The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

I am always envious of a writer who can make me laugh, and John Inman is such an author. I laughed and giggled all the way through "Loving Hector," and was particularly pleased to see the main characters - Dillard and Hector - laugh together, even during sex. Laughing during sex is pretty awesome.

There is indeed an insta-love sort of thing in this book - but I found that, in this case, the set-up for it is classic romantic comedy, and given Dill's age and career (he's a writer, presumably of romances), he's more than ready to fall for "the one." So I bought into it, at least.

Both Hector and Dill are nicely drawn young men - physically, emotionally, and in terms of how they relate to each other. Inman makes them a living, breathing, laughing couple.

The other characters all all very vividly drawn as well, but this is where the little bit of mean comes in. I surely don't mind wacky parents (for example, in Tj Klune's "Tell me it's Real," Paul's parents are hilarious and embarrassing - but they're attractive and totally appealing as people); Dill is a pretty well-adjusted young man, and he clearly loves his parents, but they are not portrayed in a way that makes them remotely appealing. They have their quirks, but they deserve better, I think.

And even the parents are not described in quite the way that Dill's grandfather is. Gramps is a really important character in this book. He's over eighty, eccentric, and (so it happens) horny. But Inman describes him with such side-show freakishness, that it's hard to not be bothered by it. The notion that an old man is so physically repulsive that the idea of him having sex can only be barf-worthy is sort of insulting to all of us men who have passed fifty and feel very deeply the loss of our youthful allure (such as it was). Given that Gramps is possibly Dill's most supportive and loving relative, it seems a shame that he couldn't have been offered a little dignity and elderly good looks.

But Inman is a charming writer - and I like the way he does romance. I will state, as I am wont to do these days, that I could do with a little less sex, since that's not really why I buy these books (any more, at least). When you've got a good story and interesting characters and fine writing, you don't need quite so much hot sauce to enjoy the flavor.

I have been tempted to add this to my TBR folder. I want to read more by John Inman. Maybe this will be the one I read next. Have you read Shy? I think I saw you commenting on that thread. Would you suggest this one or that one to a first time John Inman reader?

I bought Shy, but I read this first. I've read other Inman books ... I'm really intrigued by men who write in this genre, since we seem to be rare-ish creatures.

Obviously I need to figure out how to create a TBR folder.

Ulysses,

Here on GR a TBR folder is created automatically for you. If you visit the GR page for a book and you click on the "Want to Read" green button the book gets added to this folder which is created automatically. You can create other folders too (Fantasy, Contemporary, etc) but those you have to create manually and add the books manually to them by selecting the appropriate folder you created.

Dillard Brown has a mother who's determined he's straight, a writing career that’s going nowhere, and at thirty, he’s never been in love in his life. But thanks to a ten-pound ball of fluff and energy named Chester, one of Dill's circumstances is about to change. Maybe even all three.

Who would've thought one little stray dog could change Dill's world—and not by accident either. The damn dog has it planned. If not for Chester wandering into Dill's life and into his heart, Dill would never have met Hector Peña—and tumbled headlong into love at last!

But for all Chester's efforts, happiness for Dill and Hector is still not assured. Hector's evil ex, Valdemaro, is dead set on holding on—even if it means kidnapping Hector to keep him from Dill forever! Now Dill has to pull an army together to rescue Hector, and just where the hell is he supposed to find an army? Gads, if only Dill could write books this interesting!

Here we have a book written in the same style as Shy. That is to say, a lightly comic, humorous story that perhaps doesn't reflect reality in any way, but one that is a lot of fun to read and which features some very likable (and occasionally very eccentric) characters.

Unfortunately, this book also contains the one thing that I didn't care for in Shy either---a ridiculously over-the-top case of insta-love. And I've previously noted that I usually find this trope very annoying in the extreme, and in nearly every case completely unnecessary to the advancement of the plot. Here we have Dill and Hector "meet cute" due to Chester (actually, I did enjoy that part of the story)---but after one date or so, they've declared their undying devotion to another and are moving in together.

Ordinarily I'd be rolling my eyes at this in exasperation (well, okay, I DID do that a bit), but in this book the insta-love didn't bother me too much. I'm getting used to the author's style---as Ulysses said, it's in the classic romantic comedy vein---and since this isn't a true-to-life, realistic sort of story, I was happy to go along for the ride.

As a bonus, the love scenes in this story actually held my attention. I've said before that after a while most of the more explicit content in romance books tends to all run together in my mind; I get kind of bored with it and just wish that the author would get on with the story. But I found the couple's romantic interludes rather appealing in this story. Perhaps it's because both Hector and Dill, while quite different in appearance from one another, are both physical types that I find attractive in real life? Whatever the reason, I enjoyed the love scenes a lot more than I have in many of the books I've recently read.

It's too bad that I didn't find Dill's eccentric family nearly as appealing as Paul's similarly eccentric parents/grandparent in T.J. Klune's Tell Me It's Real. Paul's family was fantastic; Dill's, not so much. Like Ulysses, I wasn't happy with the rather mean-spirited physical description of the grandfather, who is a sympathetic character and a positive influence in Dill's life, but who was described in incredibly unflattering terms. Why write him in such an unappealing fashion? From these descriptive passages, I would have guessed that the author was a very young man, but I checked him out on his Goodreads author page and see that he is likely a fair number of years older than I am, so I don't see why he's giving older people a bad rap, as it were...

But---a few quibbles aside---I did get a kick out of this and am not adverse to reading more of the author's work. However, after checking out his bibliography, it would appear that this book and Shy are in fact the only two novels he's written in this vein. Recommended for those looking for a comic, light-hearted read.

I read this one this week and the brand of humor was not for me. I was a bit disappointed. But it has not put me off to reading more from John Inman. I think I will read the other one recommended here that is NOT comedy. i think i was Ulysses who recommended it a few days ago.

Interestingly, humor is a more difficult genre to make pleasing to all. Sadness is a much more universally shared emotion ... Writing to make people laugh is a real gift, and one I'm afraid I don't have...