Less than an hour after Millington receives his permanent resident visa, he wonders if his husband Jay would now end their marriage. And Jay has multiple reasons to. Millington is an ex-Methodist minister, who once believed he could be celibate. When he fled Caribbean Methodism and came to Montreal, he thought he'd resolved the issues that made him leave, but he comes to understand that psychological trauma, childhood conditioning, parental and community expectations and his own need for community and family valorization are not easily exorcised. The third installment in the No Safeguards quartet of novels.
What a country! Mem, up there man married to man, you know; man does hold man hand in the street and hug up and kiss up: all kind o' thing. . . I see it with me own two eyes. Mem, up there is Sodom and Gomorrah. Is not a place for the righteous. Is a sure sign the Second Coming is at hand. A sure sign, Mem. I glad my Carleton not into that. Your Millington neither. We stick with we husbands through thick and thin, and, Mem, we raise we children to fear the Lord and to walk in the ways o' the righteous.”
I found this a compelling account of a gay man’s journey toward living an authentic life after the damage of a Caribbean upbringing shaped by religious intolerance. A major contribution by H. Nigel Thomas to a topic that has been little explored.
Olive Senior, author of The Pain Tree; Laureate: Commonwealth Literature Prize and The Writers’ Trust Matt Cohen Award
Nigel Thomas’ writing merits serious notice. His understanding of the many histories and their various impacts on literary characters reveals a profound knowledge of the human condition.
Rawi Hage, Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award