Review: A Solid Work With Lots of Lust.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 4, 2012
I am not sure what the total percentage of gay and lesbian people are in the United States. The conventional answer used to be ten percent, but I have always doubted the veracity of that statement. Truthfully, I have no answer, and I would submit that no one really knows.Besides, rhetorically speaking, does it really ultimately matter?Not to this reader---and that is why, when given the opportunity to review Sandra Ross's book "Gayrotica: A Sweet and Sensual Gay Love Story," I jumped at the opportunity to read about love, lust and desire between two men.I really wasn't quite sure what to expect. Since I am not gay, and since I like to consider myself a reasonably open-minded individual, I suppose I also wanted to review Ross's book so that I could confront any latent misgivings and hidden prejudices I may have been harboring towards homosexuality of which I wasn't aware.I needn't have worried. As usual, Ross presented her protagonists in a positive, cheerful light, and it was the opening sentence in the first chapter ("I knew I was gay ever since high school, when I caught myself feeling attracted to the guys who changed in the locker room next to me before gym.") that demonstrated a matter-of-fact self-assessment by the protagonist, with no self-hate or agony over being gay even necessary. As with most romance/erotica fiction, self-confidence is always a desirable tangible in any character regardless of setting, and this was no different. Ross allows for each character to develop at a steady pace, and also demonstrates a remarkable knack for letting human frailties and foibles to present themselves. I found I liked the narrator right away.The narrator's common sense and desire to live as free and as open a lifestyle that he could afford within the urban sprawl that is Los Angeles allows him to find a place within walking distance of rapid-transit, where he is able to live and to eventually secure a job working a front desk in a 24-hour gym.Our speaker provides a prologue to the setting by explaining, in systematic detail, how he was planning to live his life as "a proud and out gay man" (ch. 1). First and foremost was his resolute determination to live his life on his own terms and "not the way society thought I should" (1). To this reader, such a determinist attitude is key to long-term happiness and quality of life, and this adds a nice positive perspective to the narrator's collective development as a gay man. I particularly admired how he applied to colleges in the Los Angeles area, since L.A., like most large U.S. cities, tends to support a well-established, progressive gay community.Since our narrator came to terms with his homosexuality only a few years ago, being able to make clear, rational, positive choices that will provide him with safety, security and support is paramount---and crucial to living his life to the best that his talents can offer. Ross's positive portrayal of how he lives his life underscores an acceptance of people for who they are, regardless of sexual orientation.Our narrator eventually meets and is attracted to one of the gym's clients, and Ross develops the plot at a well-written pace that provides the reader with the requisite emotional and sexual intimacy that is characteristic of her novels.Being gay is simply one facet of a person and is in no way the be-all, end-all of how they choose to live their lives. While certain homophobic segments of the population may obsess over a purported gay agenda that is out to brainwash our children and take over our government, I choose to think that most people simply are trying to live their lives as best they can and really could care less what others do in the privacy of their own bedrooms."Gayrotica" is a nice tome that is a quick read.