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Tyler 's Reviews > The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys
The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys (Valancourt Classics)
by
by
As a child I looked forward to growing up, so this story of two sixteen-year-old boys who meet and fall in love felt like the start of a great journey. In fact, their meeting is the culmination, not the outset, of an almost mythical union. For not every boy wants to, or will, grow up.
The Garden God is a 73-page novella to which the Valancourt edition adds footnotes for the literary allusions and an introduction by Michael Kaylor. A short story by Reid and two poems round this edition out at about 150 pages. Kaylor's discussion of "Uranian" literature gives readers a perspective on both the story and the emergence of a modern same-sex self-awareness.
This modern vista developed parallel with, but more and more opposed to, that of the Uranians, who for their part provide a link connecting gay relationships today with those going back to Greek mythology. Uranian literature constituted a decidedly aristocratic link against the egalitarian democracy of a newly explicit sexuality as well as institutional church morality.
The allure of the Uranian appeal among gay men gave way to the allure of the Catholic Church and the societal repression of the mid-twentieth century. The Brownshirt sucker punch delivered in Brideshead Revisited exemplified the triumph of institutional morals; whatever was left of a Uranian sensibility dissolved into modern gay fiction. It is no more.
But about the story. Graham, one of the boys, grew up as a child with an imaginary friend, a vision from Greek mythology that resembles Harold, the boy he meets as an adolescent. The tale is told in a setting of idyllic perfection, a stage deliberately meant to frame an exalted way of life and love.
As the story progresses it seems ever more possible that Harold and the "garden god" of Graham's youth are one and the same. Readers may wonder, by the end, if Harold really even existed. The story is told with Reid's keen eye for language and description. In its style it reminds me of a similar book, Embers.
Reid's writing is a total repudiation of adult cynicism. It tells us what same-sex love should and might be, not what it is. Its uplifted point of view is vital to modern readers. This is a book I recommend.
The Garden God is a 73-page novella to which the Valancourt edition adds footnotes for the literary allusions and an introduction by Michael Kaylor. A short story by Reid and two poems round this edition out at about 150 pages. Kaylor's discussion of "Uranian" literature gives readers a perspective on both the story and the emergence of a modern same-sex self-awareness.
This modern vista developed parallel with, but more and more opposed to, that of the Uranians, who for their part provide a link connecting gay relationships today with those going back to Greek mythology. Uranian literature constituted a decidedly aristocratic link against the egalitarian democracy of a newly explicit sexuality as well as institutional church morality.
The allure of the Uranian appeal among gay men gave way to the allure of the Catholic Church and the societal repression of the mid-twentieth century. The Brownshirt sucker punch delivered in Brideshead Revisited exemplified the triumph of institutional morals; whatever was left of a Uranian sensibility dissolved into modern gay fiction. It is no more.
But about the story. Graham, one of the boys, grew up as a child with an imaginary friend, a vision from Greek mythology that resembles Harold, the boy he meets as an adolescent. The tale is told in a setting of idyllic perfection, a stage deliberately meant to frame an exalted way of life and love.
As the story progresses it seems ever more possible that Harold and the "garden god" of Graham's youth are one and the same. Readers may wonder, by the end, if Harold really even existed. The story is told with Reid's keen eye for language and description. In its style it reminds me of a similar book, Embers.
Reid's writing is a total repudiation of adult cynicism. It tells us what same-sex love should and might be, not what it is. Its uplifted point of view is vital to modern readers. This is a book I recommend.
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Reading Progress
November 27, 2017
– Shelved
Started Reading
November 28, 2017
–
Finished Reading
November 14, 2020
– Shelved as:
early-gay-lit
