward to the next from this new fiction author.
Rating: Five T's
Heath Sommer, Ph.D.
Author of The Manufactured Identity
Author: Mary A. Krome
Release Date: Advanced Review Copy, available in prerelease (Tate Publishing)
http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61566-153-4
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Pages: 296
Review Date:2/13/2010
Review:
As a phoenix is born from his own corpse
And his false image dies…
There is no honor in being alive
Unless in his closet they still reside
(excerpts of a passage from In His Closet by Mary Krome)
In his closet is one of the more genuine stories I have read in years. Sad, but sincere, this multiperspective story shreds the invisible taboo of gay versus heterosexual philosophies into a brilliant and ingenious study of human philosophy, connection, sexuality, and identity. Krome, the author, is a doctorate who has won awards for her research, which she brilliantly spins into the prose without it ever feeling like an academic lecture. This reviewer has a background in clinical psychology, and therefore it was easy to identify the sound research perspective and thoughts Krome spins into the web of human frailties recorded throughout Left In His Closet, but never once did I feel I was being talked at, but rather let into a privacy and undiscovered world that so few know.
Rephrased, I felt that Krome’s subtle poetry, and soft-lit inner dialogues mixed with a story really moved more by conversations than events in a way a pointillist painter might blend the blurriness of inane color dots, that seem hazy at first glance, but from far away form into a beautiful whole that is too easy to miss if one’s review of the art at hand values Polaroid over Picasso (yes I know Picasso was not a pointillist, it’s a metaphor).
The point is that Krome sets out in Closet to do more than tell a story, she seeks out to bleed it into your own veins, merge it into your own thoughts, press it into your own vulnerabilities, and triumph it into your own hopes, and she achieves in a glorious way the untold story of the other spouse left in the closet when a gay lover wanders into a new life, and all without demonizing human beings in general along the way. This story will trouble you, move you, make you smile, make you frown, make you cry, but in the end, make you a better person for having suffered through the darker with the lighter parts of the human landscape.
On the writing style: mainstream fiction, brilliantly written and softly guided. Krome is undoubtedly a fine artist including a great writer. She also mingles poetry throughout in a way that doesn’t feel foreign or surreal, as the poetry is written by a character who writes poetry, but the words highlight the points too easy to miss to the untrained reader.
On the Target Audience: Women do appear to be a better fit for much of what is discussed, although there are scenes and storylines written for the male experience of the book’s message, so there is wide appeal to all who have loved and lost, and loved some more—or at least wanted to. However, the style screams to me that a woman who enjoys the gentle but direct analysis of life could curl up on a rainy day and explore herself and life more thoroughly with Krome as the host for a day.
On the best parts. I think more than anything, and consistent with the tenets of mainstream writing itself, Krome expertly connects people with people. If you do not feel the power of the human drama while reading this book, you may as well give up on reading altogether and spend your life doing something else!
Closing thoughts and overall summary: An EXCELLENT read. Both for the lover of fiction, and the professor trying to get students to get life and not just research. I highly and thoroughly recommend this book, and look forward to the next from this new fiction author.
Rating: Five T's
Heath Sommer, Ph.D.
Author of The Manufactured Identity
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