THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412080404
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY MARCIA MANGUM
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
HOME FOR THE DAY
ANDERSON FERRELL
Alfred A. Knopf. 147 pp. $20.
ANYONE WHO HAS left behind a past that he never really belonged to and created a chasm wider than the Grand Canyon in his relationship with his parents can appreciate Anderson Ferrell's second novel.
Home for the Day is the first-person story of a boy who, like Ferrell, grew up in rural North Carolina before moving to New York. This boy, unlike his dad, never learns to appreciate fast cars and fast women. A ``sissy'' as a young boy, he knows at a young age that he is gay.
Years later, when his lover of 17 years dies of AIDS, he takes Pete's ashes back home and buries them in the old family cemetery. It is then that his father tries to shoot him. Or maybe he doesn't really try.
Through a series of well-spun flashbacks, the protagonist tries to reconcile his relationship with his father, who could never understand why his young son rejected model cars but used their parts to build tiny graveyards for small bugs and animals.
Ferrell, author of Where She Was, creates intricate characters and a strong sense of place, not unlike the novels and short stories of another contemporary Southern author, Reynolds Price. Both men delve deeply into the intricacies of relationships. And both do it extremely well.
There are innumerable right-on scenes in this book. Ferrell's knowledge of North Carolina - from its farm families, funerals and Pentecostal faith to its county fairs - is evident. Even the somewhat predictable characterizations, such as the boy's hard-drinking, abusive father and his devoted, submissive mother, ring true.
The sensory overload of the county fair - and the highs and lows connected with it - can carry anyone who's ever been to one right back atop the Ferris wheel. The boy's first sexual experience with the fair's ``Tarzan'' in a red velvet and mirrored trailer home is vintage fairgrounds.
Though Ferrell is vivid and sometimes funny, particularly in recounting the rambling tale of the woman who went loony with grief over her defunct wringer washer, he is at his finest in describing love. The protagonist's feelings for Pete are more compelling and complex than the conflict between father and son.
From the moment when the boy first begins to discover his sexuality on a bike with tough-guy Johnny to his final day holding his dying lover Pete in his arms, there is a depth of feeling that few authors reach.
The protagonist reveals his love for Pete in little ways, such as when Pete comes home from the hospital to die and the two go through their routine of walking around the apartment looking at their things. Writes Ferrell: ``Then we'd stand in the middle of the floor with our arms around each other surrounded by our things which we loved, not because they were especially fine but because that was just how we saw ourselves, holding each other among our things.''
With a touch of humor at the end, the protagonist is strong enough to stand up to his father and remain loyal to the memory of his lover. MEMO: Marcia Mangum is home & garden editor for The Virginian-Pilot and The
Ledger-Star. ILLUSTRATION: Jacket photo by JERRY UELSMANN
Jacket design by ARCHIE FERGUSON
by CNB