I Am Not Raymond Wallace

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On an undercover assignment, a secret world is revealed to Raymond: a world in which he need no longer pretend to be something or someone he cannot be; a world in which he meets Joey. This in no way makes me more likely to give the book a glowing review because when we used to sit together in school orchestra, he was quite annoying. It is against this recontextualization that Sam Kenyon has written his debut novel, I am not Raymond Wallace, a story about closeted cis men set largely in 1963. I Am not Raymond Wallace is a multi-stranded story of queer redemption spanning multiple generations, told with precision-tooled prose, sharply-imagined settings and compassionately-observed characterisation. As his bursary draws to a close, he’s faced with a choice which we know from the start he will regret.

And the way that gay men of the time, under the pressure of all that, tended towards hot, furtive, anonymous sex with strangers. Doty assigns Raymond to go undercover and discover the codes used by the homosexuals to identify themselves to each other. He soon discovers his elusive boss, Bukowski, is being covertly blackmailed by an estranged wife, and that he himself is to assist the straight-laced Doty on an article about the ‘explosion of overt homosexuality’ in the city. So begins a relationship which sees Raymond becoming part of a family very different from his own at home in Britain.Delightfully chosen adjectives skilfully woven into a tale of hard choices in a difficult time, loss and being found. Raymond cuts a sad figure, liberated by his three months in New York only to be pushed back into the closet by his conventional family who want him to replicate their lives. As my self a gay boy growing up in the early 60's and knowing it at the age of 6, I could relate to SO MUCH of what was going on in this book made this THE story that i will NEVER ever forget, nor will I forget Raymond Wallace. Opening in 1963, it follows a Cambridge undergraduate, fresh out of college, who’s won a three-month bursary at The New York Times and meets the love of his life.

This history cannot be forgotten by younger generations, just like forgetting that abortion was once illegal and resulted in many tragedies (oh yeah, that's changed hasn't it). The sex scenes are quite frank, so I couldn't give it to my 88 year old mother, but if you're OK with those, I would recommend it and I look forward to any future novels. The rest of his life will be spent yearning for the love he found in New York, later writing about the pain of loss and repression. Surprisingly graphic in a few places, the story is lovely and warm, and you can fall in love with the protagonist of the title easily.Kenyon’s novel explores themes of sexual identity and intolerance with a tender compassion through two very different characters. He does a good job of evoking those times, the shame, the fear and paranoia, the hiding and recognition codes. Although I needed to take a break during the Paris visit, and I wiped tears from my eyes more than once, it was a beautiful story crafted artfully. Raymond Wallace, a recent graduate of Cambridge of age 21, arrives in NYC in the summer of 1963 for a 3-month internship with the NY Times.