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Book Review: Details of Jeremy Stretton
Sep. 21st, 2023 09:43 amAfter my Audrey Erskine Lindop haul at John K. King Books, I decided to start with her 1955 release Details of Jeremy Stretton, the one with the canon gay.
This book! Is so much! In every possible way! It’s well-written, and truly quite stressful to read, and also extremely 1955 in all its attitudes. As it’s quite hard to find I’m going to spoil it with gay abandon, so please avert your eyes if you don’t wish to be spoiled.
( Spoilers for everything and also content warnings for, like, the 1950s? Also suicide, child molestation, etc. etc. this book is a lot )
“Is it a good book?” you ask. Reader, that depends what you mean. Is it readable, is it engrossing, does Audrey Erskine Lindop grow strong on the tears of her readers? Yes. Is it a fascinating evocation of its period, from which you will learn many interesting things about 1950s attitudes toward gender and sexuality? Also yes.
Does it contain opinions that you, a reader in the year of our lord 2023, will agree with? Absolutely not. I feel confident that no matter what your opinions are, they do not approximate the 1950s psychologist pretzel of “Well homosexuality is caused by early childhood complexes, so it’s not bad exactly. In fact if someone is happy with their homosexuality then the correct psychological stance is to leave them alone. But if they aren’t, you should definitely try to lead them down the path to true fulfillment through heterosexual marriage and babies!”
This book! Is so much! In every possible way! It’s well-written, and truly quite stressful to read, and also extremely 1955 in all its attitudes. As it’s quite hard to find I’m going to spoil it with gay abandon, so please avert your eyes if you don’t wish to be spoiled.
( Spoilers for everything and also content warnings for, like, the 1950s? Also suicide, child molestation, etc. etc. this book is a lot )
“Is it a good book?” you ask. Reader, that depends what you mean. Is it readable, is it engrossing, does Audrey Erskine Lindop grow strong on the tears of her readers? Yes. Is it a fascinating evocation of its period, from which you will learn many interesting things about 1950s attitudes toward gender and sexuality? Also yes.
Does it contain opinions that you, a reader in the year of our lord 2023, will agree with? Absolutely not. I feel confident that no matter what your opinions are, they do not approximate the 1950s psychologist pretzel of “Well homosexuality is caused by early childhood complexes, so it’s not bad exactly. In fact if someone is happy with their homosexuality then the correct psychological stance is to leave them alone. But if they aren’t, you should definitely try to lead them down the path to true fulfillment through heterosexual marriage and babies!”
