Review: One Real Thing by Anah Crow & Dianne Fox
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 15, 2011
At first I had some difficulties to understand why two men that were so obviously made for each other, like Nick and Holly, were not together. Nick and Holly were best friends at college and maybe even something more, but Nick has always played the role of the caretaker and Holly that of the modern rake, a young man with too much money and too much trouble in his hands than what he could manage. And then college ended and real life kicked in, and Nick moved to New York City while Holly set in Los Angeles, a whole country between them. Why such a choice?The first impression you have of these men is that Nick is the savvier one, who has always the right answer, who is always making the right choices; instead Holly is the bad kid, a mother who has always suffered of depression and an estranged father, he didn't have the right basis to grow up as good as Nick. Of course Nick is the good one, of course his choices are the right ones... or not? Little by little I started to understand that, true, Holly is bad for himself, trying to kill the pain with alcohol and drugs, but at least he is true to himself, while instead Nick is in full denial. Nick abandoned Holly to follow what society was expecting him to do, marrying the perfect china doll woman, so similar to him to resemble more his twin sister than his soul mate, having a steel and glass apartment in upscale New York City and doing a job he doesn't like but bring home money, more money to add to what they already have.When Nick comes to rescue Holly he is saying to himself that he is doing a favour to Holly, that Holly is not able to take care of things like Nick is, but I think he is actually doing for the first time what he really wants, escaping from the prison that he himself built around.Nick and Holly play a little role game, Nick being the dominant lover and Holly the willing submissive, but that is exactly that, a game; Holly proved that if he wants, if he has reason to fight for, he is able to take care of himself even without Nick, while instead, I had the feeling that Nick, without the "task" of take care of Holly has no purpose to be.I really like both Nick and Holly since they were not perfect characters, but I have to say that they gave me the idea of trust fund boys with a privileged life they were able to mess up in a perfect screwed way.