Sandel

Pedophile David Rogers goes over the top luring and grooming precocious 13 year old orphan Tony Sandel so he can molest him. In Rogers fantasy mind of course Sandel is an equal partner in the affair, because after all, a 13 year old orphan who will do anything for adult attention must be a super boy, better than his peers. Sandel's crazy aunt of course sees nothing wrong with an adult male engaging in sodomy with her 13 year old nephew. The novel is a work of art though and funny. The author has a sense of humor. There are a lot of surprises and plot twists awaiting the reader.

Though perhaps inevitable, I nonetheless found the ending disappointing. It was also abrupt.

Besides dealing with a subject which is, rightfully, anathema today (child sexual abuse), although it was apparently less controversial when the novel was first published in the sixties, SANDEL is not particularly well-written or portrayed. There are, to be fair, quite sonorous sections but there are also sections that are confusing from a point of view/perspective situation. The main character - a young boy at first so charming, open and expressive - devolves into pettiness and the plot tumbles with him; the behavior of both 13-year-old Tony and 19-year-old David, especially when the latter takes up his position as a teacher, is deplorable, regardless of which decade / era it portrays. "Ah - but it's just fiction, a cute love story, a reflection of more innocent times..." Not so. I am liberal, open-minded and gay, but still am be convinced that in the 20 and 21 centuries a decent novel must reflect at least a modicum of morality and realistic (not to say normative) behavior. Young love can indeed be sweet and, even if not sexually innocent, can perhaps be moving, and the first half of this book reads just so. But, although the love might be real, mutual and somewhat socially/ethically acceptable in its time and circumstance (the British prep school with all its covert sex and implied transgressions), when a young man takes up the mantle of a teacher and carries on so deplorably with the head boy, it is tough to defend or portray this in any tolerable manner. Stewart tries, but fails to do so. Much better for similar subject matter is Campbell's "Lord, Dismiss Us."

Such a treasure, this book, reading it slowly so not far enough into it to answer how narrated. But so far each detail rings true, often understated but redolent of the turbulence and uncertainties of growing up gay, spiked with the open, direct and spontaneous (I think) utterances of the younger boy, who, unencumbered by the trappings of early adulthood cuts to the essence of whatever's going on. Love it, love it!

A confusing jumbled mess with characters coming and going out of nowhere. Not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination, with no hook at all. At no point did the story “grab” me. I read the entire book hoping that I would be interested at some point, in vain. There was no narrative flow at ALL, just jumped from here to there without any solid consistency.

I liked the style in which it was written. Very romantic wording. However,....I found the progression to be dull and cold. Emotional portrayal was flat. The storyline has a little too much of a boy to man love interest. Kind of creeps me out a little.

It's good to see this fairly historic little book back in print. It's a sensitive subject these days and this book reveals the gulf between modern thoughts on this subject and 1960's thought. The book is not easy. There are many esoteric passages which I frequently needed to reread for meaning. In between however, his descriptions of the way that both Peter Greaves and Tony Sandel made David feel were vivid and convincing. This was a man writing out of personal experience; the book is clearly, at the very least, partly autobiographical. He is at his absolute best when joyfully describing the way the boys move and behave; when he leaves intellectual conjecture behind and deals with actual reality. It's amazing that this book was so well received back in 1968. The subject matter would have had the press howling with dismay were it to come out now. It shows how things have changed. One extreme to the other perhaps. Well worth reading.

Well written very enjoyable and insightful