Ford is a doctor just finishing his residency at hospitals in the Atlanta area. Long accustomed to being the object of desire for both men and women, he has only recently acknowledged that his own attraction is to men, yet he still has not come to terms with being gay, let alone tell his very traditionally-minded parents. Despite the wealth and prestige Ford has, he still feels an emptiness to his life, until he meets Dan.
Dan works in the administration of one of the hospitals where Ford is serving his residency. Dan is most definitely out, and is attracted to Ford, just like so many others. However, he doesn’t believe that Ford will really be interested in him once he knows about Dan’s health issues. As the relationship develops, it’s not Dan’s hemophilia and resulting HIV infection that proves the barrier, it’s each man’s own issues with their pasts that makes things difficult.
“Comfort & Joy” is perhaps best described as a coming out story, one which describes the difficult journey some men have to make to come to terms with themselves and their families. What makes it much more complex is the interplay of the complicated baggage that we all bring to a relationship. Dan may be out to his family, but he has his own issues, with his health and his past. Just exactly what Dan is hiding is never fully revealed. We get bits of pieces of it, but - fair warning - at the end you’re still not going to know exactly what events took place to make him the way he is.
There’s a very melancholy air to this story, even in its more upbeat moments, although it never quite crossed the border into depressing, at least for me. The time shifts, as the story goes back to recount different points in the relationship, can be difficult to follow. At points it took a while to figure out that the time, or even the point of view, had shifted. This is a story that definitely demands your attention, and makes it worth your while. The melancholia, coupled with the time shifts, once again reminded me of Brideshead Revisited
“Comfort & Joy” is available from Amazon
