Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: The View From a Rusty Train Car
AUTHOR: DeeJay Arens
PUBLISHER: Writers AMuse Me Publishing
LENGTH: 324 Pages
BLURB:
“No one talks about what happens when you fall in love with the boy next door — not when you’re the boy living beside the boy next door.”
Jared didn’t want to do it, but it had to be done. Someone had to sit before the government hearing to explain why a gay man was nothing to be vilified, nothing to be hated or feared… that he was just a man. That is what Jared Montgomery is determined to do. He does so by sharing his story – his and Luke’s story – in the hopes that perhaps even just one more person could understand.
Luke and Jared were battling the odds from the beginning. Growing up beside each other, being best friends, they soon learned that if they wanted to share each other’s company, it had to be done in secret, in the confines of the old train car behind the junkyard. There, they were free of the taunts and jibes, the ridicule and hatred… or were they?
Unable to embrace who he is, unable to deal with the tactics used by his family to ‘cure’ him, Luke forces himself into a traditional marriage that is doomed from the start. His true, self-denied love for Jared, and the hatred surrounding it, is killing him. The question is, can Jared get to him before it is too late?
REVIEW:
I’m not even sure where to start on this review. This book really played with my emotions, from the heights of happiness to one point in the book where I actually had water leaking from my eyes! Having grown up gay in the United States, I empathized with the plight of the characters. Little things that straight people take for granted, like who to take to the prom, how to talk about your love interests to your family, and even day to day life events like holding hands or your first kiss, are much different for the LGBT community while we’re growing up, and very well portrayed in this book.
The first line of the blurb is one of my favorite lines of the book. “No one talks about what happens when you fall in love with the boy next door — not when you’re the boy living beside the boy next door.” That line, and the other lines that go with it in the book are unfortunately still a truthism in the majority of the United States, even in 2014. Parents really aren’t prepared for their son to come home and introduce them to the “man” they are in love with.
The book is written as a series of flashbacks. It begins with Jared speaking in front of a group of people, although we don’t find out who they are until the last chapter of the book. Jared is recounting the story of Luke and their complicated on again / off again relationship which is caused by society’s lack of acceptance of the love of two men.
In the book, Jared and Luke meet the day Jared and his family move into their new house in 1987. They are instantly inseparable. They go on to share everything over the next few years, including their first kiss in the confines of a rusty old train car in a junkyard behind their homes. They figure they are safe there, away from prying eyes.
Unfortunately someone sees them near the end of high school and their lives are forever changed. Luke’s mother deals with it in the worst way possible, placing Luke in forced conversion therapy. Jared has no idea where Luke is gone. Nor does anyone else. There begins a series of miscommunications, homophobia, and separation.
These two characters go through a lot in the book. Sickness, war, college, even falling in love with other people, but they still first and foremost love each other, even when they aren’t communicating. There is a happy ending of sorts and reconciliations, but there is also some pretty hefty sadness.
I’m not going to say much else, because I don’t want to do any further spoilers. If you’re looking for one of those sex on every other page romance novels, this isn’t it, because it doesn’t have any sex scenes. In fact, I’m not sure this book qualifies as a romance novel. In my opinion it is more of a tragedy, but a tragedy you need to read. The subject matter is pulled from the headlines over the last 20 years and even today. If you are a gay man, or a friend or family member of a gay man, you should read the book. Just this week, the U.N. Committee Against Torture questioned U.S. officials about conversion therapy still being legal in 48 states. Who Jared is speaking to is revealed at the end of the book and it is as relevant today as it was when the book was written two year ago.
I very highly recommend the book. The characters, both main and supporting, and the story are very well written. The story instills true emotions of happiness, joy, anger, sadness and acceptance as you’re reading the book. I finished reading it last night, but this morning I’m still heavily in book hangover status from this one. I’ve already added this book to my must re-read list.
Take my advice, consider a break from the light fluff pieces and read Mr. Arens’ book. You won’t be sorry!
RATING: 
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