June is
fourteen, and her very favorite person in the whole world is her Uncle Finn. But Finn, a famous artist, is dying. He wants
to paint a portrait of June and her sister Greta before he dies. Every Sunday,
June’s Mother takes the girls into the city (New York), to sit for the
portrait. Finn has AIDS, and this is 1986, the height of paranoia about the
disease, and his sister, June’s Mother, isn’t handling it well.
When Finn dies, June is trying to find a way to cope with her grief, alone, because her family is very closed off, and do not talk about any of the issues surrounding his death. Then Finn’s ‘special friend’, Toby’, communicates with June. She is afraid of him, having been told he ‘killed’ Finn, but reluctantly meets with him. They form a friendship, unbeknownst to June’s family. Meantime, Greta is drinking and in danger of getting into serious trouble.
This is a
heartbreaking and also uplifting about family dynamics, secrets, and
homophobia.
367 pages
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