Safe as Houses

by Alex Jeffers

Book Overview

"A gay novel about family values". -- Edmund White"While other novels are content to show us the surface of gay lives, Safe as Houses brings us inside in ways that enlighten and illuminate" -- Michael BronskiHighly praised on its original hardback publication (Faber, 1995), Safe as Houses is the story of Allen Pasztory, the hearing son of Hungarian-born deaf parents. When Allen eventually finds a partner for life, Jeremy comes complete with a five-year-old...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571198600
• ISBN13: 9780571198603
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful and unforgettable story!

I read this one years ago and am very glad it has been reissued to be enjoyed by those of us into gay or M/M romance. The writer has created a very credible and applealing character in Allen. His childhood is unique. His growth as a family man is touchingly written as he builds a warm family with the handsome Jeremy and his sons. Underlying the story is the poignant lingering sadness as the story takes place during the Aids epidemic and Allen has Aids and his time with his family is limited. The writer does not dwell on the inevitable tragic ending but gives us comfort and hope in his quality writing. Yet like one of the reviewers commented we all die. This means how one lives is all that really matters, which is all beautifully conveyed in this luminous and moving story. Highly recommended.

A touching account, beautifully written

Allen Pasztory, the son of deaf parents, tells his story from childhood, but begins with that of his parents. Allen is not deaf, but he is gay, and as he tells his story he is dying with AIDS; although as far as I can recall the disease is never actually mentioned by name. Allen tells of his growing up, his early relationships, and his eventual meeting with Jeremy with whom he falls in love, and subsequently builds a life. That life also include Jeremy's son Toby, and in time his own nephew, Kit. The story is not told in strict chronological order, nor does it fill in every detail. Some episodes are told in isolation, at times without giving the outcome or consequences. There is no drama here, no crisis, but it is a story full of all the minutia that together comprises a family's life. It is a gentle story, a story of love, of the love between Allen and Jeremy, and the love for their two boys, Toby and Kit. Safe as Houses is a book to be read at leisure, to be enjoyed for the pleasure of having a glimpse into this family's life together. It is a touching account, beautifully written.

A touching story about an "alternative" family

Safe as Houses was a very enjoyable read for me. I was very touched by the love that two homosexual men have for their "family". In fact, this "alternative" family seemed to be more normal than the regular man-woman unit.

A beautifully written, wonderful book

Alex Jeffers' wonderful book is an idyll, perhaps a fantasy, certainly a 'blast of the trumpet' against the family values folks who cling to the stale notion that only mixed-gender households can know love or raise well-adjusted kids.A fantasy, perhaps, because how many families are as happy and communicative as this one? How many sixteen-year-old boys remain affectionate friends of their dads? But it's not impossible, I suppose, and even the possibility that somewhere such families may exist is something to celebrate.An idyll, because as Allen battles AIDS (we learn that he's got KS on page two), he chooses for the sporadic journal entries that comprise the book only the good memories.A blast against the conservatives, because with writing this good, how could anyone deny the truth of the portrait?Is it a sad book? For his two sons, especially the younger, his eventual death will be a terrible loss. But should we grieve for Allen himself? That's a much tougher question that the book asks. Does it get any better, any happpier, than the life Allen describes for us? We'll all die someday, as Allen's father reminds him. And if we've lived in bliss, do we call it a tragedy because our bliss isn't eternal?Or do we consider by way of contrast that many of the gay men born in the late 40's and during the 50's who are still alive survived because they spent the 70's and 80's in the closet. And with their cohort so diminished by the epidemic, many will never find the happiness that Allen tells us of. These men bought their lives at the expense of love.So we have an old, old conundrum, the modern form of the choice Achilles is forced to make in The Iliad: a brief, glorious life or a long, dull one. I don't know the answer. But Jeffers gives us a hero for our times and shows us how we can celebrate a life rather than mourn a death.This is an achingly beautiful book. Read it.

A wonderful, lyrical tale of life, love, and family.

Alex Jeffers has written a wonderful, lyrical tale of life, love, and family. The themes of the book -- deafness, gay parenthood, and illness -- are interwoven with a quiet, warm story about two men struggling to build a faimly in a world which does not acknowledge their right to parenthood. Through the eyes of Allen, we watch his father and mother, both deaf, struggle to survive in a world which does not wish to accomodate them. Once Allen has grown up and moved away from home, he meets Jeremy, a tall, handsome man who is raising his son alone. Together, Jeremy and Allen strive too raise and protect Jeremy's son.