Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Teaching Professor Grayson
AUTHOR: Kade Boehme & Allison Cassatta
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 224 Pages
BLURB:
Christian Grayson is a professor of sociology who comes from a close-knit Southern family steeped in values and tradition. He left Tennessee using education as his excuse for escape, when he truthfully only wanted the freedom to be who he truly was. But at age forty, he’s still in the closet and still adheres to the morals his father, a Southern Baptist minister, raised him with. This includes saving himself for Mr. Right. CJ Hata has been under Christian’s wing since his freshman year. A genius, pure and simple, he’s a senior now and no longer needs to report to Professor G, but he still seeks his teacher out occasionally for a friendly chat. When Christian accidentally outs himself to CJ while pouring his heart out about his dying father, CJ feels totally out of his element. He convinces himself to put forth his best effort because the man he’s been crushing on for four years needs a friend. In the meantime, everyone around CJ is stumbling out of the closet, but the one person he really wants to come out has barricaded himself in with the bible and his family’s expectations.
REVIEW:
When we meet Christian Grayson, he is an educator in a college in the greater Tampa, Florida area. He is forty years old and his family is severely fundamentalist, his father being an actual Fundamental Minister in one of those God Hates Fags type churches. Because of the pressure of being the eldest son, Christian has never come out as being gay, and he is actually still a virgin.
CJ Hata, has Professor Grayson as his Advisor. He has been in classes taught by Professor Grayson for the last four years, and has spent much of that time fantasizing about the width of the man’s shoulders! Imagine CJ’s surprise when he stops by to ask Professor Grayson a question one day, and the man develops a severe case of “emotional word vomit” expressing his fears about his dying dad, his family, and ends with saying he is gay. CJ is instantly totally excited because he has been crushing on this guy for four YEARS! And now he knows they both bat for the same team.
That one bout of word vomit, leads to others, and leads to the two men getting to know each other better. One is tormented by his Fundamentalist past, and the other has never shared emotions with anyone, and isn’t even sure he actually can. Somewhere along the way Professor G, as CJ has always called him, ends up being called Christian. There is something about having your tongue in someone’s mouth which makes it hard to see them the same afterwards! But you didn’t hear that from me.
The authors take us on a journey through each man’s path to acceptance of, and moving past, their individual background issues. Along the way they face some family homophobia, the concern of a fellow educator, a therapist and the stigma of a large age difference.
When I started this book, I thought I would love it. To be honest somewhere around half way through, it dragged a little and I found the premise harder and harder to maintain. I had no issues with the homophobic family, the work concerns, the MC’s age gap, the religious aspects or pretty much anything else, except for the 40 year old virgin thing. Every time that came up it made the story just a little implausible for me. I can’t picture an attractive man living in Tampa/St Pete from ages 25-40, teaching college and knowing he was gay, who never once went to a gay bar and didn’t know a single gay person. I met a few of those guys back in my single days. The first thing they did when getting away from home was go through a total Ho stage. So I found it hard to believe that anyone would hold out fifteen years.
All that aside, I think the book was well written and well edited. I personally ended up liking the story instead of loving it because of the issue mentioned above. I think if the authors had made Christian 30, like he looks in the book’s cover photo and had him only 5 years away from his religious background, that it might have made the virgin thing more likely.
RATING: 
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