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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
No language but myth
to voice one’s solitude, joy,
fear, hope, communion.
to voice one’s solitude, joy,
fear, hope, communion.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this story by Daniel Mendelsohn and now I'm emotional about Mary Renault again.
I've been meaning to re-read this for sometime now. It's one of those books that feel formative to me and so I wanted to know how it held up after some years. This was one of, if not the first full length gay novel I had ever read. I had read a lot of gay stories online in my late teens, mostly from sites like Gay Authors and Literotica, and they were important in that they showed me that I wasn't as alone as I thought I was and they were also readily accessible. I had known about "The Charioteer" for a while, it was always highly recommended and it was one of those books I hoped to get shipped to me someday. Then one day as I was looking at books on a shelf in my local library I saw the familiar name [a:Mary Renault|38185|Mary Renault|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1378247630p2/38185.jpg] in golden letters on an old black book's spine, the book had not been borrowed since the 80s. It took me some moments to get over the disbelief and I hurried to get the book checked out as though it might have disappeared at any moment. And it had been a literary feast.
The story itself is one of the oldest ever told. A love triangle involving two British soldiers who survived Dunkirk and a pacifist who was torn about going to the war and didn't in the end. Laurie, who is the protagonist, has had an admiration and love for Ralph since they were in school and one day when an incident happens that forces Ralph out of school, he gives Laurie his copy of [b:Phaedrus|360882|Phaedrus|Plato|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415678009l/360882._SY75_.jpg|74207137]. They lose touch and the second world war begins, Laurie is injured and nearly dies following an attack and it is while he is recovering in hospital that he meets Andrew, a member of the Quaker faith and starts a friendship when the pacifist group of volunteers he belongs to is met with harassments from the soldiers and general community. Then as a love between Andrew and Laurie develops, Ralph and Laurie meet again, complicating things.
Among the other fascinating parts of this wonderful book is the language. This books like other gay novels written during or about the pre-legalization era in Western countries like Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, Delany's [b:Dark Reflections|85868|Dark Reflections|Samuel R. Delany|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328856703l/85868._SX50_.jpg|82863], Forster's Maurice, Toibin's Story of the Night among others, has another language running below the language in the book. Language born out of hidden necessity and hard to describe better than how Renault writes:
'He had heard in Ralph's voice that secret overtone only half of which is created by the one who speaks, the other half of which is created by the one who listens, and which says in any language, "By and by all these people will have gone."'
I think it's very difficult to write a book about homosexual love in the 1940s between two disabled characters without exploiting pain and misery, but Renault handles it all so expertly and delicately that this book stands without a doubt as a favourite I shall return to again and again as long as I am able to through the years.
The story itself is one of the oldest ever told. A love triangle involving two British soldiers who survived Dunkirk and a pacifist who was torn about going to the war and didn't in the end. Laurie, who is the protagonist, has had an admiration and love for Ralph since they were in school and one day when an incident happens that forces Ralph out of school, he gives Laurie his copy of [b:Phaedrus|360882|Phaedrus|Plato|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415678009l/360882._SY75_.jpg|74207137]. They lose touch and the second world war begins, Laurie is injured and nearly dies following an attack and it is while he is recovering in hospital that he meets Andrew, a member of the Quaker faith and starts a friendship when the pacifist group of volunteers he belongs to is met with harassments from the soldiers and general community. Then as a love between Andrew and Laurie develops, Ralph and Laurie meet again, complicating things.
Among the other fascinating parts of this wonderful book is the language. This books like other gay novels written during or about the pre-legalization era in Western countries like Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, Delany's [b:Dark Reflections|85868|Dark Reflections|Samuel R. Delany|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328856703l/85868._SX50_.jpg|82863], Forster's Maurice, Toibin's Story of the Night among others, has another language running below the language in the book. Language born out of hidden necessity and hard to describe better than how Renault writes:
'He had heard in Ralph's voice that secret overtone only half of which is created by the one who speaks, the other half of which is created by the one who listens, and which says in any language, "By and by all these people will have gone."'
I think it's very difficult to write a book about homosexual love in the 1940s between two disabled characters without exploiting pain and misery, but Renault handles it all so expertly and delicately that this book stands without a doubt as a favourite I shall return to again and again as long as I am able to through the years.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I savoured this book. Renault conveys so much emotion and meaning into it, eveny conversation feels real and weighty, with so much subtext (so much so that I occasionally had to use ancient chapter discussions to fully understand the full meaning of a conversation); I didn't want to read past anything too quickly.
Left me feeling shredded.
Left me feeling shredded.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes