The Gay Divorcee, by Paul Burston


Not my normal reading material, but I was selling books at a party where the author was speaking, and it seemed rude to read my own book, so I started on this. I was there for about two hours and finished the book with about half an hour to go, so it isn’t exactly a challenging read. Best described as gay chick lit, I guess, which is not a genre I know much about, so I have no idea if this is groundbreaking, or derivative, or what. I rather enjoyed it as a light read – the beer I was drinking may have helped – but it didn’t exactly feel deep, and I don’t know if it was accurate in its depiction of gay Soho life. It felt realistic enough, and the lead character was appealing, but some of the supporting cast were such bastards that it felt a little overblown. There’s a fairly pointless subplot about the identity of a bitchy blogger, which didn’t do much for me, but the main thrust of the book was enjoyable, which is all you can ask for, really. I’m not a big fan of modern settings in a beach read, which effectively is what this felt like, but overall I enjoyed it much more than I thought I was going to. The fact that I was cheering on the protagonist as he sorted out his life and ended up with the right man is a good sign, and I was surprised that I got as involved as I did. Not sure I’d be too bothered about reading more of this nature – fluffy chick lit, gay or otherwise, really isn’t too my taste – but a nice diversion.

I read this at the launch party, sitting on an uncomfortable shelf, at the end of May. Out now in paperback, ISBN: 1847442080.