No Safeguards
by H. Nigel Thomas
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
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Pub Date Jul 01 2015 | Archive Date Jun 08 2016
Description
No Safeguards, the first in a trilogy, follows Jay and his brother Paul from childhood to young adulthood. We witness the destructive impact of fundamentalist Christian beliefs on their mother and father, opposition to those beliefs by the boys' grandmother and each boy's very different response to their parents' religiosity. This becomes even more poignant after they leave their grandmother's comfortable home in St. Vincent to join their mother in Montreal. The revelation that both boys are gay adds to their sense of oppression and divides them from their mother, whose views are shaped by the church and the theology of the Torah.
Advance Praise
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781550719840 |
| PRICE | $25.00 (USD) |
Average rating from 2 members
Featured Reviews
Elyse W, Reviewer
Jay and Paul are brothers growing up in a household with parents who tell them,
"The Bible is the only book to be read in my house". Their daddy says all other stories are lies, and prevents the boys mother from reading any other stories to them. The boys grandmother tells her daughter, "ignore that two-legged jackass and read to your child".
The confusion about religion, politics, morality, compassion, and what is right and what is wrong, is beyond complex for Jay and Paul. We watch them grow up in this first book the Trilogy, in an abusive home. Their parents beliefs manifest as destructive and detrimental. Creative thinking and freedom of speech are forbidden.
When Jay was little..( yet older than Paul), he wanted to know why God didn't just make him good since he can do everything. Every night he would beg God to make me good.
"I can't resist stealing candy, and I want bad things to happen to daddy and my teachers when they scream or beat me. I know I'll get real bad if daddy stops beating me bad like Joseph who steals goats and chickens and is put in prison now. He use to come with his mother to his daddy's church. And daddy said in one of his sermons that Joseph put down praying and took up thieving, and that evil grows bigger than breadfruit trees in the hearts of those who do not obey God. I don't want a breadfruit tree to grow in my heart".
We watch Jay and Paul grow up...struggle with identity, (both of them are gay), struggle with differences of their mother beliefs with religion and the church...
Trying to find their own way, their understanding of religion and homosexuality...
the world around them, and how they fit in it.
Thank you to Guernica Editions, Netgalley, and H. Nigel Thomas, for the opportunity to read this.
