Your ticket’s in your hand, your suitcase is packed, your destination is close, but you need a book to get you there. That gives readers room to enjoy the tale as it unfolds and grows like an inflating pool toy, and to watch the characters twisting wistfully in irresistible, concentric circles. Indeed, author Steven Rowley offers the perfect mix of snorts and sobs here, snarky fun one minute and pathos the next but neither emotion is belabored or forced. Don’t be surprised, either, if you spend your vacation racing to reach the ending you think’s coming and you’re wrong. This novel is simply as charming as they come and don’t be surprised if you can almost hear your favorite actors as any of the characters here. There are four words that best describe “The Guncle”: A. He lounges with them in the pool, gets them a dog, lets them put up a Christmas tree in July, hugs them, and throws a party. He takes them to five-star restaurants and cringes when they order kid food. He takes them to the museum way too often, that’s what. He gave them “Guncle” Rules (gay + uncle = guncle), life lessons, and stories about their mother – but past that, what does a gay man who never wanted kids do when he suddenly has two of them? Maisie was nobody’s fool and Patrick learned to hide his passwords. Grant was cute but full of questions Patrick learned to make things up. There was no way that Patrick was taking temporary custody of two kids – but then his older sister, Clara, copped an attitude, rolled her eyes, and told him he was “off the hook.”Īnd so Greg headed to rehab after the funeral and the kids went home with Patrick to Palm Springs.

He loved her first, actually, and he never let her forget it.īut now she was gone and Greg had asked the impossible: would Patrick – gay man, former TV star, Palm Springs fixture, no-responsibilities Patrick – take Greg and Sara’s kids, nine-year-old Maisie and six-year-old Grant, for the summer so Greg could go to rehab while grieving the death of his wife? Could the kids’ GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick) step up? Patrick wasn’t exactly happy when she married his brother, Greg, but she managed to make it work and he loved her for it.

Now it is your problem but, as in the new novel, “The Guncle” by Steven Rowley, that’s more than okay. So usually, you’d follow your instincts and run but this time, you surprise yourself by stepping up and taking ownership.

Not your circus, not your monkeys, as they say. You had no wish for it in fact, it’s a hundred percent the opposite. The situation you’re facing isn’t one you wanted.

What does a gay man who never wanted kids do when he suddenly has two of them?

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