Gays of Our Lives

April 11, 2016
Ripper’s first-person narrative spends too much time inside the head of the protagonist and too little time developing the love interest’s character. Emerson Robinette, a community college GED teacher in La Vista, Calif., resents the limitations that multiple sclerosis imposes upon his life. After he meets Obadiah Magovney and they seem to click, the plot turns to plod as Emerson falls into a spiral of introspective analysis. He’s likable enough, but so self-centered and self-pitying that he refuses to even try developing relationships. After all, he reasons, who’d be interested in a gay man who’s into dominance but needs a cane? So he settles for one-off sex in the john at his favorite club, and he is so convinced that he’s doomed to be forever alone that he doesn’t recognize a genuine friend when one comes along. On the flip side, Obie is a poster-sized cardboard cutout of a sappy choose-to-be-happy Internet meme. It all might still be tolerable if the sex were at least steamy, but Ripper drops that ball too. Readers hoping for a nuanced, plausible depiction of a disabled queer kinkster finding lasting love will be sadly disappointed.