The Celibate

Rating:
Summary: Focuses on Universal Truths
Review: Mr. Arditti has written the most honest, unapologetic book about a gay man's search for God that I have ever read. This is not a book about religioun, mercifully, or a book with the ancillary purpose of converting readers. Once he begins honestly addressing his gayness, the narrator's search for the stern, narrow God in his mind becomes a discovery of something bigger and truer than he imagined. He might name what he finds "a state of grace"; other phrases that would apply would be "self-actualization," "Nirvana," or "the meaning of life." I hope this review doesn't turn off anti-religion readers -- this book itself is rather anti-religion while focusing on universal truths.

Rating:
Summary: Focuses on Universal Truths
Review: Mr. Arditti has written the most honest, unapologetic book about a gay man's search for God that I have ever read. This is not a book about religioun, mercifully, or a book with the ancillary purpose of converting readers. Once he begins honestly addressing his gayness, the narrator's search for the stern, narrow God in his mind becomes a discovery of something bigger and truer than he imagined. He might name what he finds "a state of grace"; other phrases that would apply would be "self-actualization," "Nirvana," or "the meaning of life." I hope this review doesn't turn off anti-religion readers -- this book itself is rather anti-religion while focusing on universal truths.

Rating:
Summary: Both honest and unaffectedly insightful
Review: There was a comfortable intelligence in this book. Totally accessable and crafted whilst flowing with ease. Its unusual narrative style, though initially a little disorienting, is well balanced. Though a journey through pain it is a beautiful book that imbues the reader with a sense of hope, love and compassion.

Rating:
Summary: I WANTED to like this book.
Review: Written as a first-person narration, this double monologue sets up the narrator's fall-from-grace prattling at his therapist in opposition to his narration of a tour of Jack the Ripper's London. If you think this allegorical juxtaposition has potential, then you MIGHT like the book. I suspended my feeling that the juxtaposition wouldn't work, but then I just got tired of the narrator's self-obsessed whining.