Brendan Wolf (Brian Malloy, 2007)

I polished off Malloy’s first novel, The Year of Ice, in 2 days, but Brendan Wolf took me twice as long – I must be slipping. The main reason I get through his books is not just because they’re short (they’re not especially) but they’re so easy to read and written with an economy of style, and the plots are so good. Having said that though, I’ve had to pop on to Amazon to read a review of The Year of Ice to remind myself what it was about! I couldn’t remember any of it – maybe that’s the problem of reading a book too quickly, you don’t have time to absorb the characters into your subconscious.

Anyway, I enjoyed Brendan Wolf. It reminded me a little of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, for no real reason other than each has a young male protagonist, and there are aspects of living in the wilderness featured in both in different ways. Brendan Wolf is not the 35 year old homosexual star’s real name, that’s not something you find out until the last chapter. This is a main theme of the book as Brendan tries to choose an identity he can live with. He has been sacked from myriad jobs and always has his head in a book, his particular favourite is Into The Wild (a book I know little about other than a vague knowledge of the Sean Penn directed movie adaptation) from which he tries to take life lessons. He was abandoned by his birth parents when they were arrested for swindling people out of their savings, and moved between foster families before running away from his adopted parents as his sexuality emerged.

From this messy background it’s a wonder that Brendan has turned out so well. But his lack of job leaves him homeless and he ends up staying with a predatory older man named Marv, who promptly has a stroke, with Brendan becoming his carer, assuming the identity of Marv’s incarcerated boyfriend to stay with the older man against his will. At the same time Brendan has been co-opted by his brother (in prison for defrauding old people) and sister-in-law to take part in their scheme to rip off a charity during a fundraising walk, but it’s alright because the charity is for Christian fundamentalist anti-abortion activists…

Alongside all this, Brendan finds time for a relationship with Sean. To Sean he is Pierre, who lives with his parents and can’t bring Sean to the house because they disapprove of his sexuality. To the anti-abortionists he’s the widower of a woman who died during childbirth and so he attends the fundraising group for the memory of his dead wife. To Marv he’s responsible for his stroke, but then he’s also caring for him during his recovery. Brendan Wolf is many things to many people, but he’s certainly never boring. A conflicted soul, I think it could be easy for a reader to dislike the character. I found his flaws and his constant struggle for identity really interesting. His sexuality is almost incidental to his other issues, but it is important in many ways. While Brendan is not an easy character to warm to straight away, Malloy has crafted an intriguing, often troubling tale that throws up all sorts of ethical and moral issues without feeling issue-driven.