ADDICTIONS

Two gay friends correspond about their many facets of their lives in Brown’s historical novel.

It’s 1990, and Dr. Francis Martell has recently moved from London to San Diego to teach at the Institute of Shakespearean Textual Analysis. In letters to his best friend back home—Jeremy Groves, the musical director for the British National Opera—he describes his bemusement at Southern California’s suburban sprawl, its clement weather, and most importantly, its attractive men. One strong, young Cajun man, in particular, named Beauregard Proud’homme—himself newly arrived from New Orleans—has caught Francis’ attention. “Well, professor, you haven’t wasted any time,” Jeremy responds, before informing him of the goings-on in London: Against a backdrop of Thatcherism and the ongoing AIDS crisis, Jeremy’s interest has been piqued by his newest protégé, Jonathan Gordon, who’s written a semiautobiographical novel recounting his trajectory from young boy in the North of England to out gay man working in the arts. Francis initially claims that contemporary gay coming-of-age novels only deepen his cynicism, but eventually, the two friends read the novel, making jabs at its form but finding its content inevitably relevant to their own experiences as young—or perhaps even older—gay men. Brown’s clever structure allows him to explore such themes as Judaism and jealousy in the queer community through Jonathan’s more straightforward coming-of-age story as a Jewish gay man, while the epistolary framing provides an unusual but engrossing exercise in character and voice. Whether the main characters are discussing public sex, leather bars, or classical composers, Francis and Jeremy imbue each missive with increasingly pompous turns of phrase, but they reveal a tender connection beneath the witty barbs and pretension. A convoluted subplot, bubbling in the background, involves Beauregard and blackmail, and it eventually works to tie all the characters together in fittingly operatic fashion—but it’s never as thrilling as Francis’ lovable contempt: “Its literary merit will, of course, be zero,” he says of Jonathan’s story. “I eagerly await the first instalment.”

Snapshots of gay life from different eras and generations, brought to life by biting, timelessly funny narration.