Man's World
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Product Description
London today - a world of sex, drugs and designer clothes, where Robert searches for fulfilment in gay clubs. London 50 years ago - Michael enters a secret queer underworld, negotiating the dangers of law and the closet. Two parallel narratives - two generations - two worlds that barely recognise each other. But do Robert and Michael have more in common than they think? A historical romance with a difference, Man's World is a funny, sexy and moving story about friendship and desire, about how much the world has changed - and how little.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Blurbs often say that a book is "unputdownable" or "a pageturner". If that is often a way to trick potential readers into buying worthless rubbish, it's not the case of Rupert Smith's "Man's World". What you have here is a real feast for the reader. When you start reading it, you must reach the end as soon as possible... and then you'd wish to have more and more. "Man's World" tells the fascinating story of a group of gay men in two very different times: England and London in the Fifties and nowadays. Those who take all our modern freedoms for granted hardly know how difficult it was then to live as a gay man and how many hurdles you had to overcome in order to simply survive. Robert (and his friend Jonathan) belong to those who don't know and don't care, as long as they can revel in their world made of drugs, sex, shopping and clubbing... But soon Robert meets 70-year-old Michael, his new neighbour, and discover his past. And little by little Robert understands how lucky he is and how grateful he should be to men like Michael and Stephen for fighting for him too. Written in the form of Michael's diary and Robert's weblog, "Man's world" is funny and sad, wise and moving, sexy and thoughtful. Not only is it extremely readable - in the best tradition of English speaking literature -, but it also conveys what once was called "a message", without ever being highbrow or boringly intellectual. Rupert Smith's best literary achievement so far.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Rupert Smith's work is known to, and loved by, many of us. Writing as James Lear, he has written some of the funniest and sexiest erotic gay fiction. This book is funny, sexy and brilliantly written as always. But it does more than that. Robert is a young gay man, out on the London gay scene, doing drugs and tricks and lurching pleasurably but unhappily from one sensation to the next. His best friend, Jonathan, a memorable fictional creation, leads an even more unfocussed life, seemingly untouched by adulthood or responsibility.
In the flat beneath Robert's lives Michael, an elderly man whose partner has just died. The book interweaves the life story of Michael, and his now-dead partner, Mervyn, with those of Robert and Jonathan, taking us back to the 50s, to national service, to an era when queers were thought to be sickos and the London gay scene, while vibrant, was clandestine and criminalised. The relationship between Michael and his RAF national service buddy, Mervyn, and the whole atmosphere of the period, are depicted with a mixture of comedy and poignancy reminiscent of David Lodge. The underlying theme of the book is that superficial similarities between the two eras may be few but the common threads of desire and love and loss between the people in each are very close. Smith writes without sentimentality and with understatement and the book is the more powerful for it. As a work of gay fiction in 2010, this one will be hard to beat.
In the flat beneath Robert's lives Michael, an elderly man whose partner has just died. The book interweaves the life story of Michael, and his now-dead partner, Mervyn, with those of Robert and Jonathan, taking us back to the 50s, to national service, to an era when queers were thought to be sickos and the London gay scene, while vibrant, was clandestine and criminalised. The relationship between Michael and his RAF national service buddy, Mervyn, and the whole atmosphere of the period, are depicted with a mixture of comedy and poignancy reminiscent of David Lodge. The underlying theme of the book is that superficial similarities between the two eras may be few but the common threads of desire and love and loss between the people in each are very close. Smith writes without sentimentality and with understatement and the book is the more powerful for it. As a work of gay fiction in 2010, this one will be hard to beat.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Once upon a time, in Englan you could go to jail for being gay,even if you, like Alan Turing, helped save the world. you had to practiceyour "vice" in secret, in hidden places at night, Then homosexuality was decriminalized, then came the sexual revolution, a change of mores, and, AIDS and Margaret Thatcher's homophobia notwithstanding, now gays in london are free to live their life in the open, like the young protagonist of this novel, who we see move in his new apartment "helped" by a rather exploitive and egotistic friend. Parallel to the blog of the modern gay runs the secret diary of Mychael in the London of fifty years ago, till then and Now shall meet and appraise each other, both searching for love and happiness, but the old cowing in the underground, the new so often taking lightly for granted a freedom the old could only dream and had to fight hard to conquer.
This novel, deliciously witten, with very sympathetic and interesting characters, is one of the best gay novels i've rad. Highly recommended!
This novel, deliciously witten, with very sympathetic and interesting characters, is one of the best gay novels i've rad. Highly recommended!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An Enjoyable Read
I disliked some of the characters immensely especially the modern day characters, but despite that I found myself liking the book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by suggsygirl
Perceptive
Man's World tells two parallel stories, the one in the present day told by Robert, and the one set in the fifties my Michael. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Benjamin
Fiction and social history in one
The style of interwoven chapters recounting the life of two 1950's lovers with two platonic friends in modern times makes for a very interesting read; the instant comparison... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Stuart
A pleasant surprise.
I didn't expect much from this book. In fact the cover stood out to me so I decided to buy it. From the first page I was hooked. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Coy
Smith cannot write.
Rupert Smith is a lazy writer. His protagonist is stereotypically shallow and so incredibly irritating I constantly felt the urge to push him over a particularly steep cliff with... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Brian Byrne
Don't expect much from this shallow repeated story
This is what I wrote as a review for the US Amazon site where, so far, this book has had no 5 star reviewers. Clearly it's more liked in its home market. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Peter J. Hewson
Man's World
This was one of those books that once you've started it you really just want to read and read and read until you've finished it. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Basil
From queer to proud
The paperback of Rupert Smith's "Man's World" comes with plaudits from three established lesbian/gay writers: Sarah Waters, Jake Arnott and Philip Hensher. Read more
Published 14 months ago by jfp2006
Good Read
I liked the flow of the book and how there were two different stories, one from more modern times and one from the past to be compared. The end came a bit fast though.
Published 17 months ago by David O'Donovan
Amazing
I have never written a review before but I feel compelled to put in words just how much this book meant to me. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Michi
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