Sudden Strangers
The Story of a Gay Son and His Father
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"This is a story about Walter Fricke and Aaron Fricke, father and son, heterosexual and gay (respectively on all counts). . . .
"It has taken six years to complete this book. During that time, there were periods when it was worked on steadily and times when the material was abandoned as hopeless. The book changed as our father/son relationship changed, and each transformation of the book reflected the transformations in our relationship. It is neither the same book nor the same relationship that we started with six years ago. This was a book that had to be lived, not simply written.
"The final product is the story of an evolving father/son relationship, a story of two people with different ways of looking at the world, and of the hurdles we needed to overcome to respect each other."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The relationship between Walter Fricke, a Rhode Island harbor pilot, and his gay son, Aaron, is arrestingly portrayed as it evolved during six years from conflict to mutual understanding and respect. With earnest candor, the son ( Reflections of a Rock Lobster ) recalls their early compansionship, his teenage realization of his homosexuality and his father's shocked but stoic reaction to his son's ``coming out.'' Initial acceptance was followed by overt hostility and a two-year rift during which both men ultimately came to terms with each other's lives: the son, working in an X-rated bookstore, caught up in the Southern California gay community; the father, divorced, lonely and disappointed that his son would never produce an heir to carry on the family name. Their collaboration on this slim volume, reflecting both their perspectives, was a successful attempt at reconciliation. It is poignant to learn that the father died unexpectedly, in 1989, of cancer. Photos not seen by PW.
