Getting Life In Perspective By Toby Johnson
A Review Of A Re-Released Novel That Tackles Queer Spirituality
Sep 19, 2008
Toby Johnson creates a novel within a novel, and then yet more interweaving tales as his main character, an ill gay man in his mid forties, comes to terms with a diagnosis that seems fatal and thus retreats to an old Texas house to find solace in remoteness, where he inadvertently conjures up spirits from the past – his past, or someone else’s, we’re never utterly clear but it is not really the focus of Getting Life In Perspective.
Soul Searching Narrative
Refreshingly, and unlike most writers of modern gay fiction, Johnson dares to delve into the spiritual crises of his main characters, and, what is more, he also offers answers. People, perhaps, may not agree with some of the conclusions that Johnson draws, but his line of thinking is postulated well and the characters, themselves, are convincing enough that their discourse seems natural and eloquent.
There are moments in the book where the resonance between one character and another hearkens back to childhood memories of self realization, and where, for that one moment in time, there is a connection to the world, and a sense of vastness while at once being so small.
And this really summarizes the entire book: it is a work that devours time and theme expertly, with clever narrative and unpretentious intelligence, whilst always fulfilling the need for true human emotion. Put simply, it covers a lot of ground in a relatively short space of reading.
A Powerful Romance
Particularly successful is the relationship between the two spirits of Tom and Ben.
Their association, starting as far back as the 1890’s, is an enduring love affair that survives minor indiscretions on each character’s part, and seems unshackled by the confines of mortal time, sustained by a true and fundamental bond between the two, a kind of emotional depth that is scant in most literature today.
What was most fulfilling was that, in having the character of Rick, our modern novelist, look back into the lives of these two creations, the reassurance could be found that, yes, this was something as achievable now as it was then, that a bond could be forged as strong as theirs, and so the trick is played: the reader becomes the student just like the character Rick himself does, his omniscience over his characters turning on its head as they take on a life of their own, and teach him what he needs most to know.
Tackling Hard Issues
In Getting Life in Perspective we find a story that tackles sexuality – not just homosexuality, but what underpins all primal energies in the human psyche – and which has countless references to Joseph Campbell, to the Hindu faith, and to such poetic mystics as Walt Whitman, and for anyone looking for an introduction into such metaphysics, this book, with its lovely allegories, would be an excellent place to start.
For once, this is not a story trapped in the apparent superficiality of gay culture, but rather a novel that celebrates the thinking man’s brand of decadence, and as such, it is perhaps possible to say that, in time, this title from Lethe Press, re-released January 15th January 2008, ISBN: 978-1590211267, might become a classic amongst gay fiction, and maybe even fiction as a whole.
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