Three men, three lives and three eras sinuously entwine in a dark startling and unsettling narrative of sex, exploitation and dependence set against London's strangely constant gay underworld. Rent boys, models, aristocrats, artists and gangsters populate this bold debut novel as the lives and loves of three men interweave in three distinct and pertinent historical periods.
London Triptych
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Review
'Vivid and visceral, London Triptych cuts deep to reveal the hidden layers of a secret history.' --JAKE ARNOTT
'Charting three very different affairs taking place against the backdrop of three very different Londons, Jonathan Kemp's first novel is a thought-provoking enquiry into what changes in gay mens' lives as the decades pass - and what doesn't. As the connections and reflections across the years reveal themselves, this is a book that will make you think - and make you feel.' --NEIL BARTLETT
'Despite reaching across a century, Kemp's characters are believable and down to earth; the focus is not on period setting but on dialogue. A thoroughly absorbing and pacy read... a fresh angle on gay life and on the oldest profession.' --TIME OUT
'Kemp's language is beautiful; his characters are carefully drawn and the dialogue engaging. The narratives overlap and are all the more moving for their subtlety. Drawing inspiration from the life and work of Oscar Wilde, just as Michael Cunningham's The Hours drew from Virginia Woolf, London Triptych is a touching and engrossing read.' --ATTITUDE
'By turns explicit and energetic, Kemp's forceful prose uncompromisingly draws the reader in. A strange, squalid, rather interesting book.' --METRO
'Vivid and visceral, London Triptych cuts deep to reveal the hidden layers of a secret history.' --JAKE ARNOTT
'Charting three very different affairs taking place against the backdrop of three very different Londons, Jonathan Kemp's first novel is a thought-provoking enquiry into what changes in gay mens' lives as the decades pass - and what doesn't. As the connections and reflections across the years reveal themselves, this is a book that will make you think - and make you feel.' --NEIL BARTLETT
'Astonishingly textured prose and wonderfully defined narrative voices...I recognised the characters immediately and wanted to follow them.'
--JOANNE HARRIS
'Charting three very different affairs taking place against the backdrop of three very different Londons, Jonathan Kemp's first novel is a thought-provoking enquiry into what changes in gay mens' lives as the decades pass - and what doesn't. As the connections and reflections across the years reveal themselves, this is a book that will make you think - and make you feel.' --NEIL BARTLETT
'Despite reaching across a century, Kemp's characters are believable and down to earth; the focus is not on period setting but on dialogue. A thoroughly absorbing and pacy read... a fresh angle on gay life and on the oldest profession.' --TIME OUT
'Kemp's language is beautiful; his characters are carefully drawn and the dialogue engaging. The narratives overlap and are all the more moving for their subtlety. Drawing inspiration from the life and work of Oscar Wilde, just as Michael Cunningham's The Hours drew from Virginia Woolf, London Triptych is a touching and engrossing read.' --ATTITUDE
'By turns explicit and energetic, Kemp's forceful prose uncompromisingly draws the reader in. A strange, squalid, rather interesting book.' --METRO
'Vivid and visceral, London Triptych cuts deep to reveal the hidden layers of a secret history.' --JAKE ARNOTT
'Charting three very different affairs taking place against the backdrop of three very different Londons, Jonathan Kemp's first novel is a thought-provoking enquiry into what changes in gay mens' lives as the decades pass - and what doesn't. As the connections and reflections across the years reveal themselves, this is a book that will make you think - and make you feel.' --NEIL BARTLETT
'Astonishingly textured prose and wonderfully defined narrative voices...I recognised the characters immediately and wanted to follow them.'
--JOANNE HARRIS
About the Author
Jonathan Kemp teaches creative writing, literature and queer theory. He also DJs. Originally from the North, he has lived in London for twenty years.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By Ben Illis
Format:Paperback
A pacy, vivid, eminently readable and extremely accomplished literary fiction debut. Three entwined narratives unfurl, revealing the lives of three gay Londoners, spanning a century of gay history. The narrative twists around the dark, seamy undercurrent of London's gay life that is a curious constant, even as society and its attitudes change, conjuring up a very different portrait of London and the twentieth century gay experience from anything else out there. London Triptych is highly charged with strong emotion and a powerful, raw sexuality.
Kemps draws very real characters with very real flaws and deep, visible wounds who are fully human in all their unreliability and weakness and very capable of acting in a frustratingly self-destructive way. Each character's story is ultimately a profound tragedy and yet these are not characters to be pitied, but who live their lives unabashedly and truthfully to themselves, for good or bad and with pride or shame. They react organically to the lives they live in, accepting the choices they have made, in some cases, and railing against them in others. Each trades to some extent in combinations of sex, money and power and each within the context of their place in the society of their time. Jack manages to cling to a sweet, blind and hopeless optimism in the face of obvious disaster; Colin is weighed down by a quietly terrified, claustrophobic inaction and meekly accepts a life unlived, while David's confrontational hedonism and decadence leads to a spiralling descent into an inevitable and terrible destruction born of the obsession, frustration, fear, anger, bitterness, love and regret that have shaped his existence.
Vivid and uncompromising characterisation and a subtly elegant, artfully drawn structure remind of the likes of Barbara Kingsolver, Rohinton Mistry and David Mitchell and belie a talent that will surely rank Kemp high among his literary fiction-writing peers. Kemp's is a wonderful and necessary addition to the canon of modern gay literature that should transcend the gay-writing tag and he should proudly sit alongside Toibin, Waters, Hollinghurst et al among the very best writers of British (and Irish!) literary fiction today.
Kemps draws very real characters with very real flaws and deep, visible wounds who are fully human in all their unreliability and weakness and very capable of acting in a frustratingly self-destructive way. Each character's story is ultimately a profound tragedy and yet these are not characters to be pitied, but who live their lives unabashedly and truthfully to themselves, for good or bad and with pride or shame. They react organically to the lives they live in, accepting the choices they have made, in some cases, and railing against them in others. Each trades to some extent in combinations of sex, money and power and each within the context of their place in the society of their time. Jack manages to cling to a sweet, blind and hopeless optimism in the face of obvious disaster; Colin is weighed down by a quietly terrified, claustrophobic inaction and meekly accepts a life unlived, while David's confrontational hedonism and decadence leads to a spiralling descent into an inevitable and terrible destruction born of the obsession, frustration, fear, anger, bitterness, love and regret that have shaped his existence.
Vivid and uncompromising characterisation and a subtly elegant, artfully drawn structure remind of the likes of Barbara Kingsolver, Rohinton Mistry and David Mitchell and belie a talent that will surely rank Kemp high among his literary fiction-writing peers. Kemp's is a wonderful and necessary addition to the canon of modern gay literature that should transcend the gay-writing tag and he should proudly sit alongside Toibin, Waters, Hollinghurst et al among the very best writers of British (and Irish!) literary fiction today.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By S. Anand
Format:Paperback
This book made me laugh, made me cry and kept me intrigued throughout.
Kemp weaves three stories together seamlessly, making you feel empathy, sympathy and pity for his (often brazen, but still endearing) characters.
Probably not suitable for the more prudish reader due to pages and pages of quite graphic sexual exploits but for everyone else, READ IT! Whether gay or not gay- this is a hilarious (and harrowing) narrative of human relationships, romance (only sometimes) and sex.
Bloody good.
Kemp weaves three stories together seamlessly, making you feel empathy, sympathy and pity for his (often brazen, but still endearing) characters.
Probably not suitable for the more prudish reader due to pages and pages of quite graphic sexual exploits but for everyone else, READ IT! Whether gay or not gay- this is a hilarious (and harrowing) narrative of human relationships, romance (only sometimes) and sex.
Bloody good.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By LoveReading
Format:Paperback
The cover blurb was compelling: 'Rent boys, aristocrats, artists and criminals ...' And it is indeed a bold debut by Jonathan Kemp, both accomplished and unflinching in its portrayal of 'London's strangely constant gay underworld.' What I loved about this novel was the tension between overlapping worlds: on the one a hand darkly irreverent orgy of hedonistic abandon, and on the other, a painful existence of denial and lives half-lived. The introduction of the soon-to-be-famous Oscar Wilde was a stroke of genius - and Kemp's lyrical prose and seamless dialogue was a joy to read. I really am looking forward to reading more from this talented writer.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don't believe the hype
This book has received some great reviews (albeit for the most part from obscure gay press), and I for one feel cheated having purchased it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. T. S. Guy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good read
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, set in three separate era's, and would recommend to others if the subject matter interests you.
Published 1 month ago by R K LANE
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing
I can't really reconcile the actual content of this book with the various reviews.
The 3 stories are banal and no more than a random collection of mundane gay cliches. Read more
The 3 stories are banal and no more than a random collection of mundane gay cliches. Read more
Published 4 months ago by G. Thomas
3.0 out of 5 stars
A written kind of gay "Three Times" from Hou Hsiao Hsien
It is a process in fashion: either the book is cut into slices periods, either the book is cut by writing chapters successively by different main characters. Read more
Published 4 months ago by french reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hiding in plain sight.
What can I say? It's just a beautiful piece of writing. When you read in reviews that each word is `carefully crafted' I think they must have been thinking about this work because... Read more
Published 7 months ago by SergiusT
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing.
I purchased this for 99p in the Kindle sale with no prior knowledge of the author, as I loved the concept of this book. Read more
Published 8 months ago by kindler
5.0 out of 5 stars
Artfully Compelling
I loved this book. It's a really compelling read and draws the reader in completely. The historical detail is well executed and the characters and plot drive the novel forward at a... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Highly-Strung
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tryptich
Brilliant. Beautiful voices. Very captivating and underscored how different living as a gay man was previously. Kemp writes vividly - I'll return to this book again soon. Read more
Published 10 months ago by GlenJan
5.0 out of 5 stars
a great read
I loved this book. It is intriguing and sexy and interesting and i read it in one go. London, sex, human madness. Jonathan Kemp is a wonderful writer. Read more
Published 18 months ago by purplepug
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great LONDON book - beautifuly written
I just finished this book - and what a pleasure it was.
Its episodical structure, with gaps of 50 or 60 years between them is amazingly effective. Read more
Its episodical structure, with gaps of 50 or 60 years between them is amazingly effective. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. T. A. Ismail
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