Review
It had never occurred to me to run a gay B & B, and now it is too late; but Alan Keslian s cautionary and amusing tale and the engaging characters involved gave me a happy account of what I may have missed. --Ned Sherrin
... examines how gay men fit into the straight world. --The Pink Paper
Part of the fascination of this book is the convincing picture it presents of the ultra-conformist milieu of a City accountants, and the tension thus created for the central figure, Mark. From the first page, when he is on holiday with his boss, the latter s wife and her female friend, his gay orientation forces him into subterfuge to gain fulfilment. Back in London, he is forced to steer an uneasy course through office politics. A high achiever, he is constantly discomposed by the need to adopt a front for his colleagues. When, almost by accident, he does come out to his boss, Peter, it is deceptively easy deceptively, because Mark is then made aware of the likely antagonism of the old fogies who run the firm. Keslian presents relationships outside the office as even more uncertain, though generally more authentic. Lack of communication twice almost destroys the central love relationship. Its initial restoration coincides with Mark s decision to turn his back on the increasingly bitter internal politics of the City firm and become involved in the running of a gay hotel. As he begins his new life, he reflects: That world, in which general social good meant nothing, where men were ranked entirely according to money and position, now seemed horribly obsessed with the superfluous and pretentious. You may have guessed that Keslian is too good a writer to bestow all the honours on the gay world. Discovery of something discreditable in his lover s past provokes the opposite reaction: All the warmth and colour my new life appeared to contain had existed in my imagination. For a second time the relationship almost founders. It takes a mugging to bring Mark back to his senses, though he is helped by Darren, a boy to whom he has been kind. It is in fact one of the underlying truths in this perceptive novel that ordinary human decency is a greater source of happiness in life, whether gay or straight, than searing passion. If the reader was ever under the illusion that running a gay hotel was a passport to paradise, he will soon become disillusioned the guests that pass through the portals of Goodmans Hotel pose more problems and cause greater mayhem than all the joyous encounters put together. This many-faceted saga is recounted in meticulous and compelling detail. The cast of characters in a wide-ranging novel the accountant, the electrician, the gardener, the waif, the boys from the North confound once and for all the idea that there are such things as gay stereotypes. In doing this the book reveals its greatest quality its truth to life. --Graham Robertson
... examines how gay men fit into the straight world. --The Pink Paper
Part of the fascination of this book is the convincing picture it presents of the ultra-conformist milieu of a City accountants, and the tension thus created for the central figure, Mark. From the first page, when he is on holiday with his boss, the latter s wife and her female friend, his gay orientation forces him into subterfuge to gain fulfilment. Back in London, he is forced to steer an uneasy course through office politics. A high achiever, he is constantly discomposed by the need to adopt a front for his colleagues. When, almost by accident, he does come out to his boss, Peter, it is deceptively easy deceptively, because Mark is then made aware of the likely antagonism of the old fogies who run the firm. Keslian presents relationships outside the office as even more uncertain, though generally more authentic. Lack of communication twice almost destroys the central love relationship. Its initial restoration coincides with Mark s decision to turn his back on the increasingly bitter internal politics of the City firm and become involved in the running of a gay hotel. As he begins his new life, he reflects: That world, in which general social good meant nothing, where men were ranked entirely according to money and position, now seemed horribly obsessed with the superfluous and pretentious. You may have guessed that Keslian is too good a writer to bestow all the honours on the gay world. Discovery of something discreditable in his lover s past provokes the opposite reaction: All the warmth and colour my new life appeared to contain had existed in my imagination. For a second time the relationship almost founders. It takes a mugging to bring Mark back to his senses, though he is helped by Darren, a boy to whom he has been kind. It is in fact one of the underlying truths in this perceptive novel that ordinary human decency is a greater source of happiness in life, whether gay or straight, than searing passion. If the reader was ever under the illusion that running a gay hotel was a passport to paradise, he will soon become disillusioned the guests that pass through the portals of Goodmans Hotel pose more problems and cause greater mayhem than all the joyous encounters put together. This many-faceted saga is recounted in meticulous and compelling detail. The cast of characters in a wide-ranging novel the accountant, the electrician, the gardener, the waif, the boys from the North confound once and for all the idea that there are such things as gay stereotypes. In doing this the book reveals its greatest quality its truth to life. --Graham Robertson
The Pink Paper , 20 January 2002
a serious literary venture... examines how gay men fit into the straight world.
