The layover (2017)
#The layover (2017) full#
Jamie needed him, so Ondro was there, full stop.Īnd it's during Jamie's convalescence that they fall into an easy companionship, and in that isolated bubble where their relationship sprouts and begins to grow roots. I loved how Ondro swooped in, without even a second thought, to take care of Jamie when he fell ill. Sure, Ondro and Jamie fall into bed on day one, but for the following five days, sex is the very last thing that their time together is about. One aspect of this story that I truly loved was how, although the majority of the book takes place over only 6 days, it never really felt like insta-love to me. It's about learning to trust yourself and knowing what will make you happy, as soon as you let go of your past demons and say goodbye to the things holding you back, while clinging to the things that help build you up.Īnd lastly, it's about taking a chance, no matter how crazy it seems, to reach for that one thing that could make you happier than you've ever been. Someone that, no matter where you are, as long as you're together, you're exactly where you want to be. It's about discovering that home is not necessarily a place, especially a place whose people can't accept you as you are. flight attendant, deciding that he was sick of running and heartsick for a home. It's about that same man, now a jaded, 30 y.o. It's about a once-hopeful, young student, who fled from his homeland, because it refused to allow him to be who he truly was or love whom he wanted to love. This beautifully-written, short, 100+ page read is about many different things, all of which I'm happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed. My first instinct was to reassure him, to protect him. Love can break open a cynical heart, one fissure at a time. How could I not? But this story isn't about hate it's about taking a chance, believing in fate, and leaping in head first. I shed many tears while reading this book. How many boys have to end up like Peter for people to wake the fuck up and love their sons and daughters more than a god who hates and hurts? The scene when Ondro sees his mother after years apart was a powerful depiction of a stubborn, proud woman who would rather embrace shame and live as a martyr than accept her son. We see his internal struggle, his need for human connection. Ondro's voice, much like Horvat's writing, is authentic and real. The Layover is not a long story, but it doesn't need to be. And when he meets the beautiful American expat Jamie at the airport, he can't walk away. I could feel Ondro's despair: the way he simultaneously yearned for and was repelled by his homeland, the way his loneliness had become a breathing thing threatening to choke him.ĭespite his intense stare and lack of social niceties, Ondro is a good man. Poland's constitution is one of only seven in the EU to ban gay marriage. But despite living in a very conservative state, we know that my brother had a better chance at being his true self here than he would have in Poland. We are not idealists we do not romanticize America. They had no way of knowing that my little brother, then barely a toddler, was gay. When my parents packed up their lives and immigrated to the States from Poland in the 80s, they did so for religious and political reasons.