And the gaps are filled in by Patrick’s diary, written at the time, and later used as evidence in his trial for acts of gross indecency. There’s this slightly awkward framing device in which part of the book is written from the perspective of Marion, late in their lives, scribbling a confession to her husband about the events that took place earlier in their marriage. a policeman, who falls in love with a gay museum curator, but still marries a womanz (who is also in love with him).
The story is, as I have indicated, queer-tragedy-by-numbers. The writing is engaging and, at times, deeply compassionate, especially some of the sequences from Patrick’s diary. It’s set in 1950s Brighton, and evokes the period and the place really well. And while I have some patience for marginalised people writing tragedy for themselves for the sake of having a voice and finding catharsis, I have exactly none for non-marginalised people (or people marginalised along different axes) diddling themselves gleefully over the fact that marginalised people have shitty lives.Īnyway, what’s especially annoying about this book is that, in many ways, it is quite good.
except I forgot a certain tendency (and this is an issue I have that is detached from the identity of the writer) in litfic about teh gays (see also A Little Life) around that there's a massive (I would argue, mostly straight) market for stories WHERE THEY MAKE US AS MISERABLE AS POSSIBLE. Omg, why I did read this? No, seriously why? I guess I wanted to read something queer that wasn’t explicitly m/m. Unfolding through the dual narratives of Marion and Patrick, both writing about the man at the centre of their lives, this beautifully-told, painful, tragic story is revealed.It is a tale of wasted years, misguided love and thwarted hope, of how at a time when the country was on the verge of change so much was still impossible.īethan Roberts has produced an intense and exquisitely raw yet tender novel, which proves her to be one of our most exciting young writers. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed. But in an age when those of 'minority status' were condemned by society and the law, it is safer for this policeman to marry his teacher.
Patrick, a curator at the Brighton Museum, is also besotted with his policeman, and opens Tom's eyes to a world previously unknown to him. Unable to acknowledge the signs that something is amiss, she plunges into marriage, sure that her love is enough for both of them.īut Tom has another life, another equally overpowering claim on his affections. And when he comes home from National Service to be a policeman, Marion, a newly qualified teacher, is determined to win him. From the moment Marion first lays eyes on Tom - her best friend's big brother, broad, blond, blue-eyed - she is smitten.
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