The Boy in the Rain -

Stephanie Cowell

Regal House Publishing

2023

310 páginas

10h 20m

ISBN-13: 9781646033492

It is 1903 in the English countryside when Robbie, a shy young art student, meets the twenty-nine-year-old Anton who is running from memories of his brutal childhood and failed marriage. Within months, they begin a love affair that will never let them go. Robbie grows into an accomplished portraitist in the vivid London art world with the help of Anton’s enchanting former wife, while Anton turns from his inherited wealth and connections to improve the conditions of the poor. But it is the Edwardian Era, and the law sentences homosexual men to prison with hard labor, following the tragic experience of Oscar Wilde. As Robbie and Anton’s commitment to each other grows, the world about them turns to a more dangerous place.

Resenhas (1)

3.5 (Bom)

Resenha em inglês, recebi uma cópia avançada do Netgalley!

I received this advanced copy from Netgalley and Publisher, so thank you!

The book is divided in five parts and spans for about ten years in which we follow mainly Robbie Stillman's career, love life and inner torments. First of all, there is a love story, but for me, it is not the central point, what I take from it is how institutionalized homophobia in society affected the queer people back then and their relationships.

To be honest, I struggled to pass through the first part, the writing was odd, there wasn't a natural flow between scenes, abrupted changes of themes ocurred. However, when I reached the second part, story started to develop nicely or perhaps I grew used to the writing style.

I liked the relationship between Robbie and Anton, there were low and high points just as in real life and I can't imagine how was to be queer with The Gross Indecency Law.

Otherwise, men spent their whole lives together quietly, happily. Always a little anxious, but sometimes almost forgetting. The brothers in the house with white curtains. The bachelors hoping to find the right woman.

One weird point for me is that Robbie always saw his paints as not good enough and by the end of the book I did not get the feeling of a closure about this topic, he just settled as a portrait artist and that's it? And lastly, I find really odd the friendship between him and Louise, Anton's ex-wife, specially at that time, well, I don't know, maybe it could happen.

Overall, after that first part, I really enjoyed the book, the settings were nice, all the themes addressed were really interesting and to imagine all those horrific things happened in England until the late 60's and still happen across several countries across the globe, it is revolting.