In Jupiter's Shadow is a memoir that interweaves stories from childhood and young adulthood as Greg Gerard searches to understand his own desires and develop a clear sense of identity.
The scenes recaptured from Gerard's coming-of-age tale are vivid and well-written. The reader is introduced to an imaginative young boy, who craves adventures like those he reads about in mystery stories and feels a sort of disconnect from a dynamic cast of family members. Gerard recounts his desire to belong and yet he feels a sort of wanderlust and longing that he can't quite pinpoint at a young age. "Everybody seemed to know who they were. And how to belong. Everybody except me."
Meanwhile, the exposition in these scenes is subtle, and instead of being told what Gerard thinks, the reader is given beautiful and heartrending portrayals of a young boy's grasping at meaning. Grappling with his family's devout Catholic beliefs, he sets out to prove at a young age that he too is good and wholesome, that he belongs. He reads "Our Lady of Fatima" and is so moved to emulate the sacrifice of the children in this story that he attempts to sleep on boards, secretly, in order to redeem the souls of sinners. Such scenes are heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time, and they paint the portrait of a boy who merely wants to do what he's been taught is right. Meanwhile, it seems that the tug of something else, something mysterious, is tempting Greg toward a different truth from that of his parents' beliefs and toward an identity that does not fit that which he feels he has to live up to. There is a sense of mystery to the world of this little boy that, at first, seems ominous and worrisome, but ends up being the very thing that will give him the answers he desires and teach him to define, for himself, a path that isn't so much rebellious as it is necessary.
This is a story about religion and sexuality; it is a story about family and wanting to fit in; but mostly, this is a story about the human experience, and what it means to be and feel whole, to develop a clear sense of identity, and to demystify patterns of behavior that, when kept secret, can truly act as a destructive force to a person's psyche. This is a brave and beautiful book about self-acceptance, and just how tough it is to achieve. Moreover, it's a fine piece of writing.
I can't recommend it highly enough.