Mulligans, A Novel, is probably an example of when an adaptation from a movie script is better than the movie. And since the movie was good, you have an idea of how good the book is.

I liked Mulligans, the movie, but I felt real sorry for Chase, the young gay man who falls in love for his best friend's father and who, at the end of the movie, walks away from the happiness he found with that family. It was sad, even if probably true, my romantic heart was really weeping for that little boy, since the movie didn't give him any hope. In the book there is an important difference that is completely overlooked in the movie. From this moment on I will talk of the novel, not of the movie, and my remarks on the characters are with that in mind; if you like the story, mind that it's different from the movie, and that difference is centred around Chase's experience, past, present and future.

Chase is spending the summer in the lake house of his best friend and roommate Tyler. While Tyler treats Chase has his best friend and maybe as his little brother, Chase doesn't consider himself at the same level as Tyler; it's not only a financial issue, even if it can't be hide that Tyler has another and higher money availability than Chase; it's also the way Tyler approaches life: he is sure, confident and full frontal, it will probably arrive the time when Tyler will realize that life is not that easy, but not yet. Chase instead has already faced that moment; he knows that if he wants to succeed in life he has to do that all by himself, and to add question to question, he is also wondering on his sexuality. Better Chase deep inside knows that he is gay, but he is not confident, and so he has never had the courage to face that notion with himself, and consequently, with the outside world. Chase is in the closet not since he wants to hide, but since he has not the courage to open the doors of that closet. And from inside the closet, he admires Tyler, since he sees in him all that courage that he has not. The important distinction with the movie, is that, from Chase's point of view, before joining Tyler's family to the summer house, he was not hiding anything to his best friend, since he still hadn't admitted it with himself.

At the summer house, to Chase's admiration for his best friend Tyler's attitude towards life, it is now also added a little envy for his family; Chase has no real family, his dad is long time dead, and his mother is inexistent. Basically Chase is alone, and when he meets Tyler's family, mother, father and little sister, they all, as a whole, represent the forbidden fruit. True, he can also recognize that he is attracted by Tyler's father, from an aesthetical point of view, but at the same way he is attracted by Tyler: Chase has no problem to admit that he likes his best friend, and now his best friend's father, in a sexual way, but there is no way that he can consider something with them. It's far from his mind. And so, at first, if he has the idea to "steal" something from Tyler, is not a specifically desire for a man, Nathan, Tyler's father, but more for the whole family, he wants for himself the happiness he sees.

From a sexual point of view, he is instead interested in Jarod, the African American boy who is Tyler's childhood friend. And this is another point where the novel totally diverges from the movie: there is not hint of sexual relationship between Chase and Jarod in the movie, Jarod is supportive to Chase only as a friend. Instead in the novel, Jarod is a main character, since it's due to him that Chase starts to question his own sexuality and desire, and his need to find a way out of the closet. Chase and Jarod have a budding relationship whose sudden abortion cause Chase to question what he wants in life. It forces also Chase to find the courage to come out, with Tyler, with Tyler's family, with the world. As a chain reaction, Nathan, Tyler's father, who for all his life has chosen the easy path to stay inside that closed, is suddenly faced with an alternative: he can take the same path as Chase. In a way, Nathan is taken advantage of Chase, like two men in a snowstorm, Nathan is following Chase's steps on the snow, and the harder job is the one that is making Chase. On this perspective, is right that neither Nathan or Stacey blame Chase for the breaking of their fake marriage happiness, no one forced Nathan to follow Chase's steps. If in the movie, the romantic hearts are disappointed by the failure of Chase and Nathan's love story, reading the book you realize that from the beginning it wasn't a love story; truth be told, if there is a real love story in the novel, it's the one between Chase and Jarod, and from this point of view, the novel gives more hope to Chase than the movie.

All in all this is probably the first time where a novel from a movie is better than the movie, and I highly recommend to whom liked the movie, but not as it ended, to read the novel, they will be not disappointed this time.

Amazon: Mulligans

Reading List:

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Cover Art (photography) by Matthew Mew

It's always an hard task to write a good novel from a very good movie, and I think that most of the time you like one of them, the novel or the movie, but not both. So I was hesitant to read "Boy Culture" since I think the movie is one of the most wonderful gay romance movie out there. But the book is even better! Maybe since it's not an adaptation, but it was a novel way before it was made into a movie?

I think that the novel is better since the main hero, "X", has an innocence that was lost in the movie; the movie was also more "Hollywood" style, in the break and following declaration of forever love (wonderful scene with the two actors making out on the stairs), that X and Andrew actually don't have: their love story is more intimate, and it evolves nicely, there is no dramatic event that pushes X to take his decision to retire from being an hustler, he does it since he loves Andrew and I prefer this reason, for me it's a real proof that his love his sincere, he doesn't change who he is to "please" Andrew, he changes since he wants to be a better man "for" Andrew.

A thing I didn't like of the book is the output of X's relationship with Gregory, the octogenarian trick who tells X stories, and who helps him to realize he is in love with Andrew. Like in the movie, Gregory lies to X, but in the novel X is not able to forgive him... I feel sad for Gregory, I think it's not his fault if he was like that, it was a generation gap. But probably X has to break with Gregory since of all his tricks, he is the only one with whom X really betrays Andrew.

For being an hustler, X has a strange concept of betrayal and fidelity, something I'm not sure it came out from the movie. X's first love was a cousin of him, the boy who took his virginity when he was 13 years old and who broke his heart soon after. From this very bad first experience X learned two things: to associate true love with being a bottom, it's like you give yourself totally to another person, it's a so intimate act that it's scaring, and second that having sex without love is simple and better if done with an older man, less chance to fall in love. So X as an hustler tops only, and in a way, he remains pure and innocent, he is not selling love, he is selling something (being a bottom) that he will not share with his real lover, so it's not important. When X starts to think that it would be nice to have a boyfriend, to find Mr Right, he falls for his roommate Andrew, a man that in the book is stronger than X, both in body that in morality. It's so tender to hear X's thoughts when he said that he is no longer a virgin, he did everything with his body, but he is still virgin in one thing, no one ever really loved him. Only for this thoughts I think he is a lot stronger than what he thinks.
 
The book closes in a nice way, in a way that makes me think if there is not something of the author himself in X... All in all, thinking that this is a novel published in the '90, I'm surprise of how much a romance it's (there is even a reference to Fabio, the romance cover model...): I'm used to find gay romance good like this one now, but I didn't expect it in this one.

Amazon: Boy Culture: A Novel

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art (photography) by Brian

Look, look what I found: Alyson Books announced the release in March 2010 of Shelter: A Novel, by Calen McCarthy, based on the screenplay by Jonah Markowitz.

Amazon: Shelter: A Novel

Winner of the GLAAD Award as Outstanding Film—Limited Release, the acclaimed motion picture Shelter is now adapted as a novel tie-in to the film

Shelter centers on a young man, Zach, in San Pedro, California, who gives up on his dream of art school in order to provide for his family, consisting of his aging father and his young nephew Cody, whose mother Jeanne has decided her priorities lie elsewhere. When his best friend's brother Shaun returns to town, Zach finds in him a friend and confidante. As Zach becomes increasingly attracted to Shaun, their casual surfing relationship turns into much more, setting off a chain of events forcing Zach to choose between continuing to put others first or fighting for what he wants for himself.

Obviously the book is already in my Wish List and I just received my copy of Mulligans, adaptation from the movie by the same title and author Charlie David, who is also main actor in the movie.

And it's also a nice add to my Listmania From Gay Movie to Gay Novel (and viceversa). If you have other title I forgot to add, please tell me.

Latter Days is basically the screenplay of the movie by the same title, directed by C. Jay Cox, who also wrote it. T. Fabris adapted the screenplay into a novels: usually the process is not simple, and not always the result is good. I loved the movie and so I tried to read the novel without playing too much the scenes in my mind as I saw them in the movie. I tried to understand if the book was good despite the movie, if the story could appeal someone that maybe hasn't seen the movie and pick up the book. I think it's good, the story is basically good and it's a nice romance. It's not an overtly erotic book, it's almost a sweet romance.

Christian is a very handsome gay guy... he is young, probably barely 20 years old, and he is doing nothing much than enjoy his life. I have the feeling that Christian has not money trouble, he has not a supporting family from a loving point of view, but I believe that he knows where to find an help if he needs it. He supports himself working as a waiter in an upperclass restaurant, owned by a former movie star, and his life style is up to his work. in the end, Christian is living in a perennial night party, changing partner every night and enjoying every minute of it.

Then in the apartment near him moves a Mormon congregation, 4 young guys. One of them is Aaron, All American good boy type of guy but with a secret... he enjoys life! He has a deep faith but he doesn't believe that loving God means judging other people, he actually likes his proselytism mission since he allows him to meet new people, but he would like to also listen to other people not only to tell them "their" story. Aaron also loves the old black and white movies and the cute boys... yes, Aaron is gay, even if he has never had the chance to "test" his preferences. And when he is thrown in the middle of a gay friendly neighborhood, he has many of them, the nearer of which represented by Christian.

Scorned when he brought the first friendly neighborly gift, Christian bets with his friends that he will seduce one of the young mormon boys, and obviously Aaron is the most likely candidate, since not only he is probably willing, but also since he is the only who talks with Christian. And here he proves how different he is from all the other guys Christian met, Aaron actually talks with him, he sees something other in Christian than a pretty boy and a possible f*ck (one of Christian's friend tells him, you don't need to be deep, you are pretty! to give you an example of how was Christian's life before Aaron). The bet is soon forgotten and Christian starts to wonder if his life has a meaning, when, on the other side, Aaron start to question his faith, or better, the interpretation of faith that was taught to him.

Actually of the two men, Christian is the one that has more chance to come out from the page of the book. I have the strong feeling to have listened to Christian's mind, to his reason, and instead Aaron was a little more undertone. Maybe it's right like that, it's in their character, Christian is the butterfly and instead Aaron is the thinker; it's Christian's character that has to develop, Aaron is almost already at the end of his discovery path. And I found quite interesting that Christian did a sprint to reach Aaron in that journey and in the end, it was him that reach the finishing line as first, while Aaron practically withdraw from the "competition".

When I said that this is almost a sweet romance, I was referring to the fact that the sex is not the main purpose of the story. Christian lets aside his bet to really try to conquer Aaron, and they are basically the main characters of the story, but there are also a good parade of supporting characters and also a fairy godmother in the guise of Lila, the restaurant owner.

Amazon: Latter Days: A Novel

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle