Rating: 
Summary: Love, Pain and Redemption....
Review: ...Wow! What a wonderful story. The book is slow to start, and it has an unusual gimmick. The story is a narrative told by Chris (Kit) Metcalfe from two of his points of view. The first is NOW, as he is a gay man approaching middle age, and THEN, remembering his days at a Brittish prep school and his first love, Stephen Walker.Let me say this, while at first I hated the narrator, I grew to love and understand him. This is a story of a broken heart and the damage first love, here gay, wrecks on the heart and the mind. Stephen uses Chris, and isn't until 30 years later that Chris learns the truth of the relationship, and see the other man who may be his true love. There are many twists that will make you stand up and cheer. This is about a journey that many gay men are on, and how we often hide our feelings from ourselves, even though they may be obvious to those closest to us.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful and Moving
Review: For anyone who has ever loved and lost, gay or straight, this book speaks volumes of the emotions contained in that experience. A fifty year old London book editor, Chris, returns to his childhood home following the death of his father, and encounters more ghosts from his past than anticipated, as he revisits his teens, and a relationship that devastated him for years to come. The book weaves back and forth in time, between the childhood and present day of the protagonist, and his experiences then that shape his life in the 'now'. Chris, at the private boys' school of his youth, meets and falls in love with Walker, an older student. Walker takes Chris's breath away, touches his young soul, and breaks his heart. He promises to love Chris forever, and leaves him broken and devastated for years to come. William Corlett, the author, accurately and poignantly describes the angst and anguish of Chris as he struggles through the loss of Walker, and the devastating realization that Walker's words of love and devotion were just that, words, nothing more. Speaking to relationships on so many levels, and the personal doubt and despair that is felt with the loss of love, this book is well crafted, and pulls all the right heart-strings. Although there is closure for Chris at the end, that does seem a bit forced, and a bit 'cinematic' in its realization. However, this is a very touching book, well written, easy to read, and tought-provoking in its honesty.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishingly Poignant Love Story
Review: From the onset of his story, William Cortlett brings us into the heart of his main character, Christopher Metcalfe. While summoned home upon the death of his father, the rather detached Chris returns home to deal with lost innocence and the disallusionment of a wasted life. Finding among his fathers belongings a box containing memorabilia from Chris' own days at boarding school. This prompts a moving detail of Chris' romance with an older boy at school. The author brings us the intensity of adolescent love and sexual desire, with all the abandon given to it at that age. Never once do we doubt Chris' reasons for his love, his desire is felt by the reader, as is his confusion as to it's demise. While the focus being Chris' romance with Stephen at school, the chapters of Chris' life at present brings much to the reader as well. His mother's sense of loss is not nearly as profound as one might have expected, and her life parallel's her sons in many ways. These two characters both must deal with lives wasted on denial of one's true being, following safe roads, forsaking the heart by taking the safer and more constant way through life, only to have regrets later on. There are other characters in the Now part of the story who also show us what a treacherous road are hearts can lead us to. There is also much to be said of Stephen, Chris' object of desire while in school. Stephen, for all his classic British Upper Middle classman ship, has chosen to follow his libido through life, beleiving in his own pleasure first, a direct dichotomy to Chris and his Mother. I was left with a feeling of exhilaration after reading this book. I wanted to seize the moments of my life and live each day fully and honestly, wanting no regrets at the days end. I wish to follow the intuitive heart, the sensual path, and beleive I need not worry what sort of impression I'm giving others, but what a life fully recognized has to offer.
Rating:
Summary: A great sad story
Review: I could not put this book down. I was able to relate to the story at a very deep personal level. I felt extremely sad for the main charater and the choices he made in life. Although he may seem unsympathetic throughout the book, I think that in the end he has made a decision that most likely will bring him happiness. I know many men like Chris (Kit). William Corlett writes with easy and keeps us on the edge by effectively flipping back and forth between the present and the past. This is also a good gay story, even with some of its cliches. Most gay literature is boring and uninteresting, not this book.
Rating:
Summary: A great sad story
Review: I could not put this book down. I was able to relate to the story at a very deep personal level. I felt extremely sad for the main charater and the choices he made in life. Although he may seem unsympathetic throughout the book, I think that in the end he has made a decision that most likely will bring him happiness. I know many men like Chris (Kit). William Corlett writes with easy and keeps us on the edge by effectively flipping back and forth between the present and the past. This is also a good gay story, even with some of its cliches. Most gay literature is boring and uninteresting, not this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Diary of Past & Present
Review: I loved this book. It's simply a journal of the past (THEN) & the present (NOW) that keeps you interested all the way through. It got me all hyped up to the end...the meeting--sorry, I can't give away the story. Quite a page-turner!
It made me want to write my own story in a similar venue....perhaps one day...I will.
Rating:
Summary: An Incredible story of not letting go of the past....
Review: I really enjoyed this story. I believe any man who has suffered puppy-love and infatuation with another man should read this. I felt a kinship between myself and the Chris/Kit and a fear that someday I may become him. The gist of this incredible story is when London book editor Christopher Metcalfe is fifty, he returns to his childhood home after the death of his father. As he prepares for the burial, he unearths his own past: the one pivotal relationship in his life, which occurred when he was fifteen and fell in love with an older boy at boarding school who promised to love him but ultimately did not. The Author, William Corlett has grasped the art of infusing fictional characters with highly accurate human emotional response. Christopher Metcalfe experiences love for the first time with an older classmate in an English preparatory school. The reader is transported on a rollercoaster of emotion as the story evolves over a period of thirty years. This novel incorporates love and loss, betrayal and re-discovery into a work of art that expresses genuine humanity. It is extremely refreshing to find a gay novel that focuses on the journey of the heart and the reaffirmation of self knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: MELANCHOLY, MOVING
Review: I was surprised by the powerful feelings this book evoked in me. It is sparsely, beautifully written, and it feels utterly true, and real. The overwhelming, life-altering emotion of first love -- especially for a gay boy in a boarding school -- speaks volumes to just about everyone in the world. We've all been through the pain of growing up, having dreams broken or changed, and adjusting our lives each step of the way. At the end of this book, you feel free, as if you've been through therapy. It's wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Excellant!! very realistic
Review: I've bought several gay books from Amazon, but this book is so good that i had to write a review. It is so realistic that i kept remembering my own first love and the years since. The description of Chris and Stephen, their school, their sex and their lives are so completely mesmerizing that i could feel the first love and subsequent betrayal as my own. I began the book hoping that it would be more true to life than other gay fare, and as it slowly unfolded i couldn't believe what a gem i had in my hands. I cannot wait to get another book by William Corlett. While reading i felt the pain of Chris over and over; ending with great sympathy for him. And while not wanting to, i also understood Stephen. As far as i am concerned, it is so true to life. We all have different loves and fears, and Chris and Stephen Walker ipitamize them.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Reminder
Review: If you were ever in love as a teenager, it probably ended terrible. That's what this book reminds you of. But it is not a kick in the groin, to the contrary. This is a moving story, one of the best loss of love/innocence stories ever written, and it is a shame if people pass by it because the relationship in it is between two men. Read this, and you will look back at past relationships with sadness, and with longing. It reminded me not only of people I have parted ways with and how much it hurt, but also at times how you can feed off the pain as if it were a drug, until you grow enough to grow beyond it, or it consumes you. Any teenager in love has walked that fine line. The ending is simple and genius, closing up the wounds not only in the characters lives, but all the ones that may end up opening in your heart as you read it.
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