Kyle Onstott (1887–1966)

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I came to bury Child of the Sun, not to praise it. After all, this was clearly a book written to titillate with salacious homosexual details of the emperor Elagabalus, the scandalous teenage Caesar, as written by the author of the schlock masterpiece Mandingo. And yet...

The book began about as expected. In the back of my mind, I was thinking 'the author should have just gone ahead and written the hard core details in the sex scenes. It really show more is what this book is about after all...'

But the book went on. The salacious details died down. The story deepened. I also noted that in detailing the licentious Varius' activities, the tone was never condemnatory. Throughout the book, , Varius sexuality is treated respectfully. His relationship with Hierocles is portrayed positively (well, as positively as can be in a soap opera of a book.) Checking the details of Kyle Onstott's life, I could see that he may well have empathized with Varius' homosexuality. In the sixties, this must have been a revelation to many gay readers.

None of the characters were likeable. Honestly, how could they be? But the book was detailed with footnotes supporting the story details, which surprised me. Honestly, the book was just better than I had figured it would be. I really wound up enjoying Child of the Sun in a different way than I was expecting. show less

More than racism is dealt with here. Sexism 19th century style is talked about. But it's all in a crass, sensationalist manner. Mandingo was first a novel and then a flop play on Broadway that ran 5 performances with Franchot Tone. The whole slavery experience could have been dealt with. We don't see for instance what the vast majority of slaves were doing in the field dealing cotton or whatever other kind of agricultural product these plantations produced. Developing and breeding Mandingos show more was a hobby for these slavemasters, not what they actually kept the slaves for. show less

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