Adam Mars-Jones

Box Hill is a short novel, reflecting on a relationship long in the past but still very meaningful to the narrator Colin. I’d hesitate to call this a love story because it isn’t an equal relationship but it is a story about relationships of unequal standing.

It’s Colin’s eighteenth birthday as the book opens, and he’s gone to Box Hill to check out the bikes. A spot for bikers to congregate, Colin knows that it’s not really his place (being overweight and only in possession of a show more cheap leather jacket and restrained flares) but he fantasises about the leathers and the bikes. He’s wandering when he trips over a man, Ray. Ray is a biker from top to toe in leathers and a motorbike he takes intricate care for. Ray wakes up and propositions Colin, and they move in together that evening. From the very first evening, the reader gets the idea that this isn’t a normal relationship. Ray dominates Colin to the point of rape, yet Colin is transfixed by Ray and deeply in love. Ray is controlling, discarding Colin’s toiletries and never giving Colin a key to the flat (despite living together for six years). Colin is there as Ray’s trophy, a thing, to share with the other bikers. He’s an object and reflecting on this time, Colin realises that this relationship has dominated his future ones. How does it end? I won’t spoil it, but there is no closure which gives reason for Colin returning to his relationship with Ray over and over again.

The story is told by Colin in the first person, so the reader doesn’t ever get to know Ray’s feelings or intent. Colin clearly has insecurities about his looks and intelligence and repeatedly tells the reader how grateful he is for Ray. Unfortunately, that’s another reason for poor Colin to cop the physical and mental abuse from Ray. An interesting parallel to Colin and Ray’s relationship is that of Colin’s parents. His father becomes incredibly clingy and worried without his wife, to the point where she can’t leave the room without telling him where she’s going. Another form of abuse or dementia? It’s interesting that both Colin and his mum are used by others for security and sex.

Mars-Jones writes Colin incredibly well, to the point where it feels like reading an autobiography. It’s honest and unflinching, no matter what the topic. I raced through this.

Thank you to Scribe for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

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It may not have taken me very long to read this novella by Adam Mars-Jones, but I can guarantee you it will be on my mind for a very long time. The story has left me with mixed emotions - often opposites, and I'm feeling certain that my review won't really do this book justice.

This book begins in 1975 in England... on Colin's 18th birthday. He literally stumbles across a man's boots at Box Hill. That man is Ray and immediately something sparks between them. Colin hasn't thought much prior to show more that very moment about his sexual orientation or kinks... and he realizes in moments that the is gay and a definite bottom. That's just the beginning of the epic tale of Colin and Ray.

There's a lot packed into this novella and I think that is the same for Ray and Colin's relationship. I don't even know how to describe it. Is it love? Is it a partnership? Is it an understanding? What. happens between these two men isn't even always consensual and yet, Colin seems content in a way that he wasn't before he met Ray. At times, the things that Colin accepts as his fate prompted a visceral reaction from me. I was shocked that his self-esteem would let him believe that he was destined for nothing more than what was offered. I suppose that's what makes this novella spectacular. As much as I wanted more for Colin, that was under my own interpretation... Colin is definitely finding out about himself even if he's unable to find out much about Ray.

The description of the book almost reads as though Colin stumbles upon a lovely summer affair but the relationship between these two men is far from that. A perfect storm of low self-esteem and a powerful, domineering top results in Colin being a slave to Ray's wants and needs. It's fine for him, in spite of the fact that he refers to their first evening together as a "rape".

The most remarkable thing about this novella is that I enjoyed it despite some of the situations that Colin found himself in. There were definitely things that made me uncomfortable but Colin is decidedly likable. I will definitely be looking for more by Adam Mars-Jones. Beautiful writing, provocative and intelligent.
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I will post this review to my blog on August 1, 2020 show less

This book was described to me at one point as an act of ventriloquism — and now having finished it, I can’t help but agree. Mars-Jones has a real knack for inhabiting fully his characters, giving them a richness of life and language not normally afforded to literary fiction. Often I find in capital-L Literary works, people can speak with odd diction, tending towards vague aphorism or poignancy, with authors unwilling or unable to try to capture the more naturalistic cadences of the way show more we speak with one another. Batlava Lake eschews this in favour of a candid, personable verisimilitude which makes every turn of the page a deeper insight into this lively, entertaining narrative. show less

I recently referred to this book when reviewing Kergan Edwards-Stout's Gifts Not Yet Given. The two books are similar in that they are collections of short stories which deal with individuals who are cut off, one way or another, from their families and/or friends. Both are books I can see reading and re-reading again and again. Edwards-Stout's book got me to pick up Mars-Jones' volume and re-read it, cover to cover. All the stories in Monopolies of Loss center on AIDS and its impact to the show more gay community back in the 1980s. They are deeply personal, and speak to me on a level that makes it impossible for me to be impersonal in any approach to this book. One of the stories, Bears in Mourning, is a story that I have recommended time and time again when the inevitable discussion comes up concerning just what a Bear is. Curiously, it is the only story in the book where the death is not AIDS related. Monopolies of Loss may seem a bit dated today, but for those of us who lived through the outbreak of the epidemic and lost so many friends to it, these stories will bring familiar faces to mind. I heartily recommend Monopolies of Loss. show less