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Reviewed by Danelle Petersen for Readers' Favorite
In writing 35 Letters: Letters from a Mother to her Son, Joseph L. Ferguson has created a beautiful but sad story about Mildred Riley and the letters she writes to her son Gordon. She begs him to return home after he left for San Francisco because the family wouldn’t accept that he is homosexual. In these letters, Mildred tells Gordon about the goings-on in their hometown of Springwater since he left. As she writes, you can feel the love that exudes to her son on every page. The stories she tells are sometimes sad and sometimes amusing but not once does she leave out the fact that she misses him terribly and wishes that he would come home. All this is while being completely oblivious (or in denial) of the truth regarding Gordon’s sexuality. However, the truth is never far from emerging and its repercussions are explosive and devastating.
Joseph L Ferguson’s 35 Letters reads like a true-life family drama. I am grateful to Ferguson for deciding to write about the LGBTQ community and its issues in this format. It was original and a fun, enlightening, and entertaining as well as heartbreaking read. These beautiful letters are full of raw emotion and leave you wondering why the world has to be so complicated and full of judgment. I couldn't help feeling pity and frustration for both mother and son who were victims of a harsh and unfair society that prevailed during the 70s era. As portrayed in the book, women were expected to be submissive at all times, and being homosexual was an abomination that was seen as a choice you could make. Now, seeing how far we have come in humanity since then brings tears to my eyes.
