It’s Not All That Money: Class in Jim Grimsley’s Comfort & Joy
Keywords:
American literature, southern literature, gay literature, vlase, family, Jim Grimsley, Comfort & Joy, American SouthAbstract
Until recently, discussions of class were overshadowed by explorations of race, ethnicity, and gender in American literary and academic circles. One of the modern novels that daringly explores the ramifications of class is Jim Grimsley’s Comfort & Joy (1999), which portrays the budding relationship between two southern men which, to a large degree, is continually undermined by their belonging to different classes. Dan Crell is a hospital administrator, while Ford McKinney is a pediatrician in the same hospital. Moreover, while Dan comes from a low-class North Karolina family, Ford belongs to the Old Savannah aristocratic milieu. Class interferes not only in the men’s relationship with each other but also in their relationships with their families of origin. More important, the novel convincingly demonstrates that class is not only a matter of money but perhaps even more so of culture inbred in the family.
References
Burns, Maree, Carole Burgoyne, and Victoria Clarke. “Financial Affairs? Money Management in Same-Sex Relationships.” Journal of Socio-Economics 37.2 (April 2008): 481–501.
Canning, Richard. Hear Us Out: Conversations with Gay Novelists. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
Fussell, Paul. Class: A Guide through the American Status System. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983.
Grimsley, Jim. Comfort & Joy. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1999.
Grimsley, Jim. My Drowning. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1997.
Grimsley, Jim. Winter Birds. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1994.
National Hemophilia Foundation. “HIV/AIDS.” New York: National Hemophilia Foundation, 2015. https://www.hemophilia.org/Bleeding-Disorders/BloodSafety/HIV/AIDS
Wells, Jonathan Daniel. “Middle Class, Development of.” In Social Class, edited by Larry J. Griffin and Peggy G. Hargis. Vol. 20 of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, edited by Charles Reagan Wilson. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012. 172–176.
Zacharasiewicz, Waldemar. “Introduction: The Many Souths: Class in Southern Culture.” In The Many Souths: Class in Southern Culture, edited by Waldemar Zacharasiewicz, ix–xv. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 2003.
