Breakfast with Scot

by Michael Downing

Sam and Ed are living the good life: happy, healthy, devoted to each other and their careers, they have no yearning for the joyful mysteries of parenthood. But when eleven-year-old Scot's mother suddenly dies, the couple is determined to make good on a wine-soaked promise made years before. They hang a tire swing in the back yard and call the neighborhood school to arrange enrollment. Scot arrives just in time to start fifth grade—with a pair of lacy white socks in his duffel bag.

With wry dialogue, frothy characters, and an offbeat plot, Michael Downing's mastery reaches new heights of brilliance in Breakfast with Scot.

About the Author:
Michael Downing is the author of the novels Perfect Agreement, Mother of God, and A Narrow Time. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Gay, Queer, Contemporary, Gay Fiction, Romance

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Megan Baxter · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this book were a painting, there would be large greyed-out spaces on the canvas, filled with the absence of something. And I don't mean this in an admiring sense of artistic integrity. I mean it as a comment on someone who just can't be arsed to finish the damn work. Because of this, and what really did feel like quite a lot of transphobia, this isn't a book I would rush to recommend to anyone. And these two things compounded each other, making it neither a perceptive look into parenting a difficult child, or a commentary on, well, just about anything. Instead, it's a story about a bunch of people who really come off as jerks.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A perfectly fine, but not very memorable or inspiring book. A gay couple unexpectedly finds themselves raising a young boy struggling with his gender identity. There are a couple of interesting moments throughout, and the prose is enjoyable enough. But I don't think it's anything all that special, and has a very strong sentimental streak that's only occasionally earned.

[George Ilsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure why but there felt like something was missing here. I couldn't keep the characters straight (Robert? who is he again). Never got a sense of the relationship between Ed and Sam. The set-up is quite strong, although contrived, and yet the execution never really jelled for me.

[Jenn (not Lily) · Rating 4 out of 5]

So funny that I repeatedly surprised myself by how loudly I barked out a laugh. I'd like to see the movie that was made of this, but I'm annoyed that whoever made it felt they had to change both Ed and Sam's jobs. And Ed's name.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel pleased and surprised me in many unexpected ways. A novel that deals with a gay couple who "inherits" a flamboyant child can easily drift into caricature, or cloying cuteness, and "Breakfast with Scot" does neither. That is to Mr. Downing's credit.
There is some beautiful prose in this novel, and some wonderful moments where Mr. Downing, through his narrator Ed, makes some profound sentiments about life and love. The novel creeps up on you, and you find things don't turn out as expected, and gosh, isn't life just like that also? There are no big climatic moments, or profound momentous occasions, the characters just find that they and their circumstances have changed. The crux of the novel is how they choose to deal with those changes in circumstance. That is such stuff as life is made of. This text captures quite well that difficult to express aspect of our daily rituals. In fact, the book's narrator sums it up nicely when he says, "That's why people invent rituals-to express the ineffable." It is also why good authors writer great books.
There are moments where this text is laugh out loud funny, and Downing does a great job in creating a believable character in Scot. He is a whip smart eleven year old, and I have met enough of them to know that Downing has captured the spirit of such kids in this text. The title character is one of the strengths of this book.
Some readers have complained about Downing's style, and it is somewhat complicated. It does not bode well for the casual reader. But if you stay involved in the story and text, this quick read (it is only 194 pages) will flow seamlessly.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gay couple ends up the guardians of an 11-year-old budding queen. Things get interesting. Sometimes it's charming, sometimes it's edgy, sometimes it's just quirky. On the whole it was an enjoyable (and quick) read but I was left wanting a little more character development, particularly from the supporting cast (not Ed, Sam or Scot). A slightly edgy beach read.

[Mandapants · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth probably 4 tissues in the 3 hours it'll take to read the book. Sweet in a kind of standard way, like a movie I know my mom would buy at the grocery store, but darned if it didn't make me all gushy enough to still give it 4 stars.

[Matty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the last two chapters, but everything before that was kind of painful. I don't think Ed was the best choice as narrator for this tale. I think at times it was trying to be funny, but kind of fell flat. At least there was a happy ending.

[Ayelet Waldman]

This little gem of a comic novel is easily and enjoyably devoured in a single afternoon.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Challenge 2018 - Bookish: book with a character's name in the title. An interesting story about a gay couple who take on an 11-year-old son of the brother of one of the men. They quickly learn that the boy, Scot, is very unique and eccentric. Scot lives in his own world, dressing up for special events, keeping a picture of his dead mother and ignoring his absent father. Ed and Sam also quickly learn that by having a child in their family, their lives change drastically. Former friends treat them differently. They argue with each other. And the learn how to be parents without a manual. At times it was funny and endearing.

[Ulla LiebtBücher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wer bin ich ... und was davon zeige ich der Welt?

Frühstück mit Scot“ von Michael Downing ist eine wirklich wunderbare Geschichte. Sie ist so witzig erzählt, dass man kaum merkt, wie sehr sie den Finger in eine tiefe Wunde unserer angeblich so toleranten Gesellschaft legt: Wie sehr muss man sich anpassen, um unbehelligt leben zu können?

Eine ausführliche Rezi gibt es hier:
https://ulla-liebt-buecher.blogspot.c...

[Lucy Rodrigues · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fine. It's a cute idea and I'm sure the time it was produced was a more influence piece but it doesn't stand up and is cringeworthy in places. I don't think I understood at least half the conversations due to the abstract nature, the content or the reactions of the characters. It felt like a pretentious art piece that everyone pretends to have deeper meaning and layers but ultimately is a fine story

[Jonah Bobo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn’t put it down. The writing style has so much charm; so much elegance while still feeling very grounded and real. The characters were all so vivid and had so much personality. A great story with lots of heart. I laughed out loud and cried, which as far as I’m concerned is a well rounded reading experience. Would recommend to anybody who enjoys quaint contemporary fiction.

[Scum · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book had such a smart quick wit.

It’s genuinely very funny, but also very much about these men struggling with their kids gender and homophobia, but in a very sweet way.

[Mark Probst · Rating 4 out of 5]

My impression based on the first few chapters was not good. I thought the author’s first-person narrative was all over the place and I just was not in tune with his writing style. But then I adjusted to the style and I have to admit that there was quite a bit of charm and a whole lot of really funny, dry wit.

The story revolves around a gay couple who never planned or wanted to have a child, but through some unusual circumstances became guardians to 11-year-old Scot, who was the son of the girlfriend of the brother of one of the couple. (Got that straight?) Scot’s mother was a drug addict and had just killed herself by OD-ing, and her boyfriend was too irresponsible to take the kid, so he pawns him off on his gay brother, Sam. Naturally Scot is pretty emotionally mixed up and he’s a quirky kid who is a bit of a sissy and seems destined to become a drag queen.

The narrator of the story is Ed, Sam’s partner. Where the charm comes in is through Ed’s hilarious observations, his feeling of being overwhelmed by a situation he never wanted or planned for, and then gently being won over to love and understand this peculiar child, and finally becoming so attached that he couldn’t imagine life without him. Once I became acclimated to Michael Downing’s writing style, I found the characters to be endearing, and I really enjoyed this book.

Mark R. Probst

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always interesting to me seeing how a novel is transformed into a movie, what is deleted, changed, moved around, or used verbatim. This book is in many ways different than the movie, but there is a great deal that is similar if a bit altered. Taking the book just by itself, I enjoyed reading how a gay male couples' lives are thrown upside down by the arrival of an eleven year old boy. Their neat and tidy life is suddenly messy, full of responsibility, and awkward. he boy's proclivities for female or "girly" things causes a great deal of turmoil in the men's lives as they have to confront their own prejudices as well as their friends' and neighbors'. The story is told from the point of view of Ed, one part of the couple, and his voice is funny, poignant, exasperated, weary, and annoyed. Basically, he is a man suddenly thrown into the role of a parent. The book does a wonderful job of fleshing out this new family unit and how they fit into the modern world's definition of family. While this book isn't the movie, which I highly recommend as it is superb, it is a good short read all on its own.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I volunteer part-time at a GLBT Library and customer had returned Michael Downing’s novel Breakfast with Scott. When I asked the customer what he thought of the book, he said it needed to be edited, which caught my attention. After reading Breakfast with Scot, which tells the story of two gay men becoming the guardian of young gay boy, I found myself in agreement that story could have been edited. What I liked about the story is that it is told through perspective one of gay men who struggles to accept Scot. The narrator sees Scot everything he was not as a child and comes to accept Scot not only for who he is but realizes that Scot what indeed meant to raised by him. What I didn’t like is that the author decided to include minor sub stories of the neighbors of where the story takes place; this is the section which could have been easily edited out.

I have never read anything by Michael Downing before but for the most part I enjoyed his writing style and how he paced the book. I am interested in reading his other books.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breakfast with Scot is not your grandfather's poor little orphan story. The title character, 11-year-old Scot, would not be caught dead asking for a bit more stale porridge, but he might show up at someone's door dressed to the nines in thrift store apparel found mostly in the women-over-55 section and armed with silk flowers and a hot glue gun.

Scot, you see, is a sissy of the highest order—a boy who at one point, trying on a new coat in a department store, exclaims, enraptured, "Oh, Ed. Isn't it a dream? I can't wait to wear it with my new brown bucks." After the death of his mother, a mediocre painter and veteran drug addict, flamboyantly colorful, emotionally neglected, socially awkward Scot is not exactly left alone in the world—the world just isn't quite sure what what to make of him...

A full review of this book is available at The Hipster Book Club.

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gay couple who are fairly up there on the "normal" scale suddenly inherit a nephew who is, to put it mildly, a little on the other end of the scale. With long difficult discussions on what a "sissy" is, and why makeup might not be a good idea at school, and bouts with crabs and decoupage, and frozen cats, and all the rest, this tale quickly grabs your heart even as you wince along with the primary voice in the tale, who is trying really hard not to find young Scot embarrassing (and often failing, even as he feels bad about it).

At a time when my own family just got rocked, it was nice to read a story where - ultimately - things are triumphant. Not horns blaring, angels dancing triumphant, but everyday, 'we made it one more week' triumphant, which is more helpful and useful in the first place.

Thanks, Annulla, and I apologize for the huge delay in digging this one out for a read, it needed the right time (which, as they say, is now).

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an unusual story, written in a strange and quirky style – and I really liked it! Ed and Sam are a gay couple who are thrust into a sort of parenthood. Sam’s brother Billy has a girlfriend, Julie, who has a son, Scot. Scot is not Billy’s son, and Billy is not much of a father. Julie once tells Ed and Sam that if anything ever happens to her, she wants them to raise Scot. They agree, not thinking it will ever come to pass, but so it does when Julie dies of a drug overdose. And Scot is not your average 11-year-old. His attire and mannerisms are flamboyant enough to mark him as a precociously gay pre-adolescent, yet his sexuality is no foregone conclusion. Ed and Sam are decidedly NOT flamboyant, and while they are embarrassed by some of Scot’s predilections for makeup and clothing, they are equally embarrassed to BE embarrassed. I was really drawn into Ed’s mind, in particular, as he struggles with his own prejudices and his growing attachment to this newfound son.

[Duane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had read reviews about this book so I was really looking forward to reading it. I guess you have to really be into the "trendy" lifestyle to really appreciate the storyling. I liked the plot, it was just the characters I didn't care for. Actually, the weirdest person in the book, Scot, who we are told is a freakish 11 year old, to me, seemed the most real person in the book. The rest of the cast were so self-absorbed and petty that I really wouldn't want to meet these people if they were real. Done through the thoughts of one of the gay men who are raising Scot, we see him discovering that their lifestyle isn't as freakish as he thought when he discovers that Scot enjoys wearing mascara and nylons and doesn't seem to mind people noticing. I just never liked the characters enough to care about them, and that to me, is the sign of a bad book.

[Vincent Desjardins · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a gay couple find that they have been made the guardians of an eleven year old boy, they find their lives “speeding down a dark road in a borrowed car with no brakes.” Ed and Sam don’t realize they have expectations of how boys should behave until they meet Scot who is no ordinary eleven year old. With a penchant for wearing makeup and outlandish costumes, Scot is what society would call a sissy. How Ed and Sam overcome their own prejudices and make room in their hearts for this unusual boy, forms the basis for a funny and sweet novel that contains a great deal of wisdom on family life and parenting. In describing my feelings for this book, one of my friends summed it up best, “After I turned the last page, I found I missed the characters.”

[Matt Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

They made a movie out of this, but I haven't seen it yet. I read this book before I took a week-long writing course from its author, M. Downing. I didn't think much of the book, but I absolutely fell in love with the man. He is warm, generous, dedicated to writing and smart as hell. I heard him read a passage from the novel later in the week, and his rendition of it changed my mind about the novel. Here's the key to the book: imagine the narrator as a very good, very moral, and very kind gentleman telling you about his life. This softens some of the sections that can otherwise come off as mean-spirited, and renders them good-naturedly satirical, as the author intended,IMHO.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had a writing style that took a while to get used to, as it reads more like a stream of conciousness than anything else. It has a really interesting plot where Sam and Ed, two men who have happily had a relationship without children, suddenly find themselves with the son of Sam's brother's recently deceased ex. The only thing is, the boy is more flamboyant than they are and they don't know how to handle him. It lays out the trials and tribulations of suddenly finding yourself with an 11 year old and having to be a parent, even when you don't want to. This book will definitely put you through your emotional paces from laughing out loud to crying to everything in between.

[Nikki Boisture · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised to like this book as much as I did. The prose was fantastic, though I found the characters somewhat difficult to get in to.

The thing I loved best was that it was a truly honest take on parenting. Parenting is scary enough, and I can't imagine being thrown into it unexpectedly to an eleven year old with some issues from his mother's drug use and suicide. Sam and Ed make some mistakes, and they're painfully aware of their mistakes. Constantly trying to improve your game, but never feeling you're doing quite a good enough job....that's pretty much what parenting has been for me.

For what it's worth, I really loved the movie, despite its low quality.

[Librarian Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out pretty well, gotta love two gay men trying to raise a nephew who happens to be the queeniest kid in the universe, and teach him good values while avoiding the inevitable comments about how they are "making him gay". But I just didn't connect well with the supporting characters and plotline, and the ending was a big "huh?"... just kind of wound down and died out. Gimme romance any day - the happy ending is REQUIRED. No pussying out with fade to black in the middle of something; if I wanted to ponder the future of humanity, I'd read Buddhist suttas.

[Carycleo · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when a well-adjusted gay couple take a ten year old boy into their lives, and the boy loves makeup and dressing up in girly fashion? This book answers that question with humor and grace and a wealth of subtle, telling details, touching on delicate territory about masculinity and self-expression and love, without devolving into stereotypes.
(If you saw the movie, you haven't yet experienced all that Breakfast with Scot has to offer.)

[Margaret]

Hmmm... a quirky sort of book (lol, probably why I was attracted to it) - it was a fast read. An odd story about 2 gay guys who become the legal guardian of an 11 yr old boy who is, let's just say, a little strange. I thought the author tried too hard to make aspects of the story relevant to the world at large - it was done too consciously. I was a little annoyed by his repeating of the phrase "Name that disease". I would probably give this author another chance to win me over though.

[Torrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I so wanted to like this book because I liked the premise. But the writing was so bad-it seemed like half of the book was missing. Like the part with any kind of character development or description of action. He talks about random characters without telling you who they are and seems to have discovered the means to teleportation or else is having people build bonfires in the living room or fly effortlessly from room to room. Disappointing read.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and mostly enjoyable story of long-term partners, Ed and Sam, who become the reluctant guardians of Scot, an effeminate teen, after his drug-addicted mother (Sam's brother's girlfriend) dies from an overdose. The banter between Ed and his friend, Nula, is reason alone for checking out this title.