D Stuart's JOHN of JOHN-Gay Love Runs in Families that Shuns One Another

Douglas Stuart (b. Scotland 1976) is Booker Prize winning author of "Shuggie Bain". I was surprised me with Stuart's toned down depiction of the stringent life in a small rural village in Scotland. While the harsh life and cruel treatment Shuggie received was abhorrent, his story felt credible and aroused empathy. In JOHN of JOHN (2026) our young male protagonist, Cal, is from a small rural island off Scotland's coast. All  similarities, struggles and sympathies diverge from there. Cal (short for John-Callum) is the son of the local vicar John and recently graduated from University with an arts degree. Cal has been floundering around the mainland searching for gainful employment. When his father calls him home to help care for his elderly grandmother, Ella, Cal packs his few belongings and returns home. Despite never intending to go back to the island, he reveres his grandmother who raised him and fears his dad. Cal's mother, Ella's daughter, left him and started a new family with his dad's brother. The reason Grace left gets revealed nearly a year later. Meanwhile Cal has worked arduously caring for the sheep and the family's farmland. The island is shrouded in secrecy amongst its motley cast of inhabitants who harbor grudges and distrust. The story is laconically paced which contributes to the ambiance of a sparsely populated island with nothing to do except toil on the land or sea, attend Sunday services presided over by Cal's dad and drink by the fire. Homosexual proclivities are kept hidden to avoid heretical scandal. Readers glean early  of Cal's homosexuality and of his father's long-time affair with his male lover.  Cal and John both keep being gay guarded from each other. The hypocrisy and self-righteous condemnation of those who have commit sins such as pre-marital or homosexual sex is egregious, especially coming from John who proselytizes mandates. The cruelty from church leaders by ostracizing an unwed mother was deplorable. The duplicity of father/son both being gay and being attracted to the same man was preposterous. Ella noted to John, "It seemed to be such an unfunny joke that you {John}would be the way you are, and he would be yon way too. It was too weird to think of." Despite the narrow minded, homogenous consensus against homosexuality of the islanders, the community would also pull together in caring for one another. The descriptions of the landscape's natural beauty along the shoreline and meandering open fields were lush and inviting. To reiterate, JOHN of JOHN is a novel of duplicity, subterfuge and self-abasement that continued to fester which prevented Cal and his father from being at peace with themselves and each other. Ella advised secrecy. "Whatever he {Cal} is, whatever he is not. Let him keep it to himself, Islands within islands." The burden of senseless shame was omnipotent and isolating.  John realized, "he had decided years ago that he would never speak to his son about Cal's sexuality. To raise the subject would be to cast light onto it and it should be left in the murk where it belonged."