Brokeback Hill

 I can't for the life of me remember why I reserved Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, but I did, and here we go. 

Narrated entirely by Colin, we hear the story of an 18 year old man on his 18th birthday stumbling into a BDSM relationship with a likely older motorcycle enthusiast on Box Hill outside London. The Dom, Ray, never reveals much in the way of personal information to Colin, so we remain in the dark along with Colin on what the impetus was for their 6 year relationship. 

Then, about halfway though, when Colin's family takes him on a 10 day holiday to France on the hovercraft, Ray has an accident and dies. We hear about how Colin tries to find out anything about his lover, only to find that Ray's mother had burned everything he owned, he has no idea how or where Ray's body was disposed of, etc. 

While the descriptions of the relationship were well crafted, and it seems that Colin at least acknowledged the problems, particularly 20 year on as views changed and AIDS happened, it doesn't change the fact that once the central relationship ends, his horrible family life isn't particularly enough to keep interest alive. 

On the other hand, like a lot of gay men, I too have people who more or less turned into ghosts and have questions as to what ever happened to them. 

It's a short read, but if you like books with 20 pages of ecstasy and 100 pages of angst, go for it.