Rating: 
Summary: Moving, evocative and memorable story.
Review: There's no point in revealing the plot of this deeply moving novel; suffice it so say that the story revolves around unrequited adolescent love, loneliness, becoming accustomed to one's empty life, and finally a touching renewal of a link made many years earlier.This novel begins in a small English public school (a boarding school) where the principal character becomes aware of his own burgeoning sexuality, that of those around him, and the difficulty of expressing those feelings in a meaningful way. After a highly inflamed relationship in which our hero falls deeply in love with another boy, only to be discarded, we move to a later period in his life where he is lonely and seemingly has only his ... girlfriend for company. However, events unfold which bring characters from the past rushing back into his life and the story moves to a great climax (no pun intended) as he is reunited with the most unexpected of his schoolchums. This story benefits from a deep understanding of middle-class English life of the late 50's and early 60's, when the emotions will be very clear to the reader. Certainly, as someone who is currently 47 years old, who attended a public school (albeit much better one) and whose parents were decidedly middle-class I can feel myself stronly drawn to the boys in the school; indeed it was like travelling back in time. Subsequent elements of the story rang loud bells in my mind as I recognised the girlfriend (I've never had one, but friends have), and the flowering of late-love with men met years previously. This is a very moving novel, well-written, and extremely well observed. It should be on everyone's bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READ
Review: This is a very good novel about the wasting of a gay man's life after an early heartbreak and subsequent inhibition. Beautifully written and consistently engaging, amusing, and finally deeply moving, my only complaint is that the plotting is a bit too shapely and just slightly predictable--the narrator breaks through and it's implied that he'll go on to have an adult love life after all, which is a bit hopeful in a Hollywood way. But I'd recommend it--the rewards are plentiful and memorable.
| 
