An edition of Safe as Houses: a novel (1995)

Safe as houses

a novel

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Last edited by ImportBot
November 2, 2021 | History
An edition of Safe as Houses: a novel (1995)

Safe as houses

a novel

  • 3.00 ·
  • 1 Rating
  • 4 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 2 Have read

Allen Pasztory is a man who has had to learn to be ordinary, one of his deepest desires. The hearing son of deaf parents, he spoke with his hands before his voice. A gay man, he has spent the last ten years helping to raise his lover's son. More recently, they gave refuge to Allen's young nephew, a boy tormented by his father's hostility. Allen's is a family that has been created as much as born, unconventional in the eyes of both gay and straight society.

Allen is the narrator of Safe as Houses, a deft, insightful, deeply engaging novel that re-envisions the contemporary American family. In an inviting, intelligent voice that the reader always trusts - especially, perhaps, when Allen admits to making things up - he traces his own life from childhood into his thirties, relating it to the lives of those he loves.

His father, Janos, the orphaned son of immigrants, was brought up in a residential school whose stated mission was to deny deaf children their own language. His mother, Marit, is the daughter of Hungarian aristocrats who was brought to America as a refugee. His lover, Jeremy, married his lesbian best friend in love and panic, and lived with her until the birth of their son proved that devotion alone was not a firm enough foundation to build a family.

Jeremy's son, Toby, a cunning and perceptive child, can't remember a time before he and Allen conspired to protect his father from real life. And Allen's sister's son, Kit, came to live with them because and in spite of his father's antipathy toward what Allen represents.

  1. Working with metaphors of deafness, language, homosexuality, and illness, Safe as Houses explores a definition of family that includes but is not limited to blood relations, and a definition of fatherhood apart from or in addition to paternity. It is a considerable literary achievement that brings us - as novels are meant to - news of our world.
Publish Date
Publisher
Faber and Faber
Language
English
Pages
364

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Safe As Houses
Safe As Houses
2009, Lethe Press
in English
Cover of: Safe As Houses
Safe As Houses
February 1998, Gay Men's Press
Paperback in English
Cover of: Safe as houses
Safe as houses: a novel
1995, Faber and Faber
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
Boston

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
813/.54
Library of Congress
PS3560.E33 S24 1995, PS3560.E33S24 1995

The Physical Object

Pagination
364 p. ;
Number of pages
364

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL1121037M
Internet Archive
safeashousesnove00jeff
ISBN 10
0571198600
LCCN
94047555
OCLC/WorldCat
31783074
Library Thing
270471
Goodreads
2414768

Work Description

From Amazon.com:

When Allen Pasztory discovered he was likely to die before his time, he realized that what he could pass down to the people he loved was stories. Stories of and for his families – the family he was born to and the family he stumbled upon and fiercely embraced.

The hearing child of parents raised in the inhumane surroundings of a state school for the deaf, all along Allen knew he and his family were different. His sister tried her best to become ordinary, as if it were possible, but Allen knew better. He would be ready to offer sanctuary when an ordinary family cast out his nephew Kit.

Allen fell for freelance artist Jeremy’s talent and looks, but it was Jeremy’s unanticipated bravery that supported them through the years while they nurtured their new family. Despite hostility from without and threat from within, they created a secure and loving home for Jeremy’s precocious son Toby and, later, Allen’s nephew.

But safety can’t be guaranteed. Ill, Allen must tell himself stories to survive, stories that may explain his life to the boys he’s raised, for “your life is never only your own story, and what you don’t know for sure you must invent, using all the clues you can gather.”

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History

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November 2, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
May 8, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
February 14, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot remove fake subjects
May 19, 2019 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 10, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page