This is almost exactly the struggle that Joyce Sparks lives with - heartbreaking for all involved – and such an unnecessary barrier to an open and happy relationship between parents and children. Forgivable, but a sad disservice to herself and her son. They had openly, together, been part of our lives, and yet at the memorial service for our cousin, his mother would not allow there to be any mention of the man he had made a home with – the most important person in his life. When both men died within a few years of each other, almost 20 years ago, our family was shocked and saddened. I thought about my own family’s experiences – a cousin who married disastrously when he was young, and then found love and companionship with another man after leaving his marriage. She will regret this for the rest of her life.

Joyce attempts to hide her dawning knowledge from her husband, believing he would find her son’s homosexuality unacceptable. When we meet Joyce as a young mother we witness her concern about the femininity of her son, John – even as a little boy he resisted the rough and ready activities of the other boys. This reader, now more enlightened than I was at one time, knew immediately that Freddy was not the kind of guy to be attracted to girls. In the 1950’s who knew about gay – most girls certainly didn’t and as one gay male friend of mine said, he hardly knew either. They go to movies together and Joyce feels a growing attraction – not noticing that Freddy is simply enjoying her company.

We meet a younger Joyce, and through her memories we share the life she lived as a teenager, a young mother, older mother, and then an independent 72 year old.Īs a teenager Joyce’s first love is a boy she works with at a soda fountain – Freddy. Joyce is thinking about her life and her present situation. Natural Order is a novel about an elderly woman, Joyce Sparks, 86 years of age, now living in an old age home. And, I decided I have to be straightforward and discuss the content without any concern about whether or not anyone is offended – because I hope that no one is. Before writing anything at all about Natural Order by Brian Francis I thought for a long time about how forthcoming I wanted to be about the content of, and my own reaction to, this novel.

Natural order brian francis