what I left with was a book i will not soon forget.įirst Person Plural is the fictional narrative of a set of dicephalus conjoined twins Owen and Porter, the two are born with two spines fused at the pelvis (similar to the Hensel twins in Minnesota, USA) they have lived since birth with two heads brains and minds, and one body containing two very differing hearts, you see Porter (controlling the left side of the body) is Straight and our narrator Owen (the right hand) is Gay. When I took a short visit to Vancouver over the last weekend my intension was not to purchase any more books however as my intriuge always wins I turned a sort visit to 'Little Sisters' (a vancouver bookstore and gay rights landmark) into a day of treasure hunting. I purchased this book years after reading Winter Birds and immediately fell in love with this love story with problems.

Dan a hemophiliac with HIV and Ford a doctor from Savannah (who isn't 'gay') are happy for the most part and want to make a life together, the only thing left is to meet the family, in this unique take on the holidays. We find ourselves infused again in the life of Danny Crell in the unrelated sequel to Winter Birds, Comfort and Joy. A bumpy ride is brought to a seriously disturbing end in one of the most powerful final scene i have ever read. With chapters raging from a few pages to over 100 in length Grimsley infuses how life is divided by the experiences we live. Written exclusively in second person you are injected into the very real and disturbed Crell family, narrated directly to you by an a beloved sibling you quickly learn the adversity of your own life, your younger years, the discovery of your hemophilia, your abusive father's rages and chronically pregnant mothers love. Winterbirds is not a gay story in tale but tells a very inspiring story of growing up alone in a vastly growing family in the deep south. I ordered this book only a few weeks after finishing Dreamboy, I had read numerous book before it but was unable to stop thinking about how Grimsley's words had changed my life. Winter Birds is the first novel by an amazingly talent author I have long admired and respected.

Comfort and Joy by Jim Grimsley