One of my favorite Saki stories and if he hadn't covered, broadly, the same theme in 'The Unrest Cure' and had a niece with a similar taste for fantasOne of my favorite Saki stories and if he hadn't covered, broadly, the same theme in 'The Unrest Cure' and had a niece with a similar taste for fantasy in 'The Open Window' I probably would have shelved it as books-without-which-I-cannot-live (come to think of it the niece in both stories may be the same, they are both named Vera).
Instead of an 'unrest cure' Vera aids an aspiring politician (interesting how often politics crop up in Saki's stories - but then we forget in the post WWI nostalgia for the pre 1914 world what a political divisive time it was with Lloyd George's budget, House Of Lords reform, Home Rule for Ireland and the Suffragettes) in forgetting the strains of election campaign for one night. How she does it is the point of the story, at one point Vera informs the political candidate that a local reservoir has burst. He asks have many people drowned to which Vera responds:
"...Heaps I should say. The second house maid has already identified three bodies that have floated past the billiard-room window as being the young man she's engaged to. Either she's engaged to a large assortment of the population round here or else she's very careless at identification. Of course it may be the same body coming round again and again in a swirl; I hadn't thought of that."
Absolutely purest Saki - horribly cruel but horribly funny. You also realise that even the slightest rearrangement or change in words can strip that passage of its comic genius. Saki appears effortless but a great deal of work went into those sentences.
I bought this because it was inexpensive and I was curious about the author having read reviews of his 'Atom Heart John Beloved' which was a Rainbow AI bought this because it was inexpensive and I was curious about the author having read reviews of his 'Atom Heart John Beloved' which was a Rainbow Award winner. It is not a bad story, it is an insubstantial story. There is sex, but not much else, maybe most young men now, or maybe always, communicated on the barely literate level of 'Dude you wanna fuck?' but it is not what I remember. I don't say the erotic rituals of my youth were more successful only that they were drawn out. I wouldn't say that we were any less obsessed with the physical only that one of the wonders of, not sex, but sexual desire, was that it didn't only involve wrestlers with flat tummies and toned bodies.
This story, and probably most? all? of Mr. Hartwell's oeuvre is aimed at a YA audience of which I am far from belonging. It is erotic and honest about desire and what young men (well any men but I suspect Mr. Hartwell's stories only involve the young) do with their bodies and what they think about when they are not doing it. But men, even teenagers, as much as they enjoy, and often as they enjoy, le petit mort do not think only of it or its liquid consequences. From the reviews and comments on other of Mr. Hartwell's works it appears the mention and description of 'emissions' (as they were so quaintly referred to in my youth) is a regular feature of his stories and novels. This appears to surprise, disgust and even enrage some reviewers. I am just amazed that anyone finds it worth commenting on. For goodness sakes Aleister Crowley published 'White Stains' in 1898, Jean Cocteau's 'White Paper' was available in English since the 1950s and since the 1990s there have been many Japanese Anime 'boy love' stories in English - spunk, ejeculate, cum, jizz, splooge, love juice or whatever non de plume is used is nothing new.
There is almost something charming in the idea that the young can be so fastidious about the mention of something so commonplace.
As for this story - Micheal is enjoyable but about interesting as a bubble and has the depth of a pubble. Bubbles, and puddles, can be attractive, but they are neither substantial nor deep. Sex is only really interesting when it is about more then sex - I don't mean it has to a Romeo & Julio love story but even nameless, anonymous sex is about more then sex. I give this a very charitable three stars and have removed all of Mr. Hartwell's works from my TBR list....more
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