Looking For It

July 19, 2004
In Cold Falls, N.Y., smalltown rules are changing as Ford's seven gay protagonists make lives for themselves far from big-city gay havens. This entertaining if overstuffed sophomore effort follows Russell and John, who decide to take a break from their sterile, suffocating seven-year relationship; Mike, a handsome bartender at the Engine Room, a cozy gay bar; Episcopal priest Thomas Dunn, who harbors a burgeoning crisis of faith; Stephen, a tax accountant who lives next door to his parents with only chat room fantasies for entertainment; and lonely, mid-60s Simon, whose longtime lover died a year ago. Affectionate Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner gatherings are an excuse for discussions about family ties, religion, gay marriage and the allure of country life. Meanwhile, the friends are pairing off: love blossoms between Mike and Father Thomas, and Russell and John try to fix Stephen up with their friend Greg. Wary Stephen, however, runs off to an adult cinema and gets violently pummeled by a self-loathing closeted mechanic named Pete, who later nearly kills Greg after a bad Internet hookup. Ford (Last Summer
) handles his broad, diverse cast with aplomb, and his knowing sense of humor and emphasis on the positive make this novel as warm and inviting as a group hug. Agent, Mitchell Waters.

August 1, 2004
The first, unseasonably early snowfall brings a season of hope, yearning, and change in this tale of gay life in upstate New York. Ford has artfully entwined the lives of the gay men of tiny Cold Falls, who gather in the Engine Room, the only gay bar for miles. John and Russell, a longtime couple that bartender Mike cannot comprehend, are having difficulties understanding themselves and each other. Then there's Greg and shy, closeted Stephen Darby, an accountant who lives next door to his parents. Simon, an older man grieving the loss of his longtime partner, bellies up to the Engine Room bar, too, while Mike, heading home from work in the wee hours on snow-slicked roads, almost hits the local priest, who is stranded on the road without gas. So it goes in this engaging page-turner of lives within lives, an insightful and entertaining read about what we seek, and what answers we find within and without.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)