Ogunquit resident publishes gay novel

Well crafted, with complex and compelling characters, this novel explores a number of contemporary issues: homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood, bisexuality, closeted married men, peer pressure at any age, how to age gracefully.

The author, a resident of Ogunquit, Maine, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, began his writing career as a newspaper reporter in Lewiston, Maine, in the late ‘60s. He worked in public relations and as an editor and radio-television producer, winning an Emmy in the early ‘80s. With his partner of twelve years, Michael Ferry, he owns Blanche’s Antiques at the Cape Neddick-Ogunquit line, as well as tax preparation businesses in Massachusetts and Florida. He still finds time to write, and two other novels are currently in the works. An essay entitled “Ode to Ogunquit” is scheduled for the Fall issue of Wool Moon Journal. Paré will also be participating in the Miami International Book Fair in November.

Commenting on his first novel, Paré points out that the work is fiction while acknowledging that his own life has inspired the framework of the book. “I may have lived through a few of the situations in the novel, but their treatment and the characters involved are entirely fictitious,” he states. “That’s why it took ten years to write; there was so much I had to make up. And, really, that was the fun of it,” he added.

“Singing the Vernacular” has received critical acclaim from various sources.

“A totally enjoyable entry into the rich borderland of American and Canadian literature…a breath of fresh air,” is the endorsement given by Barry Rodrigue, Associate Professor and Scholar at the University of Southern Maine.

“The novel is heartrending and poignant, stylistically impressive, and beautifully tethered to geography,” chimed in Joy Tutela, a literary agent in New York City.

“The protagonist struggles along two roads in life, one sacred and the other erotic, until they converge, changing forever the direction of his journey. A brilliant gay novel,” added William S. Palmer, Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina.

“There are memorable characters in both the present and recalled narratives…the final lines are unexpected and touching,” wrote Kevin Scott Hall for Edge-New England.

Paré is one of the writers who will be participating in a literary event at the Barn Gallery on Sept 7^th as part of Ogunquit’s annual Capriccio Art Festival. He can be reached at pmpare@comcast.net. His next novel “Road Kill” should be released in 2010.

A new novel by Ogunquit resident Paul Paré explores the secret lives of Catholic seminarians and middle-aged closeted men in a driving narrative that has attracted critical attention.
Singing the Vernacular travels from the snow-covered countryside of Québec in the 1960s to the desert landscapes of Southern California in the 1990s, with an occasional nod to the principal character’s youth in a New England mill town. The book is both a coming of age story and a coming out story. It was recently published by iUniverse of Bloomington, Indiana, and is now widely available on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble’s website, and, in Ogunquit, at Drop Anchor and Books Ink. In Portsmouth, the novel can be found at RiverRun Book Store.