Terre Haute (novel)
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| Author | Will Aitken |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Gay Men's Press |
| Released | 1989 |
| Media Type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 288 p. (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-85449-131-7 (paperback edition) |
Terre Haute is a 1989 novel by Will Aitken.
Terre Haute describes a year in the life of fourteen-year-old Jared McCaverty, a bright and attractive young boy going through puberty in Terre Haute, Indiana. Jared, who comes from a wealthy family, is many ways a reasonably happy boy, but he is overweight, socially awkward, and gay.
[edit] Plot summary
He had a sexual encounter with a friend Paul Herzog, but his father found out out and beat him. He buys a gay magazine, but his father finds it and cannot accept his son's sexual inclinations. He then has another homosexual episode with Randy Sparks, a school friend, but his father discovers them having sex in Jared's bedroom.
Jared meets Julian Clay, the new curator of the local museum. Clay is impressed with both Jared’s intellect and his looks. On a trip together to purchase a new exhibit, Julian sodomizes Jared even though Jared finds it really painful. Jared loves Julian and so allows the sex to happen again and again. Jared faces rejection by Julian and threatens him:
"I'm going home and I'm going to tell my father exactly what you did to me."
Julian Clay then commits suicide. It is likely that he did so because Jared threatened to expose him as a pedophile and a rapist, and Jared blames himself for Julian's death. In the closing pages, Jared meets Alexandre, a sympathetic twenty-year-old Frenchman, and the reader is led to believe that Jared will have found true love.
