Shameless [Paperback]

Paul Burston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

Martin is kind, decent, not bad on the eyes... and look where that's got him. His boyfriend of four years has run off with a male prostitute, and his friends John and Caroline both have enough excess baggage to fill a Louis Vuitton window display. What's a nice gay man to do? With no one to turn to, Martin decides to relive the wild youth he never had and, at the ripe old age of 32, jumps head-first into hedonism. But soon the nights of drugs, muscle-hard bodies, and even harder music take their toll, and Martin, John, and Caroline find that as fun as being absolutely shameless is (and girl, can it be fun!), it also has a price, one which they may not ultimately be able to pay.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British author Burston's spritely, feisty debut follows a formerly decorous gay man's indoctrination into a free-spirited lifestyle of nightclubs, gym workouts, casual sex and recreational drugs. "Fairly handsome" Martin comes home one day to discover that his boyfriend of four years has left him for a "rent boy," so he throws his quiet routine out the window and joins good friend John, a flight attendant, on an endless tour of London's gay nightlife. Meanwhile, Martin's other good friend, hip business professional Caroline, finds herself at the mercy of both a cocaine habit and some dark suspicions that her metrosexual boyfriend, Graham, is actually gay. While Martin and John party excessively, things go from bad to worse for Caroline, whose personal paranoia forces her to mistakenly "out" Graham at a friendly gathering. Then she's caught sniffing drugs at work—and then there's a case of pubic lice. As Martin bulks up at the gym, John starts cooking his own drugs and has a dancing "Britney moment," all while obsessing over his latest conquest: Latin sex-god Fernando. Burston is wise to ground his story on appealingly befuddled Caroline, even though she and everyone else is in a state of drug-induced obliviousness (a scene depicting Martin's father popping Ecstasy and dancing shirtless during Gay Pride makes even the reader wince). The perfect-bodied vanity and dizzyingly juvenile perspective eventually become tiresome, but Martin, Caroline and company, snorting their way through the London club scene, make for a brisk beach read.
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From Booklist

Who says life as a gay man is no fun? Martin is a good-looking, nice guy--perhaps a little out of shape, but in a solid relationship and happy. But when his boyfriend of four years runs off with a male prostitute, he is thrown for a loop. At age 32, he decides to take on the London club scene in a way he never had before. He joins a gym, spends his nights with his ragtag group of friends at the clubs, and dives head first into sex, music, and drugs. His best friend, Carolyn, meanwhile, is having her own problems--her boyfriend is too good to be true, and when she accuses him of being gay, he leaves her and sends her into her own world of drugs and despair. Good times and hedonism can leave you feeling empty, and after months of one-night stands, hard drug use, and forgotten evenings, Martin's newly discovered lifestyle comes to a dramatic end. Everything works out in the end of this fun romp of a first novel. Michael Spinella
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044669133X
• ISBN-13: 978-0446691338
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,425,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Left not caring, October 5, 2004

By 

Brian C (San Jose, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shameless (Paperback)

I found this book somewhat difficult to read. Many books you just want to keep reading and not put down. Not this one. It was okay. At the end of the book I found myself not really caring what happened to the characters. The main story line was diluted with the presence of two sub-plots. The three plot lines intersected from time to time. In the end I think that the lack of focus on the main story really made for poor story telling. The reolution at the end really left you wanting too. It was all very Hollywood. The basic plot is very simple. Guy's boyfriend dumps him. Guy falls into lifestyle of sex, drugs, and clubbing. Guy desperately looks for someone to love. And, big surprise, guy finds him in the end. And, they all live happily ever after. Well, the last part is left up to you imagination, since the author doesn't telly you. You are left really wondering what happens, but then again it does leave room for a sequel.

There is a review on the book that says that it's like "Queer as Folk," but this book seems to have no heart. Although the book has a character similar to Brian Kinney, Brian has some redeeming qualities, but the character in the book had none.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rather Humdrum to say the least !, June 21, 2006

By 

Guy V. De Rosa "Divalover" (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shameless (Paperback)

This wasn't a book that was exactly a page turner. The characters of Martin, John and Caroline live rather humdrum lives, obvious as to why they have to take so many drugs. Some funny situations, especially the one where Martin snorts his roomates toenail filings thinking that it is cocaine. Overall, not a book I would recommend very highly. Haven't read any other works by Burston and don't know if I will in the future. He is a good writer, however this story just didn't do it for me.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but what's the point?, June 2, 2005

By 

JustinCS (Jacksonville, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shameless (Paperback)

This book was mildly entertaining, but overall it is something I could have easily done without. That's not to say it's bad. It is written well enough, you get to know the characters adequately and the story is pretty interesting along the way, but by the end it's sort of like peering into the lives of a few random Londoners for a period of time. At most this book will make you want to start up a drug habit (with the exception of one non-fatal OD, this book paints a rather flattering picture of drug use, one that is at least more accurate than what you learn in DARE), and I found most of the humor revolved around that. This isn't a book to avoid, but perhaps one I wouldn't put at the top of your list either.