Review - My Favorite Uncle by Marshall Thornton
Martin leads a quiet, single life, and believes he’s quite happy with it. The peace is disturbed when Martin’s nephew Carter shows up at his door, announcing he is gay. Carter’s parents, Martin’s brother and his wife, are born again fundamentalist Christians. They forced Carter into a mental hospital for conversion therapy when they found him with another boy. Carter was able to leave the hospital when he turned 18, and with nowhere else to go, he shows up on Martin’s doorstep. Martin has no idea how to be an uncle to the boy he’s only met a few times, and at 18 Carter thinks he’s too old to be told what to do any more. It’s a recipe for trouble.
“My Favorite Uncle” is a contemporary melodrama where the romance(s) take a back seat to the main story of two men trying to bridge a rather large generation gap. Although published in 2014, many of the references in the story make it feel like the setting is around ten years earlier. Note that there are references to potentially triggering subjects. It’s more than just conversion therapy, so be advised.
The narration alternates between Martin and Carter from one chapter to the next. I didn’t find either of the men particularly likable, but that’s one of this author’s fortes. They weren’t really bad people, but they tended to be real jerks, especially to each other. Martin seems to have completely forgotten what it’s like to be a horny teenager, and has an extreme hatred for age-gap relationships, even when he finds himself in one. Still, Martin is not without some self-awareness, so he does realize he’s not handling some things the way he should.
Carter is a little more sympathetic. After escaping the suffocating world of his parents, the young man is finally free to be his real self, and he’s not inclined to listen to anyone who tries to keep him from making mistakes that will get him hurt. Like Martin, Carter does eventually come to understand that listening to other people doesn’t make him less of an adult.
“My Favorite Uncle” is available from Smashwords or from independent booksellers through Bookshop.org.