Loving Monsters [Hardcover]

James Hamilton-Paterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2002

'I'm embarrassed to say this, James,' he murmured, 'but you're probably going to write my life. I know how presumptuous it sounds - and vain, and so on - but I really do think that's what you will end up doing. I've had rather an exotic life, actually, and I don't believe you'll be bored.' A chance encounter in a local store leads a writer to undertake to record the life of his neighbour, the enigmatic Raymond Jemingham Jebb; 'Jayjay' to his friends, self-styled imposter and lover. From the terrace of his Tuscan villa Jayjay offers him a biographer's dream: a no-holds barred account of a life lived in pursuit of the thrill of endless possibility. Jayjay recounts in tantalizing detail his journey from the foggy, gas-lit streets of southeast London to life in colonial Egypt. Successive exploits lead him back from the Suez of the 1930s, with its flop houses, shady backstreet cafes and burgeoning trade in pornographic images, to Alexandria in the heady months leading to the outbreak of the Second World War. As the months go by and their relationship evolves, the writer comes to question Jayjay's seeming candour and his own role as interpreter and evaluator of another man's life. Finally, as the layers of his constructed identity are uncovered, Jayjay comes to reveal the true nature of his love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A British biographer living in Tuscany takes on an unusual subject in Hamilton-Paterson's latest, set primarily in Egypt before WWII. Raymond Jerningham Jebb, known as JayJay to his friends, is the dying elderly man who talks James, the somewhat reluctant, semi-anonymous narrator, into writing his life story, promising that it will be "peculiar, exotic, erotic..." JayJay is raised in a middle-class, somewhat repressive British household, but when he goes to Egypt in 1936 to take a clerical job, he finds his true destiny among the shadowy figures of Suez and Cairo as a purveyor of pornography who occasionally smuggles drugs. Despite his dubious occupation, JayJay proves to be an intelligent, eloquent and rather mysterious subject who moves in interesting circles as he engages in a variety of bisexual affairs. When the project stalls, James takes a brief hiatus to pursue another literary endeavor in the Far East, but when he returns JayJay surprises him by revealing the story of the love of his life, a British schoolboy whom he never approached or pursued (shades of A.E. Housman). The novel closes on a flat note, with JayJay describing his attachment to an Italian family during the war years that led to his settling in Tuscany. A prolific author of novels (the Whitbread Prize-winner Gerontius) and nonfiction (Playing with Water), Hamilton-Paterson is an accomplished writer whose prose is always thoughtful as he reveals JayJay's past while exploring his relationship with James. But the plot fails to deliver the drama hinted at in the early pages, and although the denouement is rich with poignant insights, the narrative remains essentially an interesting character study in a rarely explored setting. (Jan.)biographical element. Occasional photographs in the text as in W.G. Sebald's works tease the reader, as does Hamilton-Paterson's casual statement in the acknowledgments: "Now, since Jayjay's death..."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Is a man like an onion, self-constructed, layer upon layer, according to life's circumstances, disappointments, and traumas? A serendipitous meeting at a grocer's in Tuscany provides a writer with an introduction to Jerningham Jebb, or "Jayjay," and an invitation to tea at Il Ghibli, Jebb's villa among the olive terraces. A quick glance around reveals a personal note from Margaret Thatcher and a signed photo of Henry Kissinger, which draw attention to Jayjay's claim to be an impostor whose life has been exotically worthy of a book by James, the narrator. Inevitably, the two men work together on the project, which spans from Jayjay's boyhood in gaslight-era London to colonial Egypt and commerce in the porn trade in Alexandria to the outbreak of World War II and beyond. As months pass and Jayjay's layers peel away to reveal another and yet another, the relationship between writer and subject deepens, but James' own ghosts and assumptions keep him from getting too close to Jayjay's secret. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Granta Books (February 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1862074259
• ISBN-13: 978-1862074255
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,687,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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