John of John
A muscular narrative with scrupulous technique. It’s his finest work yet ... Stuart’s prose is gorgeous and his plotting strategic; nothing is lost. A throwaway item in an early chapter loops back like a boomerang hundreds of pages later ... [A] nuanced tapestry ... [A] generational talent.
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Moving, suspenseful, completely-worth-your-time ... John of John is a stick of dynamite waiting to go off in your hand ... One of the biggest surprises in a novel full of them is that Stuart is not particularly interested in telling either a coming-home or a coming-of-age story...he uses that architecture to build something different, stranger and far more original ... Stuart is not just a very good writer but an immensely skilled storyteller who is more than up to the extraordinarily challenging task he sets himself.
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Stuart’s protagonists are growing up, and his writing — particularly his depiction of the vicissitudes of queer life — is maturing right alongside them ... Changes tack dramatically toward a sprawling, emotionally rich saga that extends Stuart’s investigation into masculinity while sketching a world in which his gay characters come fully, finally alive. It’s his best yet ... Stuart finds a fantastic canvas for continuing his exploration of masculinity. Men are John’s central characters, but the women (Cal’s mother and grandmother) are as lovingly drawn.
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