Released Tuesday, Open, Heaven is the debut novel by Irish-British poet and author Seán Hewitt. The novel follows James, a young boy from the small village of Thornmere in Northern England. The majority of the story takes place in analepsis. James is 16 years old and has recently come out as gay. It is 2002, but Thornmere feels stuck in the past. James isn’t outright bullied, and his family hasn’t rejected him, but his own apprehensions about connecting with those in his life have left him isolated. He envies the way the boys in school can act toward one another without the restraint he depends on.
James lives in a world of fantasy, absorbed by the beauty of nature and a yearning for intimacy. It is his sexual fantasies, which have become constant, that make James uncomfortable. He feels undeserving of true friendship, afraid of himself and his longing for attention from boys. He is so unaware of a world beyond his small town that he longs for cruelty — if only to feel some form of affection. That is, until he meets Luke, a boy one year his senior who has just moved in with his aunt and uncle for a year. Luke is mysterious, clearly hardened by some history that James can only imagine; he is too afraid to ask. Quickly, James falls for Luke, captivated by the way he feels around his new friend. Luke is the first to treat James like another boy, not someone to be leery of. Luke is unrestrained, unafraid of James’s touch in a confident, masculine way. James grows desperate to know if Luke might feel the same way about him.
In many ways, this is a classic story about an unrequited first love. It is Hewitt’s touch, however, that transforms this trope into a breath-catching novel. Hewitt’s poetic approach foregrounds the story, complete with extensive descriptions of James’ every thought and most private feeling. It is the depth with which Hewitt explores James’ mind that makes him such a devastating character. James’ mind lingers on the superficial — central to the life and mind of a teenage boy.
While James falls deep into an all-consuming obsession with Luke, his life seems to be falling apart around him. As his brother’s health deteriorates, all James can think of is Luke. This adds a layer of guilt to James’ already stilted shame about his sexuality. Like so many children at this point in their lives, he wishes to be pure, unburdened by his thoughts.
A moment in the story — in which James sees Luke with a neighborhood girl — accurately represents the embarrassment of teenage years. James is devastated to see Luke with a girl, furious that the girl could capture Luke’s attention in a way he can’t. James remarks to himself that he would spend the rest of his life longing for Luke, “longing for something that I had lost before I had even found it.” While this reads as a self-pitying exaggeration, it is confused by the fact that James never does get over Luke. Even two decades later, James still longs for the boy from his youth. This unrealistic element complicates the story, which should have been an experience through which James could learn and find requited love in adulthood. However, James’ unique qualities, the overthinking, the poetic way he moves around the world, focusing too much on things that don’t warrant such attention, seem to have stunted him. James is unable to grow beyond the boy he was in Thornmere. At the end of the story, James thinks he sees Luke, 20 years after his old friend left Thornmere. Upon realizing his mistake, James is relieved that he is still a fantasist. Perhaps it is not something that can be grown out of, but rather something that hinders and seeps into the continued path of a life.
The story depicts the desperate longing of youth, and the distinct abjection that often accompanies queer youth. The story is slow, but in its pacing, it paints the discomfort of longing and shame that one can only hope will pass with age.
