Taking Down the Golden Boy

Set in 1970s Winnipeg, this novel describes the incompatibilities and affinities of fundamentalist religion and sexuality in a friendship between two eighteen-year-olds. Tim Evans’s troubled attraction to Stephen Seton fires a questioning spirit–a quest for understanding. Stephen appears to cling to his faith while giving signs that he too is different. They show their inability to come out to each other produces drama. Other characters include the boys’ families, girlfriends, a Marxist, a gay activist pianist, a prisoner who gets released, a charismatic youth pastor, and the city’s famous landmark–the Golden Boy.