25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning first novel, April 6, 2009
Every once in a while I'll read a book that will literally sweep me off into another world and hold me there, in a magical trance. WHISTLING IN THE DARK is one of those novels, and while reading it, I began to feel that I had no business being a writer as nothing I write will ever compare.
Tamara Allen uses a very light touch to show the New York City of 1919 as she recreates a post-war Mecca vividly describing the birth of prohibition, jazz, and radio stations; underground homosexual parties; automats; shady loan sharks; and two psychologically-damaged soldiers, Jack and Sutton, who find salvation in one another. The very long novel has a feel of Americana, but without the overly cheery optimism. What is so fascinating to observe, is how these two characters warm up to each other. The pace is deliciously slow and as they get to know each other, it never once feels staged, nor does the reader feel telegraphed ahead where there relationship is headed. It took great restraint to allow these characters to develop separately before they finally came together romantically. I shan't spoil you by telling you how it happens, but the circumstances that lead up to their first kiss, is one of the most unique and imaginative plot twists I've ever encountered.
Though the novel certainly deals with some dark and serious issues, the overall tone is buoyant and charming and I had a silly grin on my face though most of it. The myriad of supporting characters are well-drawn and there was the full range of good to bad. The only thing I will say that is even remotely negative is that I counted five straight characters that knew about the love affair between Jack and Sutton and were completely supportive of it. It's possible. Not likely, but possible. Also, this book has got to hold the record for the number of times the word "sandwich" is used. That's not a complaint, just a playful observation. There were so many sandwiches consumed in this book, I felt positively stuffed.
WHISTLING IN THE DARK is a truly remarkable first novel and a beautiful and poignant romance that deserves to be read and savored by anyone who appreciates good gay fiction. So please read it, then tell all of your friends to read it too.
Mark R. Probst
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One hell of a lovely book, July 8, 2009
Whistling in the Dark is one hell of a lovely book. Possibly one of the best m/m books I've ever read. Definitely the sweetest, most engaging romance I've ever read.
I don't even like historical m/m novels, because they're usually set when homosexuality was a crime punishable with severe penalties. Since the story opens with Sutton being picked up (wrongly) for public indecency and forced to spend the night in a police cell, it's clear the author doesn't intend to gloss over real world consequences. But even so, I loved this story and am torn between shouting about it from the virtual rooftops and getting you all to buy it, and sitting down and reading it all over again, even though I really don't have time for that right now.
Let me tell you about the bad points of this novel.
...
Right, now let me tell you about the good points. In short, everything.
The writing is engaging, well-edited and literate. The author gives us a lovely feel for New York a few months before the start of Prohibition, with so many young men back from the War to End all Wars, and a society still terrified by the ongoing flu pandemic which took millions of lives. Yet she does so lightly and deftly, so we never feel we're being subjected to a history lesson, but rather a peek into the real lives of real people. She skilfully gives us a wealth of period detail, along with dialogue that is both natural and authentic. Even without the characters and the plot, this novel would stand out for the handling of its setting.
But the characters and the plot are also masterly. We are introduced to Sutton and Jack, so very different in background and approach, but both broken and grieving after their war experiences (and for Jack, losing his parents in the flu epidemic as he was on his way home from France.) Both are delightful. Jack is cocky and brash, broke, charming, queer - and suffering shell-shock, with crippling insomnia and nightmares. Sutton, one of nature's true gentlemen, his dreams of a musical career dashed by injury and shame, emerges from his privileged cocoon and the rejection he faced when his sexual proclivities were discovered, and finds his true place in the precarious yet engaging world of Jack's emporium and his fledgling radio shows. He too has scars from the war, more than he even realises. It's a reminder of what terrible things we do to young men when we send them abroad to kill and see others killed.
The story's a bit country mouse and city mouse, for sure, but it's not belaboured, and the growth happens for both of them, as does the healing. This is a story about friendship, and love between friends, as much as that between lovers. The other characters shine with goodness and their own quirky natures - Harry, the emporium's manager, acting in loco parentis to the unstable and perpetually indebted Jack; Ox, their faithful and sweet-natured man of all work; Esther, the waitress who gives Sutton his first break, and comes to play an important role in their lives; Theo, the doyen of the gay scene, falling in and out of love with ease, but with always with a good heart; Gert, the gangster's sister with more than enough charm to make her way without him; and even Woodrow, the five-foot long crocodile who lives in the yard and makes importunate and ill-timed appearances in the store, but whom no one can bear to get rid of. They're all part of a vividly drawn, tightly woven web of relationships which sustain and enrich those within them. The employees and friends of the emporium intersect with the criminal underclass, and the secret but vibrant world of gay New Yorkers, skating under the law's attention and looking for love wherever they can and with whoever will have them. An unfamiliar world comes alive, where the characters aren't actors in a movie set, but living, breathing humans we come to care about, and remember.
The plot is on one hand a straightforward tale of a young man finding fame and love, and on the other, a story about loss, sorrow and dealing with the horrors of war. True love doesn't fix everything, and Jack and Sutton have to deal with the horrors in their past before they can hope to build a life for themselves and with each other. It sounds trite, writing it out like that, but I swear, this is not a trite book, or a simple romance. There's so many layers here, so many subtle themes and resonances. I need to read it a few more times to extract them fully.
The pace is sprightly, and the twisting and turning plot kept my interest all the way through. The dialogue is realistic, often funny, and never sappy. No mushy declarations here, or weeping lovers. Just manly men with fragile souls and brave hearts, women who are friends and sisters and as sympathetically drawn as our heroes, and villains who are all too believable in their petty greed and jealousy.
This is the kind of novel I keep looking for, and so rarely find. It's a love story without sap or even overt sexual content, while still keeping the sexual tension high. It expects the reader to be intelligent and never talks down to them, has a tight plot and characters that you could imagine sitting down and sharing a Manhattan with. There's redemption and tension and plenty of humour to leaven it with.
Whistling in the Dark is a real, honest to goodness keeper. Highly and unreservedly recommended.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Head and shoulders above the typical M/M romance novel, August 17, 2009
Absolutely delightful! WHISTLING IN THE DARK is romantic, exciting and funny with just a soupçon of sexiness (but LOTS of love and friendship).
Somehow the author perfectly captured the mood of the roaring twenties and what I imagine it might have been like to be gay men in the big city during those post-WW1 days. Yes, that life (even for heroic returned veterans who happened to be gay) could be harrowing but there had to have been joys and validations as well - validations that we've built upon as the decades have gone by.
The excitement of the early, amateur-driven days of radio only adds to the fun herein and makes for a perfect framework for the love story that unfolds so naturally in these pages.
With so much of what passes on Amazon for gay male romance being - in actuality - cliché-ridden Craigslistian porn, it was truly a pleasant and welcome surprise to come across this novel. I treasure it.
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