The Good Life

Rating:
Summary: A good book, but not a Gordon Merrrick book.
Review: After reading all of Gordon Merrick's books, I was excited to find something new. The Good Life is a good book and I enjoyed reading it. It's a book about a young man drawn into a life that he thought he wanted but soon learned he was unable to control. Anyone who grew up reading Gordon Merrick will find many familiar themes, but may be disappointed in the details. The heterosexual sex is explored in detail, but the homosexual scenes are relegated to the background and only slightly referred to in single short sentances. It's obvious that Mr. Hulse does not share the same passion and literary style as Gordon Merrick. While this is a good book, it's clear that it is not up to the same standards as all of the other great novels of the late Mr. Merrick.

Rating:
Summary: A good book, but not a Gordon Merrrick book.
Review: After reading all of Gordon Merrick's books, I was excited to find something new. The Good Life is a good book and I enjoyed reading it. It's a book about a young man drawn into a life that he thought he wanted but soon learned he was unable to control. Anyone who grew up reading Gordon Merrick will find many familiar themes, but may be disappointed in the details. The heterosexual sex is explored in detail, but the homosexual scenes are relegated to the background and only slightly referred to in single short sentances. It's obvious that Mr. Hulse does not share the same passion and literary style as Gordon Merrick. While this is a good book, it's clear that it is not up to the same standards as all of the other great novels of the late Mr. Merrick.

Rating:
Summary: THE GOOD LIFE: a box of bon-bons
Review: During the 70s and 80s, Gordon Merrick wrote big, fat gay romance novels along the lines of Rosemary Rogers and Jacqueline Susann. He died in 1988, shortly after his last novel, A MEASURE OF MADNESS, was released. Almost a decade later, we have a brand new Merrick novel (completed by his long time partner and fellow author Charles (TALL COTTON) Hulse) that was started before the prolific author died. Unlike his other novels, this one is actually based on a true incident: a high society murder in Manhattan in 1943. In his foreward, Merrick notes that he knew the bisexual socialite Wayne Lonergan who was charged with murdering his heiress young bride. Merrick has changed his character's name to Perry Langham and all bets are off as to what is fiction and what is fact.At 403 densely-packed pages, this novel is almost too much of a good thing. Everything is so over-the-top (from Perry's massive endowment to the sex scenes that pop up every five pages) that reading THE GOOD LIFE is like eating a box of bon-bons. It's best to try not to eat...er, read, it all in one gulp. Unfortunately, Merrick and Hulse have written one fast read. You can't help but keep reading. Merrick fans will be happy to hear that THE GOOD LIFE is a worthy addition to the late author's canon. And maybe this new title will introduce new readers to the gay novels that broke their way onto the New York Times bestseller list back in the early 70s.