Neil Masey

I'm so utterly bored of queerness being tragically portrayed and rarely every being written about in a positive, joyful and loving way. But this is beyond crass as it's written by a straight person, for straight people and entirely from a straight wife's perspective. Gay men are depicted as predatory, sly and manipulative snakes, using guile and cunning to trick any man into sex, usually a one off of course and never anything long term or, heaven forbid, loving. Our chap Patrick here did find a man for a while though, but poor Michael was blackmailed for being gay and took his own life.....what a totally HACKNEYED load of tosh! Then he finds straight acting, in the closet Tom who in turn finds a beard in Marion who he marries to act as a human shield against society's bombardment towards gay men. Yawwwwn! Then we find that the wife Marion dobs Patrick in and his life disintegrates around him: he loses his job, his standing, his career, everything. Another dull and outmoded cliché. The vile Marion then takes Patrick under her wing when he becomes terminally ill and she forces him to endure utter despair and torture by looking after him in the home she shares with the man they both love. Only a straight person would write a book like this. I hated it and found it almost homophobic in its attitude towards gay men.