Just read a great new novel, History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason. I highly recommend it. Mason hit the literary scene with the Drowning People which I have not read, but it got a ton of attention because he was a student at Oxford when he was published as a first-time author.
in Amsterdam and Cape Town at the turn of the century. The main character, Piet Barol, is a dark haired hedonist with physical characteristics similar to the author. Handsome, cultured, opportunistic, bright, mischievous - entirely likeable even when he is being a complete idiot.
Mason does an incredible job of making love, sex, romance, seduction both hot and humorous as his characters either indulge in all of these or repress them. But he never judges his characters -- he let's their adventures and misdeeds unfold with beautifully constructed prose.
His characters share an intimacy with the reader as if he wrote the book just for them. As if the reader
This sounds like a great book and I need an antidote to the reading I have been doing - now in the midst of a John Cheever biography, the gifted short story writer and novelist who in his journals found after his death chronicles a life long struggle with his gay side. His last major novel in 1977, the Falconer, is listed as one of the top 100 novels from 1923 - 2005...and follows a man convicted of murdering his brother, who begins an affair with a fellow prisoner as he tries to maintain his humanity.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very different style of writing and storyline than your recommendation,but sounds like a must-read for us kind of guys.
JS
ReplyDeleteI'd recommend it highly. I like Cheever's work - he and his wife Mary lived not too far from me and his son Ben, an avid runner and writer live in the next town over from me. Yes, completely different style of writing -- both very enjoyable!
Loki, this is already on my to-read list so thank you for the good word of mouth for it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, picture #1...yeah, that's my favorite way to bottom - I mean if a bed's involved.