Sebastian, Cat: We Could Be So Good

If Fellow Travelers broke your heart, read this book to mend it.

I like Cat Sebastian, and I particularly like her book set in the 19 hundreds.This book is exceptional - it takes NYC, journalism, immigrant neighborhoods as a background - we know this setting from so many films and books - and puts our characters into it, vividly alive.The immediacy of the story, the voice of the characters, I could see them and hear them so clearly.Their love story was so sweet, so tailor-made to these two, no single moment felt generic or cookie cutter, they came completely alive on the page as themselves.I felt their difficulties as gay men in the late 1950-ies, and I felt their friends and trust growing, while still being very careful.Their happy end is believable, while still being partial, under the cloud of illegality and discrimination.The book is amazingly positive and funny, a feel good book, while never glossing over the harsh reality of those times for gay people.