Graham Jackson (2) (1949–)

The Jane Loop is a powerful, quiet, contemplative coming of age novel. Set in 1960s Toronto, the book explores sexuality, family, and the eerily perfect facade of suburbia.

One thing that struck me while reading: I consider myself relatively well-read when it comes to LGBT literature, but I don't think I've read anything set in the 60s before -- relatively recent but still before Stonewall, before the AIDS crisis.

One of my favourite things about this book is the characterization, especially show more with respect to the father. At the start of the book, he seemed almost caring, with his sadistic nature being deftly and terrifyingly revealed over the course of the book. And yet, I never lost that sense of maybe when it came to him, if that makes any sense. Maybe he was going to do something nice -- or maybe this nice thing was going to turn out to be horrifying. I felt thrown off-balance by his character, never sure whether to trust his actions or not. A truly effective way of me feeling a fraction of what it was like to be in Neil's shoes.

The little details of daily life were also very compelling. As a library employee -- and a former page -- I love the sections that took place at the Runnymede library.

I felt like the writing style itself was formal and took a bit of getting used to. Not a bad thing -- the writing is beautiful. I've just been reading more first-person books lately and found I had to change my mindset as I started The Jane Loop.

Overall, highly recommended to anyone who enjoys literary coming of age novels and LGBT literature. show less