Leading men (by Christopher Castellani)

(Amazon UK link)

I had never heard of Christopher Castellani, and I’m pretty sure I would not have come across ‘Leading men’, left to my own devices. But it was this month’s read for our local book club, so I downloaded it for my Kindle. The reviews on Amazon were mostly very positive, so I quite looked forward to reading it - and that despite the fact the the blurb calls it ‘heart-breaking’.

It didn’t break my heart. I didn’t think it wonderful. I struggled even to finish it - I felt no eagerness to keep reading at any point. In fact I had only reached 96% on my Kindle before it was time to go to the book group. I said - and others agreed - that I found it mostly rather tedious and long-winded, with flat characters. There are also confusing time changes, as the story (I hesitate to call it a plot) moves forwards and backwards, sometimes in the course of a single section.

The book revolves around the promiscuous, selfish and indulgent lifestyles of a group of people, mostly gay men, in the 1950s. There’s a party in Portofino where two couples (all men) and a mother-daughter pair meet up and become friendly. One couple, Tennessee and Frank, take the daughter, Anja, somewhat under their wing. They separate her from her rather clingy and dislikeable mother whose name I have already forgotten.

Then there’s some action set at the end of the 20th century when Anja is a late middle-aged woman. Most of the rest of the cast have died by this stage, some of them quite young. She has been widowed and is still grieving. But we never meet her husband, who, we learn, was an academic who liked to debate with her. She has in a drawer a play which has been sent to her which she thinks is dreadful. But two young men persuade her not just to let them read it, but to allow a production of it.

That’s really all the story. I don’t think there’s anything else of significance, other than a couple of the characters dying. One is in dubious circumstances. The other is more drawn out, in a hospital bed. We see him several times over the course of the book, and right at the end, waiting for someone he loves.

The prose is long-winded, the characters two-dimensional and entirely forgettable. Their lifestyles are sordid. Thankfully the author doesn’t go into too much detail, but the implications are there. Other than Frank, who is quite tender-hearted and caring, they all seem cold, self-centered, and caricatured. Which is odd, because many of them were actually real people.

On the plus side, some of the scenery writing is quite poetic, although I didn’t linger over any of it, and sometimes skimmed, hoping I would find some more story. Then there’s one scene that all of us at the book group thought was dramatic and well-written. Unfortunately it was an extremely unpleasant and violent scene, not something I wanted to remain in my memory. Other than that - well, one of the characters in the book sums it up (when talking about someone else’s book) :

"I kept waiting to feel something," Trevor says. "For the first few pages, I almost did, but then, as it went on and on, I just wanted the guy to shut up, and die already. The whole thing was so self-indulgent."

I have already forgotten who Trevor is. The cast of this book is huge, and while one or two names were familiar to me - Tennessee Williams, for instance, and Truman Capote - I know nothing of their writing. Nor, having read the book, do I wish to.

I understand, from the notes at the end, and also from Wikipedia that the author did a lot of research into the characters of Williams and his lover for fifteen years, Frank Merlo. He also invented some characters, including Anja and her mother. Frank is really the only likeable person in the book, and even he descends into drugs, smoking and licentiousness. I couldn’t relate to anyone, and I really didn’t care what happened.

Only one person in the book group had actually finished the book, the others had given up by about half-way through. It’s rare that we all agree on what we think of a book. Usually there are a mixture of likes and dislikes. But we all thought it tedious, long-winded, and somewhat depressing.

However, while I would not personally recommend this to anyone, it's evident that many people loved this book, based on the awards and rave reviews it’s had. So don’t necessarily trust my opinion. You might enjoy it from the start. But if you begin this book, and are finding it dull after the first twenty or thirty pages, then it’s probably worth giving up at that point. It’s not a story that improves part-way through.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews