Robert Hyde

No Way to Heaven Robert Hyde

Set in the winter of 1979/1980, No Way To Heaven follows Scott Malone, a prominent Houston film critic, through his first-person narrative about his love for another bisexual man who is involved with a beautiful woman, all the while feeling compelled to defend his quest to his former, once-married lover who still adores him, his beautiful ex-wife who believes he's wasting his time, and to his old, now-gay friend who thinks Scott is a romantic idiot. A complex examination of a lifestyle neither straight nor totally gay, Scott's poignant, character-driven narrative assaults the contemporary stereotypes of a culture more feared than understood.

The story takes place during Christmas and New Year's in penthouses overlooking the dynamic Houston skyline, in the elegance of Memorial Drive, and in the late-night jazz scene that colors Scott's life. When the Super Bowl of the century between Houston and Dallas draws everyone to New Orleans, the truth inherit in that old city, and at an old plantation on the River Road, leaves little room for pretense in a passionate gumbo of honesty and revelation.