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In Ms. Reardon's two other gay YA novels, A Secret Edge and Thinking Straight the protagonist is a gay youth, one closeted with a supportive aunt and exotic friend, the other out but with non-supportive Christian parents. In her third novel, as in Christopher Rice's fourth novel Blind Fall: A Novel, the protagonist is not gay. In Blind Fall the gay person is the protagonist's best friend, an ex-Marine. In A Question of Manhood it is the youth's brother, a soldier home on a brief and final leave from Viet Nam in 1972 (the period in which the novel is set), who leaves him, and only him, with his secret, and with a million questions his brother will never be able to answer. His father wants him to "be a man." But how? What does that really mean?
This is a truly great book with interesting characters. Few gay YA novels would have the boy describing his liking sex with a prostitute in a pink vest, a father with a gimpy leg and a pet supply store rather than a pet store because mom is allergic to dogs and cats, and an out, gay dog whisperer who goes by "JJ" because, well, read the book to find out! You will learn as much about dogs as you do about people, and you learn a LOT about people. Ms. Reardon has done her homework in researching this book, and you will marvel at her detail.
You might even shed a tear in the final pages, as I did. Her next book is due in six months. I can hardly wait!