The Adversary
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2.6 • 17 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
‘I was an agent of Dan, a captive of his, really. I went where he wanted me, and did as he wanted, and for a long time, in this way, I was happy.’
It’s been a long winter in a creaky house in Brunswick, where a young man has devoted himself to recreational showers, staring at his phone, and speculating on the activities of his best friend and housemate, Dan. But now summer is coming, and Dan has found a boyfriend and a job, so the young man is being pushed out into the world, in search of friendship and love.
The Adversary is a sticky summer novel about young people exploring their sexuality and their sociability, where everything smells like sunscreen and tastes like beer, but affections and alliances have consequences. It asks what kinds of stories are possible – or desirable – for which kinds of friendships, and what happens when you follow those stories to their natural conclusions.
Customer Reviews
Spare me
Author
Not the Ronnie Scott of London jazz club fame, rather the Melbourne based penner of essays and criticism for newspapers, websites and magazines, and Lecturer at RMIT. In 2007 he founded The Lifted Brow, an independent literary magazine, to which I once subscribed briefly. This is his first novel.
Precis
Gay male humanities graduate with a touch of agoraphobia shares a home in the uber trendy inner northern suburbs of Melbourne. His housemate has a romance on the go and our boy is at a loose end over summer. There follows an LGBT version of chicklit where not a lot happens.
Writing
I loved the spareness of the prose (for which an extra star), the content not so much.
Bottom line
As an old, straight male who didn't study humanities, has never lived in Melbourne, and who failed to recognise the charm of Brunswick each time he visited the southern capital, this book wasn't for me.