Location: United States
Member Since:
Nov. 15, 2014
tcom8541
tcom8541's favorite authors on Smashwords
Smashwords book reviews by tcom8541
-
Christmas At Leo's - Memoirs Of A Houseboy
on Nov. 16, 2014
I thank Gilli for continuing this autobiog. I've enjoyed the diary aspects as well as the extensive stories of significant events. I've laughed out loud more than once. However, reading this installment makes my heart hurt. I'm American, so Dick's remark in chapter 14 (no spoilers, you'll know the one I mean when you read the book) was horrifying. Gilli's partners seem so dismissive of his right to be a person different from them. They may do well in the protective part, but it is described as a duty, not out of love and cherishing. But they don't seem to have any concept of what makes self esteem in others, and that the world looks different to people of different backgrounds. They really don't seem to know him or want to discover him as a lover would, they seem to just intimidate him and IMHO take advantage of him. I don't mean the bdsm or ménage aspects, but really "seeing" him as a lover would. True he is free to leave, but I sense he'll continue to stay the course, hoping for the "elderly caravanners" to love him one day as he does them. In the first chapter (out for a long time so not a spoiler), where Gilli expresses a fleeting desire for a boyfriend his age, to hold hands and dance with), makes me wish I could package up a box of self respect to send him. And maybe a therapist or couples counselor and a boyfriend who would love and cherish him. I hope the daddies read all his writings one day, and at least acknowledge the guy can write extremely well. I wish there was someone to properly value him. And that he would better value himself. No wonder this installment took so long to finish, it's full of such pain. Of course this book is six years ago, I hope things have improved by now, and hope he will eventually write "Revelations". When Gilli's mom died, I hope the daddies went to the funeral with him, to support him instead of just throwing money into flowers. Maybe one day Gilli will share the story of how he came to join the ménage. The Christmas at Leo's seems to be laying the groundwork for that story by showing how he became the boy who showed up at the quasi-mansion in 2004. So far it seems the couple (and face it, this is not a trio but a couple plus one) do not really know all of that story, which is the ultimate source of Gilli's highly charged emotional state at Christmas. They care enough (for their own comfort) to ask him what's wrong, but again IMHO, why should he tell them? They would marginalize and dismiss his life experience as they did in an earlier installment when Gilli tried to explain why going to his pal's wedding as a teetotaler would be so difficult. And it all relates back to Dick's horrifying (to me--there's a reason we had a revolution) and ugly comments to Gilli in chapter 14. The series has been witty, sometimes hilarious, sexy, painfully poignant, and above all, courageous. I highly recommend it.