Book Review: Well With My Soul by Gregory G. Allen
I first received Gregory G. Allen’s novel Well With My Soul as part of a blog book tour and was supposed to have reviewed this title back in November I believe. I definitely can’t say I regret my decision to stop participating in blog book tours where I was expected to commit to a post date before even seeing the book for the first time. I read widely and only for pleasure and it just didn’t suit me to have to force myself to work through some title I just was not in the mood for to meet a certain post date. But I have to say, I’m really pleased that I had the opportunity to read Well With My Soul.
Jacob and Noah are brothers who grow up in a small town in Tennessee. The older Jacob realizes from a very early age that he is gay. Jacob is also very much his mother’s favorite while younger Noah adopts something of a bad boy persona and is often drinking and staying out until all hours. But as soon as he comes of age, Jacob and his boy friend move to New York City and Noah is left to oversee their mother– whom he never did quite learn to talk to–in her cruel passage from cancer. While Noah at first seems to be the not so bright bad boy, he evolves into a successful novelist who at length also moves to New York City where he and Jacob have a genuinely shocking second act.
Some years ago I remember seeing a movie at a friend’s home. I don’t remember what it was called nor the actors’ names. The film opens on a black man receiving some kind of award at a business dinner, goes on to his going home with his beautiful wife. And they walk in the door of their gorgeous house and he tells her ”Pack bitch, I’m dumping you.” I was so Shocked by this scene that my hosts had to turn the movie off. The revelation that Jacob decides to become a professional preacher, of some never defined vaguely Protestant sect, renounces homosexuality and marries a woman and has two kids by her was for me an utterly jarring sort of plot twist. I’ve read dozens of novels where a young gay protagonist goes off to the big city for a coming of age story. I’ve never before read a well-written novel about two brothers struggling with sexuality from such opposite ends who wind up in such very different places than where they began.
I’m just the slightest bit hesitant to wholeheartedly recommend Well With My Soul– the mid-book plot twist really bothered me a great deal. But I was by that point hooked in the story and continued reading to the very end to see how it turned out. I will not reveal the final plot twist, as I don’t in any way want to discourage anyone from reading it if they think they might like it. But I do have to say that while believable the ending was a cliche. Well With My Soul– Cautiously Recommended to those who enjoy well written psychological fiction.
@ Libdrone: I have read this novel and loved the plot twist. Didn’t find it at all jarring. Also, the book wasn’t marketed in the “coming of age” genre, but as literary (gay) fiction. (If it had been touted as “coming of age” I wouldn’t have read it.) I recommend it wholeheartedly!
@ atomicandy if you google WELL WITH MY SOUL, you’ll find a great many reviews and synopses about it.
I think the movie you saw was Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422093/
The movie you referred to earlier was DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN produced by Tyler Perry. He has also done some satirical stuff which includes a redneck, counter- stereotypical black woman called Madea. She appears later on in the earlier mentioned movie as well.
Thanks for sharing, I think I might pick it up and read it for myself even though I feel like you revealed some of it for me already.
I also dislike sudden, incongruent plot changes or the illogical ‘deus ex machina’ endings to some novels. When I come across such uncalled for gyrations mid-volume, I usually put the book down and only see it again when I clean up my den for the book reseller.
This sounds like a good read but I’ll pass on this one. To be honest, since a few years back when I started working online, I’ve just been going through familiar authors – old and mainstream like Roth, Updike, Doctorow, Keillor, and Irving. Glad that I found your site, time to catch up on the younger breed of authors, I guess.
It sounds as though we like and admire some of the same authors, though I will confess there ae a couple I don’t much care for you your list
If the characters wouldn’t be particularly interesting to you, you’re probably wise to pass on this one. Thank you so much for stopping by my book review blog. I greatly enjoy discussing books and hope to chat with you again soon.
Thanks for not stop reading while your hesitation for recommending came along. Seems like a interesting book after reading your review!
The jarring twist should be expected in this genre but I abhor cliches in otherwise intellectually written material. How elegantly does the author convey the twist? The most annoying plot twists, in my opinion, are shot into the face of the reader but are largely ignored by the characters and that’s just silly. Appreciate your thoughtful review, will definitely give this one pause.
part of my problem, Ryan, is that I still am not quite sure just what genre this work is. For the first oh 150 pages I though I was reading the n-th ‘gay coming of age novel’. I am a particular fan of that genre and I believe that’s what I thought the book Was when I agreed to review it. That the story is told in the first person, with alternating chapters from each of the brothers’ points of view. After reading it, I definitely don’t think it fits in that ‘coming of age’ genre but am not certain how I would classify it beyond “fiction”. (At the library it would simply be put in the Fiction section and no one would worry about nailing down a genre.)
hhmm. Doesn’t really tell me enough about the book to want to get into it. 2 brothers, there is a plot twist.
That’s a fair criticism, Andy. I often struggle with how much of the plot to reveal and how to give my readers enough of a gist of the story and the writing for them to be able to decide if they would like the book or not. Thanks so much for stopping by to visit and for sharing your opinion.
Thanks for the review. As generally a light reader, your review is encouraging enough for me to want to pick up a copy and see if it engages me as it did you. Cliches or not, good stories, well written are always a welcome diversion. Well With My soul – may well appeal to me as well.
If you do decide to read it I will just mention that I receive a small commission from Amazon on purchases through the links on this site
Glad you found the review helpful, Tom.
Thank you for sharing this review.