Two young men – a senior math major and a history professor – are spending their first holiday season together, and although they’re a mixed-faith couple, they decide to celebrate the Christian Advent together. As they read and pray, Todd, an Episcopalian, and Erick, who is Jewish, find themselves not only growing closer, but welcoming changes into their lives and witnessing it in others.
Todd is a scion of the Richmond gentry, while Erick is the son of Holocaust survivors in Rhode Island. Realizing they have a lot of adjustments ahead, they use the Advent prayers, and later, the Chanukah recitations, to cement their love. When they’re invited to the commitment ceremony of two young men, Yonatan and Matan, their joy is multiplied as they see two young men joining together for life.
Meanwhile, Todd and Erick meet a swaggering teen, Jeremiah, at a local soup kitchen. Both recognize his boldness as a façade to conceal his fear and pain since he was thrown out of his parents’ home for being gay. Friends Tim and Black, who provides security services for Yonatan and Matan, welcome Jeremiah into their home and Tim serves as his foster dad, providing love and structure for the once-lost boy. Jeremiah is able to take that love and, with the help of his foster father, funnel it into a healthy teen relationship with Bobby.
When crisis strikes, everyone is able to bond and care for each other with the true love of family. Both sets of parents, as well as the younger men, are able to express their need and affection for one another, able to be comforted by the devoted presence of those they love.
Mac Rountree has written a spellbinding story centered around two men who love each other, and how that love ripples out to heal and unify. Keep Me as an Apple of Your Eye is surely a love story for the ages.
A Girl and Her Book Reviews 