It Started With Brian

I’ll be blunt here: this story is really fucking depressing. What makes it worse is that it’s real and that what happened in real life was worse, at least according to the postscript. Something about it being real (or, well, semi-real considering some details were changed/left out/etc) makes the events that occur in this story hit the feels quite hard.

Sam was a very strong man, considering the challenges and adversity he overcame in his life. He was most definitely stronger than I am today, but he was also a bit broken inside. Those intervening years between high school and him reuniting with John were hell, honestly. Thank God that John got him to seek professional help. I can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been for the two of them.

What I think was the most depressing event in Sam’s life (while it was not covered directly in the story), though, is his cancer diagnosis and subsequent death. Of all the things that he has been through, cancer takes his life!? Fuck cancer, man. Sam and John absolutely deserved to grow old together after everything that they’ve been through. Life is so incredibly unfair.

On the flip side, though… Even though this story has no shortage of anguish, I still think that it’s also full of hope and happiness. When Sam finally lets John into his heart and accepts his love… That was such a powerful moment. I cried when re-reading that for this review.

And finally, some thoughts on some comments John made in the postscript: Who the hell has the right to question either of their sexualities? The nerve of some people! (I suppose that the “spectrum” of sexual orientation wasn’t as well-known or accepted back when this story was initially written and published… But still.) The only “correct” source of information for this stuff is that person, and that person alone.

I hope that John and Chris are alive and well. Best wishes to them, wherever they are today.

Sam’s memory will live on forever through It Started With Brian. May he rest in peace.