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Whistling in the Dark

Tamara Allen
Lethe Press (2009)
ISBN 9781590210499
Reviewed by Patricia Berliner for Rebecca's Reads (7/09)


I loved the cover of the book. The sepia shade immediately sets us in a former time.  The expressions on the faces of the two men, hugging companionably, invite us to join them on their emergence from darkness into light.

 The story opens in the shadow of World War I in the City of New York in the year 1919.  Sutton Albright meets Jack Bailey, both war veterans, both musicians, both poor and virtually homeless, both gay.

Sutton has just come back from the war, discharged because of serious injuries, wounded in body and spirit.  Sutton is a man with secrets. Jack, also a veteran, orphaned when his parents died of influenza, seems to have no secrets, but does have a lot of friends.  He runs the local novelty shop, not too great a business man, a great gathering place, always filled with people-a motley and haphazard crowd who come for companionship, but not to buy much, a great place to visit but not too great if you need  to earn a living.  In his spare time, Jack fiddles with repairing radios and, eventually, starts his own radio program.

Sutton, a concert pianist before the war, stopped playing during the war and refused to play after his return.  The war,  and other personal reminders of failed relationships, haunt Sutton, who can or will not let go of his secrets.  But he cannot let go of his love of music.  Cajoled by Jack and the motley assortment of neighbors, venders, shopkeepers and friends, Sutton agrees to do an on the air concert.  The rest, as they say, is history…as Sutton attains success, fame and, most important, grows in trust and self-acceptance.  At the end, he is “a new man.”  And Jack, too, has changed.

This book is gay themed and gay friendly.  However, because it is a universal story of friendship, trust and healing, it is relevant to anyone who has been misunderstood, hurt, abandoned, or felt like an outsider looking in.

My one complaint, and it is an important one, is that the book filled with too much description, more than its share of redundancy and, after a while it started to seem like overkill. A good editing job would have resulted in a sharper, smoother flowing, and more readable story.

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