Review: Luke by Jan Irving
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 18, 2010
Luke is almost an "innocent" novella, it has the feeling of an old fashioned serial romance with the added bonus of the modern gay romance twist.If not for the heroes being two men, the plot would have been almost classic: single father in dear need of a help find it in the house of a welcoming doctor. In an heterosexual plot, the wandering cowboy would arrive at the doorstep of the recent widow offering his help; with the added novelty of both cowboy than doctor being men, you can also have the variant on the theme, it's the doctor who offers help to the cowboy and not viceversa.There is a fragile balance between Morgan, the doctor, and Luke, the cowboy; in a way no one of them is totally independent and no one is totally submissive. Morgan, with his love for blue collar men or cowboys, looses a bit the aloof attitude of an high cultured man; plus he is basically a bottom, as he said, and so he likes to be wooed and even manhandle a bit. When he offers help to Luke, even if he is true in his feelings, he is not searching to take advantage of him, he is for sure attracted by the handsome young man.On the other hand I think that Luke is attracted by more than simply a man; he is not a gold diggers, but for sure it's more than a physical desire that draws him to Morgan. Morgan represents stability, shelter, and atop of that, also love and desire. Luke can not afford to "only" love, he needs to choose sagely who will be his partner, since now he has to take care of his daughter Jessica, and Luke well knows that him alone is not able to do that.So yes, Morgan and Luke's relationship is based on a mutual exchange, but not for this reason is without real love. Only that love maybe comes after.The gay for you theme is hinted but not developed: Luke is at his first homosexual experience, but in the end, he admits that he has never had problem to admit that a man, and a man's body, can be sexy; as Luke himself says, he is very instinctual, and passionate, and for him a relationship without sex is not an option; when he starts to think at a relationship with Morgan, it's only natural that the sex comes along.