This book explores the Familia relationship between four adults who choose to live together as mock heterosexual couples. Early is married to Gina, but is in a relationship with her police partner, Steven who is married to Roni- Gina’s boo. The story goes back and forth from present-ish day (2014) and the past when this whole charade started in the 90’s. For those not old enough to remember, homosexuality was a social taboo that could lead to serious discrimination just 20 odd years ago. I know that some discrimination is still legal today, but you can’t deny that the social climate is far more accepting. Beards, for the most part, are thankfully not needed. If you don’t know what a beard is-
- a person who carries out a transaction, typically a bet, for someone else in order to conceal the other’s identity.
In other words, and in this case, the characters are each other’s beards to cover up their homosexuality. If this concept sounds depressing, it is. The tone of the books isn’t too heavy, but the background social elements of the necessity of this scheme is and is felt throughout, at least from this reader.
So these two couples live together in one house and function as one unit. The narrative follows with the start of Gina and Roni meeting and though Steven and Early are also main characters, we get a more in depth look at the lesbian relationship, which I have no complaints about. The story follows the couples as they age, go through job promotions and turbulence, and eventually through the upbringing of a shared child. I would also say that Gina and Roni’s characters are the most developed by the end. Though Steve and Early do show their own growth, they don’t come across any relationship conflict that pushes them into change like Gina and Roni experience. I thought the conflict for them was relatable and understandable.
The most interesting part of this book to me was the constant tension between society and the characters. Everyone is living a lie, but the reader can’t blame them and comes to understand the decisions they make relating to hiding their true nature, despite how exhausting the scheme seems. I do wish we saw more discussion on the possible conflicts of their setup. With marriage comes a bunch of legal perks and I kept thinking about the “could-bes,” but that’s not what this story was about. Each character was mostly outcasted by their own families and all they had was each other, so a lot could be explained by this fact alone.
When the story opens it seems like it will be told by Stevie, the child raised by the two couples, who is explaining his family situation to his girlfriend. Although Stevie is simultaneously telling the story, he isn’t the narrator (it’s third party omniscient). We cut back and forth from his present life as a young man, to his parents’ past. I wish this aspect was a bit smoother. Stevie seems to be telling her everything we’re reading, including fights and sex- the fights I imagine him hearing about later on, the sex… I reason that was left out of his version, but this split narration did give me pause.
Overall, this books was thought-provoking and humorous with a dose of sad reality, leaving with the uplifting message “it gets better.” Bishop did a great job painting a picture of what society, as a whole, used to be like, and how things have changed now. All the pop culture references from the 90s and early 2000s was also a plus.
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