From the start, it's clear that Jim Grimsley's vision of the holidays holds as much darkness as it does light. Question: What could be more terrifying than bringing your significant other home for Christmas? Answer: Bringing home your significant other of the same sex. How does a man reconcile the child he was raised to be with the man that he truly is? What happens when an adult has to choose between his parents and a lover? In this, his fourth novel, he considers pressing questions. In Comfort and Joy Jim Grimsley finds a marriage between the stark and stunning pain of his prize-winning Winter Birds and the passion of critically acclaimed Dream Boy. When Ford and Dan begin to explore the limits of their relationship, Dan's own secrets are exposed-and his mysterious and painful childhood returns to haunt him. Ford catches one such Christmas concert and his life is never quite the same he is touched in a place he keeps hidden, forbidden.

Behind the tempered facade of the shy hospital administrator is a singer who can transform a room with his soaring voice, leaving his listeners in awe and reverence.

But how charmed is this life when Ford's own heart suspects that he is not meant to spend his life with a woman? His suspicions are confirmed when he meets Dan Crell.ĭan is a quiet man with a great voice. He comes from an old Savannah family where his parents, attentive to his future, focus their energies on finding their son-their golden boy-a girl to marry. Ford McKinney leads a charmed life: he's a young doctor possessing good looks, good breeding, and money.

Comfort and joy jim grimsley