A review by janeeyre
The Charioteer by Mary Renault

5.0

Oh I loved this so much. Renault writes about the experience of being gay in such an honest, nuanced, loving way. She embraces hope for a positive future without erasing all the frustrating, confusing, and even painful parts of coming to terms with your own difference. The novel is full of subtext and suggestion, full of purposefully vague but meaningful dialogue and description. This made it, at times, difficult to comprehend. But ultimately, I adored the way Renault used her writing style to emphasize the way queer people have always had to rely on signals, euphemisms, and a deep sensitivity, a keen eye looking out for anyone who might be a kindred spirit like themselves.
The first 100 pages were a bit slow, but after Laurie meets Ralph, the plot is so twisty and turny that I could hardly put the book down. The Charioteer certainly isn’t for everyone, but it is definitely for me, and I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. I only wish there were a few more chapters…