The Charioteer Paperback – May 13, 2003

A small grey mouse slips from beneath the door sill, pauses a moment to fan silvery whiskers and smooth down velvet grey fur, then whispers:First one must thank the good folk at Amazon Shipping for their efforts. They said the book would get here on January 26th and it arrived on the 22nd. One is unable to express how much delight this actuated. So far, this one has re-read it three times since its arrival and plans to spend the weekend on a fourth and fifth visit into Ms. Renault's world.Now, who does not love to come home to old friends, knowing they will be more then welcome, and anticipating only the most wonderful reunion?One first read this book over thirty years ago, and is utterly enthralled to find thirty-odd reviews online concerning it. The horrible house ate one's copy about twelve years past and one has been hunting for a copy ever since, because one re-read it once a year up until the time the house held it hostage.At fifteen, this book was an epiphany, not merely for writing style to an aspiring author, but also for it's subtle and well crafted characterizations.Please meet Laurence Odell, child of divorce raised solely by his mother. After the age of five he never sees his father again. One follows Laurence - Laurie -through the most formative years of his life until the story settles. One sees his mother push out his father for allegedly cheating on her. One sees him in what we would call High School. He has developed a strong attachment to an older authority figure, R.R. Lanyon. More than a crush, less than a declared intent, Laurie is appalled and enraged when a friend announces that Lanyon is to be "sent up" (expelled) for immoral activities. Only Lanyon's admission that he is not innocent of the accusations pressed against him stops Laurie from Outing himself - completely unaware and unrealistic of the actual repercussions.Now it is 1940. One finds oneself observing am E.M.S. hospital in the countryside of nearby Bridstow. Laurence has had his kneecap shot off at Dunkirk and must be ignominiously rescued, as all the army was ignominiously rescued, by the navy. He has endured two surgeries to correct the big-gun wound and cannot walk without a crutch or cane. Laurie is a corporal, and comfortable with the other wounded vets who surround him. 'They are a touchy society' to quote the book, ' but they know it'. Enter into this makeshift hospital a batch of c.o.'s, Conscientious Objectors, to replace the orderly and maid staff who left after finding their placement too isolated. Now Laurie meets Andrew Raynes, a seventeen year old Quaker who has opted not to fight. A chaste romance blossoms on Laurie's side, and something seems to be blossoming in Andrew, but Laurie, remembering the lessons taught to him by Lanyon during their last interview seven years ago, cannot tell Andrew what he is and what he feels, because he does not wish to interfere with, or ruin Andrew's self perception.As this gentle romance meanders along, Laurie runs across a gay intern he played with long-distance, on an impulse. Sandy Reid invites Laurie back to a birthday party for his partner, one later meets Alec Deacon who is also an intern at the hospital. Laurie refuses twice, he has had a bad time at Oxford with a gay man he met, started to get to know, and rejected, but then Sandy Reid mentions Ralph Lanyon and Laurie is hooked. He ventures into the closed society of the homosexual men of the time...a time when blackmail is almost legal against gay men, a time when the laws are not on their side to say the least, a time when a gay bashing might be overlooked as the thing to do.At the party, Laurie is appalled to hear, and see, the flouncing, frisking gossips and nattering, jewelry sporting men who seem to have no sense of themselves beyond their sexuality and its confinements. He rejected this society at Oxford. He rejects it now. He almost leaves before Lanyon arrives. Lanyon does arrive but not before Alec informs Laurie that it was Lanyon's ship that picked him off the beach at Dunkirk, ostensibly saving his life, and Lanyon wrote to him after being wounded in the sinking of that ship a little later. Lanyon wrote, but the letter came back that Laurie had died of his wounds. Laurie is astounded, and somewhat flattered, to realize that he had Lanyon's attention even when he stank of decomposition and looked like all Hell.When Lanyon enters, an unquiet scene plays out that results in a particularly unpleasant event. Laurie and Ralph Lanyon are thrown together for the best part of the night, and they exchange any number of confidences as they begin to get to know one another as adults. It's too good to throw out spoilers, read it. The Romance has been thriving, unfed, in both of them for almost a decade. The pleasure of this book is watching them feel their way towards one another, with caution at first, then with determination unabridged on Ralph's part. The ending stops one's breath in one's throat. One likes these young men, and wishes them well, and is very much afraid how their conflicts with devolve: With or without resolution.Put aside certain details. This is a Romance in the old fashioned meaning of the word. A sweeping emotional Odyssey that covers the first half of two people's lives. Never mind they are gay men. Never mind the back drop of Bridstow, or the E.M.S. Hospital. Here we see humans striving to be worthy to both give and receive love despite all obstacles and social conventions. We want them to be worthy, and we strive right along beside them. I have left out a great many details because there are thirty-odd reviews before this one, and because one has only so much time. And because you should indulge yourself in this book, if you're reading this review then obviously you are interested. It will satisfy, as all Ms. Renault's works do. It is understated, skillfully woven, and always topical.Left, right, or center, it is always important that one make out as a human being.Someone in the reviews wants this to be a movie - I say mini-series on HBO or Showtime, but since so much of the book is internal and emotional, I worry it won't really make a good video presentation. I'd by a ticket, or rent it on line. How about a C.G. Peter O'Toole, back when he was young and spare and sharp as a knife?(Madly anthropomorphizing:) Smoothing back silver whiskers, the grey velvet mouse surveys the scene. Nodding once, it slips quickly back through the door sill and is gone.

A merit Renault book that’s not ancient Greece.

Deservedly a classic of gay literature (and literature in general). Despite the title, it's not about ancient Greece or Rome, although Plato's Phaedrus is a major influence. Rather, it's set in England during the early days of WWII, after the retreat at Dunkirk, when Laurie (short for Laurence), a soldier injured in the war, and Ralph, an older schoolmate who'd gone into the merchant marine after expulsion for homosexual activity and who is unable to resume his post as ship captain due to an injury of his own, meet again.Laurie's feelings are divided because of his friendship with Andrew, a conscientious objector assigned to work as an orderly, who is unaware that Laurie harbors romantic and sexual feelings toward him. He spend the book vacillating between his close friendship with Andrew, in which the main conflict is their attitude toward the war and what's right and wrong in a more general sense, and his more tempestuous relationship with Ralph, who accepts his homosexuality and is sexually active. In some ways, Laurie's relationship with Andrew echoes his earlier relationship with Ralph at school. Some of the things Ralph says to Laurie in an effort to convince him to choose him are an eloquent testimony to the desire for tolerance and an equal footing with non-homosexuals. Eventually, Laurie makes a definitive choice, which makes this a gay romance (or an early precursor to m/m), but the book is as much about the war as it is about gayness and is as much about life choices and philosophies as gay life in the 1940s.While the writing is generally excellent, the book is not perfect. While in some places the book is bold for the time of publication (1959), in others the language is abstract, opaque, and coded, so it's not a quick read, and sometimes I wasn't sure I had interpreted the words the way Ms. Renault intended. The picture painted of Laurie's mother is not pretty, and Ms. Renault seems to subscribe to the theory current at the time that homosexuality resulted from an absent or remote father and a domineering mother. There are other instances of fleeting misogyny as well. It also idealizes ancient Greece to an alarming extent; Plato's Phaedrus is not only discussed but used as a subtle means of seduction, and the text accepts the supposedly chaste and platonic nature of the practice of pederasty -- romantic friendships formed between young men prior to marriage and beautiful teenage boys, in which the older partner serves as a mentor and guide. It's true that this is Laurie (and Ralph's) concept of the practice, but it's highly idealized. Whatever was known in Renault's time, it's now evident (from pottery, among other things) that such relationships weren't as chaste, platonic, and philosophical as Plato depicts.

In many ways, a “well-made novel” of the old school, but filled with sensitive insight and attention to detail. Renault draws you into inner life and personal dilemmas of a young man recuperating from war injuries sustained at Dunkirk, as he navigates his way through an even more challenging journey of self-awareness. Highly recommended.