Friday from the Archives: “In the Same Gesture” by Jim Grimsley from NCLR 21 (2012)
By Kenly Corya, Senior Editorial Assistant
In light of the 2025 reprinting of Dream Boy and Grimsley’s newest short story in NCLR 2025, we return to Grimsley’s essay “In the Same Gesture” in NCLR 2012 wherein he reflects upon the process of adapting Dream Boy into a movie. At its core, Dream Boy “tells the story of a love that connects two boys in a small Southern town,” but finding a location to film such a movie in the rural south proved difficult due to persisting prejudices. As the production company continued to scout locations for filming, they eventually told Grimsley “not to talk about the book.”
Although he refrained from talking about Dream Boy, Grimsley claims it ultimately didn’t matter because “People were finding out anyway. This is the fourth or fifth plantation house the company has scouted to us as a location. All the previous choices were withdrawn when someone, somewhere, whispered that my novel is ‘homosexual’ in subject. The word has begun to filter out from place to place, here and there.” Although the production team ultimately found their desired filming location in Louisiana, still the production company encountered obstacles fueled by homophobia. Parents who had previously allowed their children to appear in scenes wanted to pull “their children from the scenes at the high school and on the bus.” The children responded with their own rebellion, and Grimsley considers that “Maybe for them the gay movie is not so scandalous. A moment of light. Even the rural South changes, a little at a time.”
Grimsley remarks upon the differences between his book and its adaptation but ultimately determines “that some changes make no difference at all. The core of the book remains the core of the movie.” He goes on to say “In all the little ways that the story of the film departs from the novel, it does so with integrity. What appears on screen tells the story that is, or was, essentially mine.” Although he considers himself lucky for his book to have been adapted into a movie and to be able to take credit for both works, he wishes the movie could have been filmed in his home state of North Carolina where the book takes place: “Later, when I watch the movie, its beauty will win me over, but even then I will want the trees in the distance to be pines.”
Read the entire essay on ProQuest. Ready to read more from Grimsley? Make sure you are subscribed to NCLR to receive your 2025 print copy this summer with a new short story by Grimsley. And purchase 2025 Levine Querido reprinting of Dream Boy here. Interested in reviewing for NCLR? Dream Boy is still available for review.
