From the backdrop of an impoverished steel-working community in working-class Hamilton, Ontario, in the 1970s, To Refrain From Embracing, follows the trials facing a small family after an attempted suicide leaves veteran Ted checked into a psychiatric hospital.
Gloria, his wife, struggles with family finances and growing concern for the well-being of their young son while also rediscovering her Indigenous identity through encounters with a handsome steelworker. Meanwhile, her son, Josh, struggles with his nascent sexuality, lack of acceptance from his peers, and fears about his father's mental health lead which him into a friendship with a troubled neighbourhood teen.
Jeffrey Luscombe's new novel is a naturalistic and darkly comic tale of a family squeezed by personal and societal precepts of class, race, and sexuality.
Paperback
Cover and interior design by Ryan Vance
