Politically Correct

It is interesting to read a novel when you disagree with the main point the author seems to be trying to make, yet are enjoying the story.  Prospect Street is the story of the Bronson family.  Faith, the mom, is the daughter of a powerful senator and spends her life taking care of her family in suburban Washington DC.  Her husband David works for an organization similar to Focus on the Family.  He lobbies, makes speeches etc.  He is the son of a famous minister and his father always wanted him to take over the church.  They have an eleven year old son and a fourteen year old daughter.   Life is grand until Faith catches David with a male lover.  They divorce and this is the story of them getting their lives back together.

Faith's mother owns a house in Georgetown, which has been a low-priced rental for years.  It was the house from which her first child had been kidnapped when only a few weeks old.  Faith moves in, and begins renovations.  She becomes interested in the people who have lived there in the past and starts exploring family history, including the kidnapping of her sister.  She meets an eccentric group of neighbors.  She starts to do things she would have never done while married, including drinking alcohol.  She forms a new romantic relationship.

I really enjoyed the story, but Richard's main point seems to be that social conservatives who condemn homosexual behavior are bad and those who accept homosexuals are good.  All the bad guys are conservatives; the liberals come to the rescue.

I don't pretend to have a real understanding of what it is like to desire to have sex with someone of the same gender.  I will say that what really bothered me about this happily ever after book was that here was David, who genuinely liked Faith, who loved being a father and who had a lot to lose both socially and monetarily, chose to leave Faith and their kids so he  could have an intimate relationship with someone else, and there was no decent opposition to that in the book, even though by doing so he caused  a lot of pain for his kids.  Somehow, because he is now being honest about who he really is, everything is ok.  Now the family is out of their white bread vanilla suburban existence and has learned that life has shades of gray.  His secret is out, and  throughout the book, other peoples' secrets are revealed.  Now that the secrets are gone, everyone, except maybe the bad guy, lives happily ever after (and who knows, maybe he did too, since he really didn't seem to like anyone anyway).
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