John is in the closet. Literally rather than figuratively. The story of how this Irishman spending a year at an American college came to be locked in the closet takes up most of this book. It all starts at a party, where he meets several other young men who will weave in and out of his life over the course of the next several months. And along the way the story does indeed involve three ex-presidents and James Franco.
“Three Ex Presidents and James Franco” is a very meandering story, with frequent digressions and long discussions of the kind college students often engage in, at least in fiction. However, the rather stream-of-consciousness style is generally charming rather than tedious. You won’t really mind that the story doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
The narrator, John, is more an observer than active participant. Although he becomes involved, rather intimately, with most of the other main characters, we don’t learn much about him (even his name is rarely used). He does interact with the people and even sets things in motion, but on the whole he’s rather anonymous, which can be frustrating for the reader in general. Although, in this case, it merely means we don’t know as much about him as we do the people he interacts with.
The book was apparently originally published in the form of several short installments which have now been released as a whole. While the writing of each part is quite readable, the whole could use some tighter editing to tie the narration together a bit better. This is a rather quirky little story that proved quite enjoyable, although some might well find it too unfocused to like.
“Three Ex Presidents and James Franco” is available from Amazon
