Patrick Gale writes fantastic characters. I finished reading the book today and, sad as it sounds, I think there are a few characters in the story that I will really miss. He writes with such tenderness. This is a tale with a few twists and turns and symmetry between the past and present. Beautiful. Highly recommend. ( )

One of the endearing features of Patrick Gale's novels is his ability to give gay characters as much space and credibility as his straight ones without making it appear as a political statement, and his straight characters as much space and credibility as his gay ones without making it appear as a perfunctory exercise. They are obviously equally important, even dear, to him whatever their sexuality. (My only problem was that, The Aerodynamics of Pork being the first 'gay novel' I'd ever read, I couldn't completely get over what's happened to Seth in this one.) ( )

Very enjoyable and thoughtful - clever interweaving of stories and relationships create tension and release in this novel set mainly in the magical but frightening world of the summer holiday...

It's not a perfect book, but I can tell it's a five-star book because I've really slowed down as I approach the end, not wanting it to finish. I judge Patrick Gale to be a very perceptive observer of human relationships. Sure, this novel has the verisimilitude that comes from being based very much on the author's own life, but many people have lived lives that they don't really understand - or even attempt to understand. Maybe when you're gay there's an imperative to come to terms with your sexual identity and the relationship to your early family life? I read this book, enjoying it from page 1, but all the time wondering why I like it so much. I'm still not 100% sure, but part of the answer is that I relate very personally to the characters and situations. Gale's characters often behave the way I can see that I might behave in their situation. They like things that I like (well, some of the characters do, anyway). But mostly, I think it's the subtle way he elucidates the nature of people and their relationships to each other. This is particularly the case here where there are two parallel stories (separated in time by many years) so we can explicitly see how an earlier event impacts on the formation of a character's older personality. One issue that I don't yet fully understand is the role of a person's name in their identity. This books explores that issue in that a number of characters have different names in different situations. This has obvious connections to sexual identity (e.g. Julian being called Julie by someone who recognises his future gay identity emerging), but I wonder if there's something deeper and more universal here (i.e. relevant to the whole range of GLBTI and straight people). Perhaps Gale explores this more in his other works . . . I'm about to find out, and I'm looking forward to it! ( )

what a great read. i really, really enjoyed this. it's broken into past and present, and each chapter goes back and forth between them. at the end of every chapter, when the new chapter would start, and it would be the other story again, i felt 'no! i need to know what happens in the other story right now!!' and then the same thing would happen at the end of that chapter. for the entire book. if i could have read it in one sitting i would have. ( )