He and his father, Patrick, tiptoe around her death, but Kevin is his father’s protector. He’s angry with his mother who died almost two years ago when her car slid off an ice-covered road and plunged into the Mississippi River. An arctic-like winter has descended on Minnesota’s Twin Cities where Kevin Doyle, a high school senior, is undecided about his future. The Year of Ice, published in 2002, is a coming-of-age story set in 1978. I’m glad I volunteered to host because I loved Malloy’s book. I hosted the program, so I read The Year of Ice. Martin's could easily niche this title as gay fiction, the publisher's decision to market it as general fiction is a commendable way to introduce this talented writer to a larger audience.I serve on the board of a local writing organization, and at the end of March, Brian Malloy was our featured author. Malloy shows plenty of talent in his gay spin on the genre, and this debut bodes well for his literary future. The author also displays a razor-sharp comic touch in the verbal sparring between father and son as Pat tries to bring his instant family together, and he balances the comedy with some touching scenes after Pat messes up his latest domestic venture. Malloy's coming-of-age narrative can be generic, but he handles the gay angle nicely as he explores Kevin's difficulty in finding an outlet for his hormonal urges even as he struggles to maintain a relationship with a classmate named Allison Minczeski, who falls for him. But Kevin is furious when he learns that Pat's infidelity may have contributed to the car accident that took his mother's life, and his anger increases exponentially when his father impregnates the woman he had the affair with, then marries her after a brief dalliance with another woman. The family issues revolve around his dad, Pat, an ordinary 40-something widower with plenty of romantic prospects as the book opens.

From the outside looking in, protagonist Kevin Doyle seems like a normal, party-happy 17-year-old, but the combination of a troubled family life and his secret crush on one of his best friends definitely sets him apart from the pack. A gay high school senior struggles to cope with his father's irresponsibility in Malloy's poignant, quietly effective debut, set in Minneapolis in the late '70s.

The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy