12/07/2015
Griffin’s forceful debut novel examines the lives of two men who meet and fall in love in North Carolina shortly after the end of World War II. Wendell Wilson, a taxidermist, falls for war veteran Frank Clifton, and they live cautiously as a couple at a time when being outed as gay meant a prison sentence. They buy a house on the edge of town and rarely venture outside together, instead spending evenings in front of the television watching the broadcast of the local “Debbie Drowner” trial. Flashbacks illustrate their courtship and early years, and illuminate the difficulties in being forced to live a closeted life. They cannot even ask a stranger to take a photograph of them together as a couple. After Frank suffers a mild stroke and is subsequently diagnosed with a deteriorating heart condition, Wendell has to pretend to be his brother in order to visit him in hospital. As Frank’s physical and mental health both begin to unravel, Wendell fights to keep their lives from falling apart. The novel’s descriptive passages are too long at times, but Griffin manages to paint a compassionate portrait of a lifelong love that will linger with readers. (Feb.)
"Graceful . . . A portrait of a particularly repressive period in gay history." - The New York Times Book Review
"Extraordinary . . . [A] beautifully down-to-earth love letter." - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Hide can't be reduced to a social-justice tale, or one of love between gay men. It's a story about the kind of love that endures beyond youth, strength and memory. It's about the preciousness of the lives couples build together and the heartbreak of losing them." - Chapter 16.org/Knoxville News-Sentinel
"Something like a small miracle: a bittersweet portrait of love in the shadows." - starred review, Booklist
"Tender, restrained, Hide is the freshly imagined story of a gay male couple who decide to give up the world — friends, family, career — in order to live out their forbidden love in the decades before gay liberation. This is a great love story." - Edmund White, author of OUR YOUNG MAN
"Full of joy and tenderness and awe . . . Griffin's lush prose lends an aura of a dream." - The Rumpus
"A masterful novel. Every page aches with life." - Gail Godwin, author of FLORA
"Brilliantly assured . . . poignant . . . beautiful . . . Hide is dark and deep—almost the proverbial assured debut. I finished it in tears, impatient to see the development of such a talented writer." - The Sunday Telegraph
"Griffin fills his story with prickly humor and wit . . . Hide is a book that breaks your heart." - BookPage
"Sumptuous . . . Matthew Griffin has crafted his characters through the eyes of a long-enduring love, one that encompasses joy and bitterness, hope and heartache . . . A novel robust with flavor and brimming with passion." - Shelf Awareness
"Some love, pressurized by time, and isolation, and prejudice, turns hard, gem-like, buried in protective rock. In Hide, Matthew Griffin has used his considerable talents to cut into and polish the gemstone, allowing us a glimpse at a remarkable love, a costly love, meanly sparkling and precious." - Justin Torres, author of WE THE ANIMALS
"Emotionally wrenching . . . Simply beautiful." - Lambda Literary
"Readers will want to hear more from Griffin." - Kirkus Reviews
"Hide is the best debut I've read in years. Not only is it beautifully written, full of humor and heart, but it's that rare literary beast: a serious novel that's a joy to read. Matthew Griffin is an important and welcome new voice of his generation." - John McNally, author of AFTER THE WORKSHOP
"Griffin creates a fascinating and raw journey for Frank and Wendell, championing the love between two people, regardless of the lack of support from the outside world. Deeply touching and thought provoking." - The Scotland Herald
"A searing portrait of love and alienation in old age." - Next Magazine
"Tough but compassionate and beautifully observed, Matthew Griffin's debut novel is a moving story about the persistence of love." - Maggie Shipstead, author of ASTONISH ME
"Forceful . . . A compassionate portrait of a lifelong love that will linger with readers." - Publishers Weekly
"This is the rare thing: an important, funny, beautifully observed novel about love. A great debut." - Stuart Nadler, author of WISE MEN
"[Hide] vividly renders both the challenges that confronted the closeted men and women of the past and the tragic realities facing those same people, the elderly and infirm of today. It’s a powerful and affecting debut." - Edge Media Network
"Reading Hide, I kept saying to myself, 'At last!': a novel that follows the trajectory of a marriage (in fact if not in name) between two men over the course of decades, and does so with grit, humor, and compassion. Hide is a welcome and important work." - David Leavitt, author of THE TWO HOTEL FRANCFORTS
"Poignant . . . remarkable . . . Deeply touching and thought provoking." - The Irish Examiner
"Both beautiful and painful, Hide is a wonderful first novel. Full of humor and tragedy, the book reveals the sacrifices that people are often willing to make to keep their love, even if they must hide it from the world." - Gay and Lesbian Review
"Stunning . . . What a book Hide is. Each chapter holds a thousand tiny truths, not just what it is to be in a relationship, or to be gay, but what it is to simply negotiate life. Masterfully written, it manages to be subtle and heartfelt, but also wrought and visceral. Undoubtedly one of the novels of the year, this is a book that demands to be endlessly read, gifted, and read again. Spread the word." - Gay Community News
"Extraordinary . . . A tender and beautiful love story . . . Hide is like finding a faded vintage photograph of two men in love and then unearthing the story of how they came to find each other, and at what cost." - Boyz Magazine
2015-09-23
Deliberately paced, thoughtful story of men in love over many years against considerable odds. Gay life in the South doesn't always take place in a colonial row house in Savannah or a beachfront condo in Myrtle Beach. In Griffin's debut novel, it's lived out in the shadows in a run-down North Carolina mill town, where Wendell Wilson, a taxidermist, has lived a long and eventful life with Frank Clifton, a World War II veteran who melted Wendell's heart the minute they met. Or melted the world, anyway, for with Frank's smile, "the branches shuddered off their casts of ice, and the power lines broke free of their insulation, snapped taut and scattered it over the street in pieces that still cupped the hollow channel where the wire had run." That's some powerful allure. The title of Griffin's novel is both noun and verb, for while Wendell works magic with the bodies of unfortunate animals, the men keep their relationship secret, lest they be hounded out of town. But now Frank is 83, has had a mild stroke, and has affairs to get in order. As Frank grapples with a faltering mind and body and difficult memories of war—crushing the head of an enemy soldier with a rock "ain't the worst I did," he grumbles—Wendell finds himself in the unwished-for role of caretaker. Griffin's story sometimes feels derivative, with dollops of Annie Proulx here and lashings of Allan Gurganus there, with some Jane Smiley and perhaps Bobbie Ann Mason thrown in for good measure. But it also feels genuine, recounting the love of two very different people made to live in fear but who endure with considerable dignity, allowing for the occasional mishap. On that note, animal lovers will shudder at one terrible episode, late in the book, involving a dog and a lawn mower. Suffice it to say, it's not for the squeamish. An assured introduction. Readers will want to hear more from Griffin, though perhaps without sputtering motors and whirring blades.
