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A review by alexluceli
Comfort and Joy by Jim Grimsley
5.0
so so beautiful. i’ve had this book on my to-read list for six years, and on my kindle for about a year i think? i was more interested in the premise of the author’s newest book, the dove in the belly, and i ended up inhaling that book yesterday; it was also a 5 star read. i’ve put off a lot of the author’s work for a long time after starting off with dream boy and not enjoying it, but i’m so glad i gave his other work a chance. this was such a lovely read. i think i loved the dove in the belly just a little bit more, as the dynamic between the couple in that book was just a little bit more to my personal liking, but this was still a wonderful book that i also devoured very quickly and in just a few hours.
this is definitely a spiritual predecessor to the dove in the belly. the author follows the same format of starting at a point when the relationship is already established, and then working nonlinearly from there. i thought i’d bring that up since i personally prefer for books about relationships to begin with the meeting itself.
however, i’m glad i didn’t know that before i picked up comfort & joy and the dove in the belly. i think the author really pulled off the nonlinear format, and the relationship building “worked” for me even though it tends not to work for me when books begin with the relationship already established. we still get plenty of opportunities to delve into the beginnings of the relationship.
i’ve seen this called a “quiet” love story, and it is, but boy can jim grimsley write a love story. like in the dove in the belly, i just so wholly believed that these two people loved each other. in a lot of ways this reminds me of queer indie films with quiet love stories, such as one of my favorite spanish-language films, esteros. i would love to see comfort & joy or the dove in the belly (or why not both?) adapted into a film. not to keep railing against dream boy but i would so much prefer his other work to be more lauded, or at least AS lauded. it’s just that at this point in my life i’m so much more interested in queer joy, not queer misery. comfort & joy ends happily (mostly) and so does the dove in the belly. queer misery CAN interest me, but it has to really work hard in order for that to happen.
comfort & joy does deal with homophobia, both externally and internally, but it does so very deftly. no melodrama, no stock character villain-esque parents. like i said, at this point in my personal queer life i’m not really interested in queer misery that deals with homophobia especially internalized homophobia. but this book worked hard at dealing with it, and pulled it off. its time period isn’t even all that apparent; it does not feel dated at all, but rather timeless. i was really impressed by that.
i hope that given more time, jim grimsley’s work apart from dream boy can join the ranks of such queer contemporary literary fiction legends as garth greenwell, christopher isherwood, and michael cunningham, to name a few. he’s a skilled writer and very deserving. i would personally strongly recommend comfort & joy and the dove in the belly!
this is definitely a spiritual predecessor to the dove in the belly. the author follows the same format of starting at a point when the relationship is already established, and then working nonlinearly from there. i thought i’d bring that up since i personally prefer for books about relationships to begin with the meeting itself.
however, i’m glad i didn’t know that before i picked up comfort & joy and the dove in the belly. i think the author really pulled off the nonlinear format, and the relationship building “worked” for me even though it tends not to work for me when books begin with the relationship already established. we still get plenty of opportunities to delve into the beginnings of the relationship.
i’ve seen this called a “quiet” love story, and it is, but boy can jim grimsley write a love story. like in the dove in the belly, i just so wholly believed that these two people loved each other. in a lot of ways this reminds me of queer indie films with quiet love stories, such as one of my favorite spanish-language films, esteros. i would love to see comfort & joy or the dove in the belly (or why not both?) adapted into a film. not to keep railing against dream boy but i would so much prefer his other work to be more lauded, or at least AS lauded. it’s just that at this point in my life i’m so much more interested in queer joy, not queer misery. comfort & joy ends happily (mostly) and so does the dove in the belly. queer misery CAN interest me, but it has to really work hard in order for that to happen.
comfort & joy does deal with homophobia, both externally and internally, but it does so very deftly. no melodrama, no stock character villain-esque parents. like i said, at this point in my personal queer life i’m not really interested in queer misery that deals with homophobia especially internalized homophobia. but this book worked hard at dealing with it, and pulled it off. its time period isn’t even all that apparent; it does not feel dated at all, but rather timeless. i was really impressed by that.
i hope that given more time, jim grimsley’s work apart from dream boy can join the ranks of such queer contemporary literary fiction legends as garth greenwell, christopher isherwood, and michael cunningham, to name a few. he’s a skilled writer and very deserving. i would personally strongly recommend comfort & joy and the dove in the belly!