Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: The Layover
AUTHOR: Roe Horvat
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 134 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 22, 2020
BLURB:
Eight years ago, Ondro Smrek fled Slovakia and the bigotry that drove his first lover to take his own life. The demons proved impossible to outrun, though, and now, desperate for somewhere to belong, Ondro is returning to start over. During a layover in Basel, Switzerland, he meets Jamie, an American living in Scotland who is as brilliant as he is beautiful.
Jaded Ondro never would have guessed he could fall in love during a brief layover—until now. When he is put in a position to offer Jamie comfort without hope of recompense, Ondro doesn’t hesitate. Soon, he catches a glimpse of the home he longs for. But with their separation looming, confessing his feelings would only lead to pain and humiliation. Life has taught Ondro not to hope, but then, he never believed in love at first sight either….
REVIEW:
Recently someone asked me what I consider the criteria for a 5-Heart (star) book. I said, for me, it’s largely a feeling. A 5-Heart book leaves me with a book hangover where I can’t stop thinking about the characters and plot for a quite a while after I’ve finished reading. This was the case with The Layover, an extraordinary novella. It’s a contemplative book and kept me up half the night ruminating over Ondro and Jamie. I felt the connection between the men so strongly I had butterflies in my stomach. Ultimately, it’s all about that connection – emotional, physical, and mental – and how it moves me. The Layover hits every note and earns a well-deserved 5-Hearts.
Fundamentally, The Layover is about two men who meet under unexpected circumstances and proceed to fall for each other. The overarching theme, though, is about the emotional journey of a desperately lonely man finding his way home. Ondro is tired of living the transient lifestyle of an airline steward in Dubai and longs to belong, to matter. He decides to return to his home country of Slovakia which he fled eight years prior. He feels he doesn’t deserve anything better than the country that evokes only negative feelings.
“Nothing forced me to go back. I’ve been fine while dying inside for years. I’ve been a perfectly functioning human being, a solid member of society, until my uniform felt like sandpaper against my skin, and my consciousness was a rubber band stretched to its capacity around my neck. Burning, aching, ready to snap or suffocate me at any moment.”
So, what is home? Is it Slovakia, where his toxic family resides, where dark memories dwell, and a referendum to ban same-sex unions looms in this homophobic nation? Or could home be a person, not a place? Could home be where his heart is, with Jamie, wherever he is?
This is Ondro’s story of his six days spent with Jamie, beginning with being stranded at the airport – exhausted and sullen – because of an airline strike. Jamie, an American living in Scotland, catches Ondro’s eye “making the air too dense to breathe” and intriguing Ondro with his ridiculous purple straw hat and black and yellow striped “bumblebee” socks. Ondro becomes determined to hook-up with Jamie and eventually succeeds, but the next morning when they’re set to catch their respective flights, Jamie falls seriously ill. Ondro, who was already panicking over never seeing Jamie again, cancels his flight plans so he can stay and care for him.
In the ensuing days, Ondro falls harder and harder for Jamie, but doesn’t understand his feelings. All his psyche can accept is that he doesn’t deserve him.
“He was so genuine it made me want to kneel at his feet and beg him to like me so I could consider myself human again.”
Ondro cares for Jamie while he’s sick, but in the end, the real healing in the story is done by Ondro through the comfort of Jamie. Meeting Jamie forces Ondro to reflect on his life and his suffering: “… the longing, self-pity, sadness. Fear.” Each impending separation from Jamie is heart-rending for Ondro (and for me). What’s needed is for one of them to take a leap of faith, to give a future together a chance. What’s interesting about the story being told in just Ondro’s point of view is that we’re on the journey with him, not knowing Jamie’s thoughts or feelings.
The final chapter jumps ahead a few months to when a trip to Slovakia provides closure for Ondro with his family and with the memory of his first boyfriend who broke his heart and then took his own life.
Horvat’s storytelling is both authentic and powerful. He makes every word count in this 134 -page novella. Despite the short length, Ondro’s character is exceedingly well-developed and complex and he is given a solid backstory. Jamie is a wonderful character, too, just less complex as is the nature of a single first person POV story. He does a lovely job describing the settings in Basel, Edinburgh, and Bratislava, but his multi-layered world building goes way beyond that. We’re immersed in Ondro’s life, past and present, with looks at his life in Slovakia and how religion, society, and politics had a great impact on gay men like Ondro and his late boyfriend, Peter. Comparing Ondro’s disapproving family and the dangers of living in Slovakia as an LGBT+ person with Jamie’s accepting parents and the climate in the United States and Scotland should serve as a reminder that these are very dangerous issues in many parts of the world.
The Layover is a beautiful story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
“I didn’t have to keep it together, didn’t have to try to prove stuff, didn’t have to pretend. I could just drift away knowing Jamie was there, holding me tethered to the real world, keeping the monsters away.”
RATING: 
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