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briano77's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting book as a reflection on youth and beauty. Clean and striking prose, not much plot, but it certainly captivates with the almost alien character of Nicholas. Not exactly an uplifiting read but worthy of exploring for sure, accomplishes quite a bit in just over a hundred pages.
julia_may's review against another edition
4.0
Another obscure treasure from the 25c friends-of-the-library sale. It looked unread which may be unsurprising given the themes explored (homosexuality, identity, possibly incestuous feelings between siblings?) and my current Midwest location.
This novella fell more towards the "interesting" and "captivating" (pun intended - a wink to the novel) end of the spectrum than the "pleasant". The narrator is nameless and we know very little about him and his life, his identity or his sexuality. No, it's all about his bigger-than-life younger brother Nicholas who is a mega narcissist and recently deceased.
If you've ever known someone similar to Nicholas, you'll know how difficult it is for them to cope with rejection and ageing, which often go hand in hand. Nicholas struggles and comes up with his own "solutions" but one is left wondering if he lived the life he wanted to lead. His choices towards the end of his life seemed in stark contrast to his 20s.
There are great quotes here and there and it was impressively well written for a debut novel.
This novella fell more towards the "interesting" and "captivating" (pun intended - a wink to the novel) end of the spectrum than the "pleasant". The narrator is nameless and we know very little about him and his life, his identity or his sexuality. No, it's all about his bigger-than-life younger brother Nicholas who is a mega narcissist and recently deceased.
If you've ever known someone similar to Nicholas, you'll know how difficult it is for them to cope with rejection and ageing, which often go hand in hand. Nicholas struggles and comes up with his own "solutions" but one is left wondering if he lived the life he wanted to lead. His choices towards the end of his life seemed in stark contrast to his 20s.
There are great quotes here and there and it was impressively well written for a debut novel.
michaeljpdx's review against another edition
5.0
You can find my full review of this classic, I Look Divine at my web site.
nathansnook's review against another edition
3.0
I Look Divine (1987) by Christopher Coe is about a brother searching and lamenting over his brother Nicholas’ past. The novel (which explores family love and homosexuality) carries itself through its sweet and swift prose, dabbing in small details that flesh out dear Nicholas that leaves me loving him more than hating him. Because, you will hate him.
leah_alexandra's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
cent's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
amkclaes's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This is a beautiful novella - complicated, compelling characters, fun scenes and intricate family dynamics... very sad while remaining witty and thoughtful
rileymay's review against another edition
4.0
Obsessed with Nicholas he is all I want to be in life. I especially liked the bit at the start when the narrator describes their childhood together - it was so insidious but also super funny?? I also liked the resolution and the sadness at the end that Nicholas is not really himself, he copies those around him and the sadness he feels from aging and losing his beauty which he found to be his identity. I also liked that is was short like yass get to the point. anyway, a worthwhile read.
chaseledin's review against another edition
4.0
Christopher Coe's (1987) novel I Look Divine provides fleeting insight into the life of two brothers: Nicholas, a proclaimed narcissist of the highest degree, and the unnamed brother, a whimsical, perhaps audacious and incredulous, onlooker on the sudden life and death of lyrical beauty. A retrospective narrative, the brother reflects upon Nicholas's orientation toward the mirrored-edges that surround the Wildean portrait of his life. The novel ventures no further than Nicholas's apartment, though transports the reader through time and space, across the Western world, into the geographical possession and dreams of the cultural elite: that is, Rome, New York, Mexico City. It crescendos, as professor David Leavitt suggests, in the ultimate death of self-seduction. The excess of beauty (Nicholas as symbol) is overcome by its intimate ties with youth. Though we see indirectly the purpose and actualisation of his demise, we know too familiarly the demise of Dorian Gray, from which the book springs, and thus beg nothing of the author for post-mortem clarity.
Unlike the pensive, oft repetitive and lugubrious passages in his later novel Such Times, Coe's I Look Divine speedily ushers the reader through the passage of physical beauty so fundamental to gay-male life in the 1970s. Arguably, this portrait remains foundational to the coherence of gay-beauty standards today, which have tip-toed not an inch further from the mirrors that surround our desire to remain youthful even when threatened with the cultural construction of "gay death". Interestingly, David Leavitt alludes to the presence and prevalence of HIV/AIDS floating in the novel's margins. This at once periodises the novel whilst making it all the more timely for men who, remaining bound to the logics of biomedical realism (i.e. ARVs, PrEP), who seek cultural validation through sex and sexual desire. Far from the present as it may appear, I Look Divine reminds its readers of the lasting legacies of gayness, the intimate affairs and aspirations of capitalism bound up in physical attraction, and the image cultures we engender through the reification of youthful beauty above and beyond the narratives of sexual and romantic excess.
Unlike the pensive, oft repetitive and lugubrious passages in his later novel Such Times, Coe's I Look Divine speedily ushers the reader through the passage of physical beauty so fundamental to gay-male life in the 1970s. Arguably, this portrait remains foundational to the coherence of gay-beauty standards today, which have tip-toed not an inch further from the mirrors that surround our desire to remain youthful even when threatened with the cultural construction of "gay death". Interestingly, David Leavitt alludes to the presence and prevalence of HIV/AIDS floating in the novel's margins. This at once periodises the novel whilst making it all the more timely for men who, remaining bound to the logics of biomedical realism (i.e. ARVs, PrEP), who seek cultural validation through sex and sexual desire. Far from the present as it may appear, I Look Divine reminds its readers of the lasting legacies of gayness, the intimate affairs and aspirations of capitalism bound up in physical attraction, and the image cultures we engender through the reification of youthful beauty above and beyond the narratives of sexual and romantic excess.
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