WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 48. Falling Down by Eli Easton

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/32877046

An appropriate gay fiction story for this time of year. I’ve always found this genre of hurt/comfort type story very appealing to me, both as a reader and writer. Maybe it’s due to the fact that these kinds of stories usually stress the importance of characters rather than plot, so I gain an interest in the outcome of these characters. Eli Easton is one of those authors that I have grown to appreciate as a topical author. She’s exploring issues like masculinity, returning veteran issues, homelessness with LGBT youths, and depression with her characters, which was done very well with subtlety. Being Veterans or Armistices Day soon, I thought it was a good time to read a story like this and explore themes many people are coming to grip with.

Length-wise, it is 252 pages long and 7 hours 33 minutes on Audible. It’s a decent for most readers, but I don’t advise a single sitting reading. Its heavy subject matter may require a few breaks.

Plot: Josh is a gay 18-year-old homeless gay youth from Alabama, who has recently lost his mother. He’s been living on the streets for the last 6 months, doing odd jobs or begging for money. He’s at the end of his ropes and has decided to head north to New Hampshire in order to fulfill his mother’s final wish, then commit suicide through hypothermia in the snow. Parallel to Josh’s story, Mark is a newly returned 24-year-old veteran of the US Marine Corps, having recently finished his tour of Afghanistan. Mark grew up in New Hampshire to a family of Construction workers and Contractors, who have instilled in him many lessons about work and a set of values that he can never live up to. He’s suffering from horrible memories of the battlefield. Mark has had to live with bad dreams and guilt about abandoning his friends to die in Afghanistan. He might be the epitome of what a man should be according to the standards that his father instilled in him, but he’s never felt that way. He’s also a closeted gay man, who only allows himself limited sexual release through hook-ups. When Josh made his way up to New Hampshire, he camps outside of Mark’s cabin under a scenic New England wooden bridge. Mark finds Josh, cold and huddled beneath rags. Mark taking pity on Josh offers him a sleeping bag at first, so he wouldn’t freeze to death. Then, in the morning Mark offered him food, along with an opportunity to paint a house for a small wage. Josh accepts these things from Mark; even though, he is still resolved to kill himself, once the work is complete. They spend the next few weeks of painting the old Victorian home of Mrs. Fisher, a kindly old woman in Gainesville, New Hampshire. Mark and Josh’s feeling deepen from one of caregiver to someone in need, they become closer until they admit their mutual sexual interest with each other. They become boyfriends. The story follows their struggles from Mark’s reluctance to come out to his family to Josh’s issues with depression and self-worth. There is an imperfect happily ever after ending, but it takes a few wrong turns along the way.

Review: I enjoyed this story, it’s a really good blend of complex characters and explorations of concepts that are very topical to what people are dealing with in 2021. Josh’s dealing with homelessness and depression is a perennial issue for LGBT youths, who aren’t accepted by their families and must live on the streets. In addition, Josh is dealing with the death of his mother, but he’s trying to hold back sorrow and pain, putting up a strong front. On the other hand, Mark’s psychological issues with his military service and the inadequacy he feels about being a failure compared to the rest of his family are timeless concepts.

Both lead characters portray various issues in modern society very well, none of which are completely resolved by the end of the story. I enjoyed the lack of resolution a bit from Eli Easton, because depression isn’t something you can just magically erase with love, nor can you wipe out the experiences of war with a good round of sex. I liked Nora Phoenix’s Ranger, because it was fun and enjoyable as a story with colorful characters. Eli Easton’s Falling Down is the complete opposite of that, it’s darker and much moodier with dramatic New Hampshire setting in late Autumn as a backdrop to remind readers, all things must die.

Josh was the standout star of the book. His suicidal tendencies are built up through a lifetime of poverty, endless tormenting by bullies, and his mother’s death. Beyond the surface issues though, he’s an artistic gay kid with a deep well of empathy, which amplifies what others see as “gay” in him. His empathy for others can be seen especially with his resolution of being a Vegan, despite his homeless status. Despite talents as an artist, he fears that no one will ever accept him and tries to shield his work from public scrutiny. Even when he does show others, like an instance in the book, most people consider his work too dark for public viewing or appreciation. Josh’s art style as described by Eli Easton reminds me of a Gothic or Macabre-type artist, he’s dark with an interest in death, hellish imagery, and unsettling fascinations with bones. Personally, I may not want to hang that kind of stuff on a wall, but I can appreciate what his imagination creates. It’s a tragedy that he showed his art to what appears to be a classic New England Art gallery in New Hampshire, I know the type of gallery through some boring auctions and they are as stuck up as Eli Easton portrays in the book.

Mark is what I imagine the end result of a lifetime of toxic masculinity will leave behind in a gay male, someone endlessly seeking to achieve a goal that is not really there. Mark knows being in the closet isn’t what he wants and understands being gay is who he is, but he just can’t accept himself. He’s a former US Marine, a handman, and lives in a wooden cabin in the woods of New Hampshire with a lot of self-reliance. Yet, he still finds himself lacking. He feels like he failed in Afghanistan, because he couldn’t take the continuous insecurity of life under siege or uncertainty of friends from foe. He feels like his career isn’t as great as it could be, when compared to his father and older brothers, who have berated him in the past for lacking. He fears being gay will limit him as a man, ultimately keeping all his potential love interest as nothing more than hook-ups. Mark confrontation with his family about his sexuality at the end of the novel felt very unresolved. His father doesn’t hate him, but he doesn’t understand how his masculine son, a veteran of the US Marine Corp, could be gay. It’s an inconclusive resolution to the question of what makes a Man, which is appropriate for characters like that in our modern world. Homophobia isn’t always based on religious intolerance, there’s also a deeper root based on other issues and ideals without overt gestures.

There’s only one minor character of significant note, Mrs. Fisher is a one-note character sadly. She’s just a normal grandmother, who hired Mark to paint her large house. She provides food for Mark and Josh, so they can spend time with her. I get that she’s a lonely old woman, but there’s no depth to her character beyond being a surrogate grandmother to Josh and offering him Vegan goodies.

The biggest negative that I would give to this book is the ending, it felt too rushed and too inconsistent. Yes, Mark calling his entire family to find and rescue Josh, who was lost outside in a New Hampshire snowstorm would be cathartic way to reveal Mark’s sexuality and push Josh away from suicidal tendencies. Yet, it didn’t feel quite right as there were too many plotlines opened up without any conversations about Josh or Mark. Also, while I love Mark as a character, if he loved Josh as much as he did towards the end of the book, he would have told his brother the truth rather than leave Josh to his own thoughts. Mark isn’t a selfish character, despite being in the closet, he knows Josh’s fragile emotional state, it felt uncharacteristic to generate unnecessary rescue scenario.

My Review: 3.5 out of 5, I liked a majority of the book, until the final chapters of rescuing Josh. It was a really good character driven story about two guys with different psychological issues and upbringings finding comfort and love with each other. Eli Easton does a lot better in her other books, but this isn't bad as a character story.