Book Review: All Over Him by Ronald L. Donaghe.
While the first two books in The Continuing Journals of Will Barnett focused on young gay love in an anti-gay setting, this longer, more complex installment uses that relationship to explore the difficulties of lasting gay relationships and the challenges of a growing gay civil rights movement. Setting the book in Austin and San Francisco during the 1970s gives author Ronald L. Donaghe many opportunities to examine those changing times, while still keeping the focus on Will and Lance.
The young lovers now find themselves split between those two cities, because of college and life-long ambitions. As with any long-distance relationship, theirs becomes tested in many ways. However, unlike their heterosexual counterparts, they lack role models for their relationship, since even Will’s beloved Uncle Sean has not maintained the lasting love he sought.
This book’s epilog closes the journals out for now, with Donaghe giving some clever winks and nods to his many loyal readers. We know we can expect at least one more visit with Will and Lance, and that we can expect many more unforgettable characters from the ever-creative mind of Ronald L. Donaghe.
(Note: I wrote an earlier review of this book; that review appears on its back cover. I also wrote the preface to the second book in this series: Lance.)
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