I reckon Mr Keates has pretentions to be a literary novellist, and so he scatters the pages with incredibly long words; literary phraseology; words, phrases and conversations in foreign languages and makes cultural references - music, dance, theatre - that are hardly mainstream.
This is a bit of a problem if you're looking for a light read. The theme is an interesting one - a group of thirty something friends who have made it in their own fields of endeavour, and are now looking for something more. The bloom of youth has worn off and pre-middle age angst has cut in. Jonathan is a gay writer who has avoided the traditional theme of gay tragedy (AIDS, depression, failure and death) in favour of the new post AIDS themes - promiscuity (safe of course) inability to make long-term relationships, lust, lies and manipulation. This applies to all characters of whatever gender or orientation. However, I couldn't really connect with the characters - the lives they led are too distant from my own, and why is it necessary to include so much soft porn (straying occasionally into a area the is explicit enough to be hardcore).
Rating? 5 or 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment