Gordon Merrick is the dirty, fetishg loving, Jackie Collins cousin to the more highbrow works of Armistead Maupin. Which means it is melodramatic, filled with sex and two impossibly good looking leads.I loved it.Honestly though--the works of Merrick live in a strange twilight world of fiction--one of the first series about gay men, a successful series and written by a straight man. This is second in the Peter and Charlie series started in "The Lord Wont Mind" and follows the two lovers through Greece and the Mediterranean in the 1950s. While there is plenty to wince at with some odd dialouge, groan inducing interalized homophobia within the characters and a sly and slight bit of sexism at play--despite all this I found myself in love with and rooting for the books young-ish lovers and there attempts at happiness.I think the other reason I loved this book is quite simply this--there is not much fun fiction out there for a gay audience and something like this that is parts fun, lux and sexy is worth more than it's weight in gold.
