This thread is for the discussion of the Spring 2007 Anthology story The New Job by Altimexis.



*** SPOILER ALERT ***

This thread contains details about the story. Be forewarned, in case you haven't read it yet.

The New Job
by Altimexis


This powerful piece by Altimexis is nothing short of amazing. In The New Job, Altimexis presents us with a man torn apart by his reality, a reality he’s spent twenty years hiding from the one person in the world he loves the most. The fact that the protagonist, who’s never named, is a married man who loves his wife and recognizes that she’s his soul mate adds a dimension of brilliance to an already perfectly told story. The inner struggle this man is waging with himself is one that we don’t hear about in Gay Fiction.
Most coming out stories that involve a married man and a women follow a strangely familiar pattern. The wife is unbearable, and the husband is unhappy. In this story, there’s no hint of such a scenario. Indeed, this man is terrified that his wife will leave him, and he doesn’t know what he’ll do if that happens. On the other hand, though, his love and devotion to his wife demands that he be honest with her. He understands the risks, but he’s willing to take the chance to be true to his love.
The Author’s Postscript at the end gives the reader a little more insight into the motivation behind this beautiful story, and makes everything a little more personal. All in all, this is a first rate story by a first rate author, and I for one found it to be amazing.

As most people here are aware, I'm a married gay man who is out to his wife.

I'll just say that time after time in this story I found myself nodding as I recognised myself. There are so many things in that story that parallel my own. There are differences, of course, but so much of the emotion and circumstances were the same.

Brilliantly and faithfully done!

Thank you and good luck with your continuing relationship.

PS: In my case, my wife accepts (though she doesn't understand) who I am and my online activities. She also reads everything I write and offers suggestions from time to time. Her only constraint on me is that I have to be faithful -- a constraint I don't mind at all. Our love is stronger now than it was before as I am no longer hiding who I am.

But I also know that I am in a minority. As the story indicated, many relationships fail after one of the partners comes out of the closet.

I cannot identify with the situation in this story. Nothing in my life is anything like this man’s life. So tell me, then, why I felt like I was going through everything he was going through?

The only answer is that this is so well done that it just sucks the reader right into the head of the main character and you spend the rest of the time seeing through his eyes and feeling through his emotions. It’s definitely a “walk a mile in my shoes” type story. I really enjoyed the walk (though “enjoyed” has to be explained more as “appreciated experiencing the different reality” rather than “had fun”). I think it was a great decision to leave the ending open like that, poised on the edge of all the possibilities.

The ‘author’s note’ was good to read. I’m glad things worked out as well as they did.

Ohmigod! That's me!

It's strange reading a story that fits you almost too perfectly. You try to find differences and keep a tally of them until you're certain this isn't your story. I had to read "The New Job" twice to get the "this is me" out of my mind enough to really enjoy it. The ending is perfect, allowing the reader to come up with their own appropriate solution.

I came out to my wife a number of years ago and we're still married. It wasn't easy coming out and my wife isn't as supportive as I would hope, but life wasn't meant to be easy.

This was a very moving story, one that I personally connected with.

Thanks.

Conner

This was very moving, and it allowed me, someone who hasn't been in that situation, to identify with the character.

I especially liked the very creative use of tense-shifting to denote the "present" from the reminisces. Very skillfully done.

Great story!

We're not so much coming out of the closet, more coming out of the woodwork!

I'm another one whose situation has parallels with this story and so I can hardly be objective about it. BUT it's a very well-written story, and its open ending leaves the reader to fill in his own preferred ending - or the ending which most fits his own story.

Thank you for writing it!

Sinbad

A nicely crafted account of a 20-year journey. All the narrative devices used to have the narrator's past and present connected, and the open ending are really well done. Quite a fine piece of writing.