These Violent Delights: A Novel

I was very excited to learn of this novel by queer, Jewish new author Micah Nemerever. I am fascinated with stories about gays gone bad and intense same-gender relationships. The author has described These Violent Delights as a love story and oh, there's a dash of murder too. And as suggested by the title's source, it is indeed a tragic love story. I only had to read a few pages to know that this one would wreck me. Nemerever does an excellent job setting up how the protagonists meeting makes for a perfect storm. Beneath a mild-mannered exterior, Paul Fleischer is a powder keg of self-loathing and deep-seated rage. His family is close-knit but unsure how to get through to him. His grandfather and older sister in particular are believable as supporting characters. I really felt for their struggle as they realize how deeply troubled their grandson and brother really is, while still coping with the recent death of Paul's father by suicide. Paul befriends Julian Fromme during their freshman year at an unnamed Pittsburgh university. They soon develop an all-consuming emotional and physical relationship. Julian already has one foot out the door with his wannabe-WASP family, who aren't interested in hearing what their son actually wants or needs (most certainly not when his desires include Paul, a working-class boy who dares to keep kosher in front of Mr. Fromme's country club friends). Neither boy has any other close friends at school. This sense of alienation make Paul and…

A deeply disturbing, utterly gripping book. Its sources are clear - Raskolnikov, Leopold & Loeb, the tortured souls trying to find their place in a world they fail to understand. It's unyieldingly harrowing, but brilliantly composed. Paul comes from working-class Pittsburgh. In college, he falls desperately in love with Julian, from a rich family outside Washington, DC. Julian's mother comes from European wealth - but Jewish money, which makes them parvenus in their rarified circles. Still, money is money, and Julian's family plays by the WASP rules; they join the right clubs and throw the right parties. Their son being gay is utterly unimaginable to both families. Far worse, Paul's social anxiety is off the charts. He cannot afford to live on campus, and takes the bus to school. He is desperately out of his depths in class and in Class. His self-loathing is so profound that he cannot accept his lover's affection as anything other than a malignant strike at Julian's upper-crust parents. The two teenagers share a deeply tortured relationship, with each twisting the other in knots to prove their affection. Needless to say, their sexual encounters easily turn violent. Although discreetly portrayed, these intimate moments are nonetheless a vivid depiction of their profound troubles, with themselves and each other. Like Raskolnikov, they hit upon the Nietzschean solution - to kill another, less worthy person. Somehow, this will cement their abiding love for one another. To…

Writer lost track of the plot halfway through. He had a strong start then it started to just go to a bunch of filler. Was hard to get through the end