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Role Playing by Cathy Yardley
Aug. 5th, 2023 12:23 pmThis one was recommended by K. It is really good and very unusual in really wonderful ways.
I am just going to say SPOILERS because I want to talk about representation and the backstory comes out in the course of the story and if finding it out in the wrong order bothers you, you should just go read the book because it is fantastic. But if you want to know what kind of representation, and like re-reading even better than re-reading, here you go.
It has comparatively older hero/heroine — she is in her late 40s and he is 50. He has only had two relationships, one in high school with a girl that restarted post-college and failed, and she ultimately married his younger brother. During college, he had a relationship with a man, but they were closeted. So we have a bi, demi man, who did not have language to describe himself and a family that pretty relentlessly wanted to make him be het. A classic case of loving someone structurally (friend from high school, brother, mother) but not for who they are (bi).
It is mostly set in Fool’s Falls, a fictional small town in eastern washington, I _think_ somewhere north of Spokane but honestly do not hold me to it. Our hero formerly owned a hospice on the west side with the friend who helped him transition from what I think was a college pre-med track to becoming a nurse. He sold out to care for his dad back where he grew up. His dad died of cancer but was accepting towards the end. His mother, however, is suffering from repeat car crashes and an unwillingness to take necessary steps associated with aging. He tries to care for her, and it is not going well.
An upcoming wedding that he had not initially planned to attend ramps up the pressure on our hero to find a date to prove that he is over his ex- now SIL. Which, OMG, these people are middle-aged, why. But you know, small town. Whatever. He goes through the motions but is miserable, however, he is enjoying playing an online game with a woman in town who he mistakenly believes is much older than him. He breaks his foot trying to do some home repairs at his mother’s house, and the “elderly” woman, our heroine, visits with soup and they both get a big surprise.
I love that they got to know each other well hanging out in the guild hall online, and gaming together as part of a larger group. I really love that our heroine (divorced, one son who is a freshman at UW) was able to provide some desperately needed information to our hero about vocabulary for helping him better understand himself. It did not at all surprise me that a 50 year old nurse would need the vocabulary; it is somewhat disturbing how long it takes for better understanding of sexuality to percolate through to health care providers who are 10-20 years past their initial training. You would think continuing education requirements would fix this, but nope.
The depiction of the evolution of the relationship is really quite awesome, and very enjoyable. It is particularly wonderful to see someone dealing with really horrible family members where the family members are not cartoonishly horrible, but mundanely, ordinarily, conservatively horrible. And it is really wonderful to see someone go no/low contact for a really solidly depicted reason. Also, the FAAFO for the ex- / SIL.
Oh! And the heroine’s mother was Vietnamese and her dad anglo with southern background. Parents died when she was young and she was raised by the southern grandma. In some of the Very Best Show Don’t Tell, it absolutely saturates the book. The realism of that depiction may very well be the best thing about the book.
I am just going to say SPOILERS because I want to talk about representation and the backstory comes out in the course of the story and if finding it out in the wrong order bothers you, you should just go read the book because it is fantastic. But if you want to know what kind of representation, and like re-reading even better than re-reading, here you go.
It has comparatively older hero/heroine — she is in her late 40s and he is 50. He has only had two relationships, one in high school with a girl that restarted post-college and failed, and she ultimately married his younger brother. During college, he had a relationship with a man, but they were closeted. So we have a bi, demi man, who did not have language to describe himself and a family that pretty relentlessly wanted to make him be het. A classic case of loving someone structurally (friend from high school, brother, mother) but not for who they are (bi).
It is mostly set in Fool’s Falls, a fictional small town in eastern washington, I _think_ somewhere north of Spokane but honestly do not hold me to it. Our hero formerly owned a hospice on the west side with the friend who helped him transition from what I think was a college pre-med track to becoming a nurse. He sold out to care for his dad back where he grew up. His dad died of cancer but was accepting towards the end. His mother, however, is suffering from repeat car crashes and an unwillingness to take necessary steps associated with aging. He tries to care for her, and it is not going well.
An upcoming wedding that he had not initially planned to attend ramps up the pressure on our hero to find a date to prove that he is over his ex- now SIL. Which, OMG, these people are middle-aged, why. But you know, small town. Whatever. He goes through the motions but is miserable, however, he is enjoying playing an online game with a woman in town who he mistakenly believes is much older than him. He breaks his foot trying to do some home repairs at his mother’s house, and the “elderly” woman, our heroine, visits with soup and they both get a big surprise.
I love that they got to know each other well hanging out in the guild hall online, and gaming together as part of a larger group. I really love that our heroine (divorced, one son who is a freshman at UW) was able to provide some desperately needed information to our hero about vocabulary for helping him better understand himself. It did not at all surprise me that a 50 year old nurse would need the vocabulary; it is somewhat disturbing how long it takes for better understanding of sexuality to percolate through to health care providers who are 10-20 years past their initial training. You would think continuing education requirements would fix this, but nope.
The depiction of the evolution of the relationship is really quite awesome, and very enjoyable. It is particularly wonderful to see someone dealing with really horrible family members where the family members are not cartoonishly horrible, but mundanely, ordinarily, conservatively horrible. And it is really wonderful to see someone go no/low contact for a really solidly depicted reason. Also, the FAAFO for the ex- / SIL.
Oh! And the heroine’s mother was Vietnamese and her dad anglo with southern background. Parents died when she was young and she was raised by the southern grandma. In some of the Very Best Show Don’t Tell, it absolutely saturates the book. The realism of that depiction may very well be the best thing about the book.