Safe As Houses - Softcover

Alex Jeffers has also published Do You Remember Tulum?, a novella in the form of a love letter, and many shorter works of contemporary and historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. He lives in Rhode Island and is currently working on an as yet untitled novel about the transition to democratic government of the imaginary, fifth-smallest nation in Europe.

First novelist Jeffers controls his language to such a degree that background details-flowers, tastes, and scents-accent every scene of this domestic drama. This is a Bildungsroman with a terrible twist: the narrator is dying of AIDS. Allen Pasztory, son of deaf, Hungarian immigrant parents (who are hence twice removed from discourse in the United States), grows up in the ethnicity of the nonhearing. His long-term relationship with artist and illustrator Jeremy Kent involves Jeremy's beloved son, Toby; the extended family of Toby's mother and her lover, Candace; Allen's nephew; and a host of familial irritation, though nothing serious enough to make any of the characters completely reject someone related. Allen's and Jeremy's devotion to each other is the linchpin of this tangled world; by the middle of the story, the bleak landscape of AIDS surrounds them and then envelops Allen, whose own illness progresses until he nears the end. Nothing exciting happens in this book, but Jeffers is first-rate in his ability to portray nurturing growth amid looming tragedy and to engage the reader's interest in each character. Recommended for most collections.
Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib., New York
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