The Inner Circle [Paperback]

I wanted to read this having loved 'Tortilla Curtain' and am glad I did - Boyle is a great storyteller and this is quite a story ! He paints a vivid yet fictitious picture of the personal and professional lives of Kinsey and his entourage through the eyes of his earliest disciple, John Milk. In fact, as it turns out there can be no distinction between their personal and professional lives and the job description is not as much fun as you might expect! Lots and lots of sex, obviously, but very much from a scientific point of view. If you want eroticism you may be disappointed as after a while it's like reading about gardening, but the characters and their unconventional relationships are brilliantly drawn and involving, some endearing and others absolutely repellent. Also packed with period detail on the USA from the 1930s to 50s. Parts of the story I found very dark and disturbing and although I thoroughly enjoyed it I felt relieved that despite the way it reads it isn't actually a true story.

I wonder if T C Boyle had any misgivings concerning his decision to narrate 'first person' through the fictictious John Milk. I wish he had these doubts in the first chapter and then reconfigured the novel as it would have worked better for me if he had used the third person narrative as he did in "The Tortilla Curtain". John Milk's first person narration really grates due to his weak voice and the events around his marriage were depressingly repetitive and just uninteresting reading.
John Milk is obsessed about his work and the fact finding collection of sexual detail which impacts on his relationship with his wife, Iris. Boyle's use of the Zombie Cocktail at the end of the novel, especially if based on fact, is a serious endictment on Kinsey's character, and could be argued as an early example of attempted Date Rape. Kinsey came across as a control freak and possibly a borderline personality.
The basic plot is fascinating concerning the collection of facts for the Kinsey Report which is arguably the most pivotal sexual analysis of the 20th Century. I believe that this report was instrumental in breaking down the barriers promoted by Christian, Jewish and Muslim suppression of sexual freedom which they have fastidiously enforced for obvious self-purporting reasons.
Potentially, this novel could have been much better but sadly is limited by the extensive Milk element to the plot.
Footnote. Bizarrely, this novel was characterised as Gay by the Charing Cross Library. One wonders if they think if a book is about sex then it has to be gay!!

In a year in which I've been uncharacteristically prolific in terms of volume of books read, this novel is the finest of the bunch. TC Boyle's "The Inner Circle" is a beautiful story which exposes you to a whole gamut of emotions: joy, frustration, disappointment, enlightenment, and to a lesser extent, titillation. Having never heard of the author before ("ignoramus!" you cry - guilty as charged), I chose to read the book purely because of an enthusiastic review in The Economist. I was glad I did.

The story is narrated by John Milk, a handsome but socially awkward college undergraduate whose adult life has hitherto been fairly uninspired and directionless, both professionally and sexually. A chance encounter with a college professor, Alfred Kinsey ("Prok"), forever changes the course of Milk's life. When the two men meet, Prok is at the very beginning of an ambitious research project that would later revolutionise American attitudes to sex; he needs an extra pair of hands with which to share the burden of work. Milk, humbled at being given the opportunity to be part of such a momentous project, agrees to work for Prok (although tellingly, it never seems as if he is given a choice; to agree is almost expected). Initially the combination works well; it is only when Milk begins to develop and mature into adult that the problems begin.

As Milk begins to form meaningful relationships and undergoes his own personal sexual revolution, albeit orchestrated largely by Prok (Milk's first two partners are Prok and his wife), it becomes apparent that his mentor's views aren't always conducive to matrimonial harmony, even though they seem to make perfect rational sense on the surface. Perhaps notions of "love" and fidelity aren't as antiquated as they might seem. We are given insight into the complex relationship between Prok and Milk - one that is pseudo-paternal but also involves physical relations, even though it often seems as if Milk is not that way inclined. Subconsciously, Prok and Milk fulfil different needs in each other. In Milk, Prok finds a subservient auxiliary who will carry out orders with blind devotion and without question, including the servicing of his sexual whims. At a deeper level, he finds someone who is impressionable and malleable enough to be indoctrinated into his distinct worldview. In Prok, Milk finds a paternal figure who will give his life what is so badly needs: direction and approval.

This book's strengths are many; superb character development is perhaps its foremost. Milk, the narrator, variously evokes frustration, pity but ultimately sympathy from the reader. The portrayal of Prok as a deeply flawed genius is perhaps even more impressive. Prok is a man perfectly clear of his life's goal, and a tireless pursuant of his cause. He lives and breathes his work as if he were put on Earth for only one reason: to revolutionise the way Americans think about sex. However, he is also tyrannical, dictatorial and extremely inflexible - qualities that become increasingly apparent as the story unfolds. Other characters of note include Iris - Milk's wife - who, despite being in many ways a victim of Prok's consummation of her husband, proves the only character capable of standing up to him. In Mac, Prok's wife, we find a woman who is ostensibly a doormat: she is resigned to her husband's way of life and is ostensibly accepting of any indiscretion he fancies committing. In her quiet way, however, she retains the capacity for human emotion and we are never entirely convinced that she has entirely subscribed to her husband's worldview.

In a book that is supposed to be about sex, "The Inner Circle" is surprisingly fraught with emotion, perhaps just as physical relations and emotion are inextricably linked in real life. Boyle reminds us that the desire to be loved and jealousy are just as basic human instincts as is the carnal need to copulate. He does so without being remotely patronising or offensive, instead with a beautiful story that involves very ordinary human beings whose emotional capacities are stretched by one revolutionary but ultimately misguided man.