com reviewed Holding the Man by Timothy Conigrave
Breaking your heart
5 stars
It broke my heart in 1996 and again in 2023. Tim Conigrave is a gifted and manipulative writer, and this is his last tribute to John Caleo, the love of his life.
It’s a autobiography. It’s a love story. And it’s even mostly true.
When I was young I didn't like or trust Tim (the narrator) for his clear and admitted failings, and what I sensed as his unreliability.
Now I’m old, more familiar with the ways that we trick ourselves, and I’ve found someone a bit like John, I think I understand Tim a little better and why he made the authorial choices he made.
Bravo.
Read it and if you’re lucky, have your heart broken. As it heals, as mine did, Tim’s writing illuminates goodness and possibility.
Thank you Tim and John for your lives imperfectly transposed to paper in such an incredible way.
It broke my heart in 1996 and again in 2023. Tim Conigrave is a gifted and manipulative writer, and this is his last tribute to John Caleo, the love of his life.
It’s a autobiography. It’s a love story. And it’s even mostly true.
When I was young I didn't like or trust Tim (the narrator) for his clear and admitted failings, and what I sensed as his unreliability.
Now I’m old, more familiar with the ways that we trick ourselves, and I’ve found someone a bit like John, I think I understand Tim a little better and why he made the authorial choices he made.
Bravo.
Read it and if you’re lucky, have your heart broken. As it heals, as mine did, Tim’s writing illuminates goodness and possibility.
Thank you Tim and John for your lives imperfectly transposed to paper in such an incredible way.
