David Parker's new start in LA isn't going entirely as he had hoped. London feels a million miles away, and even his loving marriage is beginning to look shaky. Drawn, through an alcoholic haze, into the orbit of Astrid and her friends, he spends a night on Malibu Beach that shocks him to the core. With the stakes suddenly raised, David must get his bearings: in love, in the city, and in a new century that seems to be imploding. Funny, deadly, and bristling with energy, this is the story of a man who loses life as he knows it—and sets out to find it again.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Very funny, sparky and stylish. You won't be putting this book down" —Independent on Sunday
"A unique, persuasive voice. His is a name to watch" —Time Out
"Scorching. Dark and sad, but equally smart and funny" —Elle
About the Author
Joe Treasure studied English at Oxford and went to Los Angeles on a Fulbright scholarship. He now divides his time between Santa Barbara and London and is working on his next novel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Briton in a Strange Land,
By
This review is from: Male Gaze (Hardcover)
I just finished reading "The Male Gaze" this morning.
As someone who's lived in Los Angeles for several years, and now resides in London, I was curious about what kind of "gaze" the author would cast upon that great gleaming town of make believe. Well, I was delighted. As a book, the turns and twists of the odyssey of Treasure's protagonist, David Parker, across Los Angeles were surprising and shocking and painful and hilarious. His "gaze" on LA is one that is distanced but never judgementally dismissive, something not easy to do about a place as deliciously "judgeable" as LA. My favourite observation: "This is where the road trip that is America's history hits the obstacle of water, and the urge to keep moving turns in on itself. I begin to understand this, as I hadn't understood it before. The is the place where the elements collide, where people come to be nurtured or transformed, where bodies must be worshipped or punished into new shapes. I begin to see the pattern underlying this stew of physical indulgence, and psychic exploration and vague cosmic yearning." It is such a wonderful observation about the city, and yet, David, being the narrator, sitting in some present somewhere, recounting the convolutions of this California adventure in the past tense, has just told us what will happen to him, in the next 223 pages. I was moved by the tenderness of David's flawed love for his wife Rebecca, and his reconciliation with her after another kind of voyeuristic gaze. I was also moved by David's fatherly feelings and instinctive protectiveness of a young, awkward, angry young man named Jake--all in spite of a self-professed British reserve and apparent ambivalence toward children. Anyway, it's a beautiful book, a wonderful picture of a messed up time (to borrow an oft abused term, it's "zeitgeisty"), and an amazing portrait of two delightful fish out of their Tufnell Park water.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Legal Alien: An Englishman in L.A.,
By
This review is from: Male Gaze (Hardcover)
The Male Gaze, by Joe Treasure, is an enchanting, powerful first novel. The story is told from the perspective of an Englishman, David, as he and his English wife, Rebecca, find their way through L.A. culture. I am a native of Los Angeles, now in my 50's, and found his characterization of the city and its culture(s) to be insightful, delightfully witty, and deeply thought provoking. This writer's voice tells the tale so well, with healthy doses of humility, sensitivity, openness, humor and intelligence. The plot unfolds with a sense of suspense that initially plays lightly, then grows in its depth and complexity. On the way, David encounters a range of unique characters and their subcultures that made me smile and reflect.
Mr. Treasure's canvas is much broader than time and place, however. I was truly touched by his humble love for his wife. He struggles with the change in geography and culture, and with the ambiguities within their relationship. He is, of course, much better at seeing the world via his own vantage point, his "gaze", than he is at viewing the world through her perspective. Uncertainty, and its attendant emotions, combine to produce a relationship struggling to grow. David and Rebecca's move to Los Angeles also produces encounters with L.A. life that are easily visualized and, at times, outrageously funny. On his adventures, he provides much food for thought. The points of view flow from the reflections of the characters as well as the storyteller; "news" as "entertainment", intuition and intellect, fidelity and temptation, mental health and "therapy", sex and honesty, faith and doubt, understanding and misunderstanding. I was touched by the few choice morsels offered on the subject of love, and marriage. I also found David's patient efforts to relate with a troubled teenage boy rang poignantly true. The novel also examines some contemporary political themes including our responses to 911; Islam; and national and global "Security". There is a character that I found intriguingly reminiscent of Christopher Hitchens, who switched dramatically from the political left to the neo-con right in the "post-911 era". I found the interlude with this historically interesting character delightful, and greatly enjoyed considering the conflicting perspectives his appearance in the novel provides. I found Joe Treasure's voice genuine, entertaining and stimulating. The use of Los Angeles as a vehicle to explore the tragic, yet comical world in which we live is apt. And the title of this novel, is a worthy topic for a book group discussion, if only to consider the many possible levels of meaning entailed in The Male Gaze. It is a very good read from an excellent new author.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Looking in LA-LA-Land,
By
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This review is from: The Male Gaze (Paperback)
The previous two reviews have done a great job of introducing readers to this book. I could write a paper on it, but here I'll only add a few grace notes, not necessarily a coherent review. I'm not exaggerating when I say I loved this book. I love the elegant yet never self-conscious turns of phrase used in vivid description, wit, or thought-provoking observation--sometimes all at once. I love the blending of the big and the small picture; world events juxtaposed and mingled with the personal. A somewhat boorish, drunk, British reporter whom the protagonist, David, disagrees with politically, nevertheless points to a major truth: "That stuff you read in the papers...would be your private life if it happened to you." And of course, some of it does happen to him.. or at least he witnesses it.
David is a thoroughly likable character; intelligent, articulate, insecure and as flawed as the rest of us. It's through his "gaze" that we experience the rest of the world, and it's one that is usually at a bit of a distance--or else so close much of the picture is "off-camera", as it were. (Cameras play a major role in this book, part of the reason for the title in reference to feminist film theory.) We know his wife, for instance, only as he sees her, so we can't independently assess her. He sees her through loving eyes, but he doesn't always recognize what he's looking at; doesn't always really see her. The rest of the characters are larger than life, yet utterly true. Anyone who has lived or spent any time in L.A. will recognize them. Treasure walks a fine line in writing over-the-top characters who nevertheless stop short of caricature. He has a wonderful sense of the absurdity and irony of real life, and can write scenes that are simultaneously or in rapid succession funny and touching, shocking and farcical, tragic and comical. (No reference to Pyramus and Thisbe intended.) While his characters are often risible, the author doesn't look down on them, but rather let's us laugh at their excesses and silliness, while appreciating their humanity. David, himself, is often very funny; sometimes on purpose or in reaction to an uncomfortable situation, but sometimes even when he's making an intelligent observation or a serious point. Arguing about the merits of war (or lack of same) in the wake of 9/11, he has the following exchange: "And I can't help thinking that we've got these armies in all their staggering wondrousness, and to a man with a mallet everything looks like...you know what I mean...a thing you hit with a mallet..." "But can't you see we're facing a unique threat?" "...a tent peg." "A tent peg? What the hell are you talking about?" It's only when he ends the argument and is ruminating on what is really behind the Englishman's point that it comes to him that a hammer is what he had been thinking of, and the realization is just as much of a non-sequitur as was the initial misstatement. I met Joe Treasure when I introduced myself after hearing an excerpt from this book before it was published. I later became friends with him and his wife. I mention this in the interest of full disclosure while noting that it was because I was so impressed, delighted and intrigued by his writing that I got to know the author, not the other way around.
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