This autobi ographical novel is an account of George Hayim’s doomed and dangerous affair with a (mostly) straight French boy of Moroccan descent. George meets the young and sexually magnetic Edouard in Paris, and brings him to England, so that Edouard can learn English and make some money. Edouard relies on George, is sometimes charmed by him, but mostly seems to hate his interference and treats him rudely and badly. George, who feels that Edouard is not sufficiently and consistently appreciative of all that he has done for the boy, alternates caring slavishly for him and threatening him with deportation and humiliation.
All this bad behavior gets a little repetitive, but both George and Edouard are original and compelling characters, and are surrounded by George’s various friends, who are mostly wealthy European bohemians, and Edouard’s friends, who are mostly prostitutes and other assorted low-lifes.
The book is too long and the dynamic between the two men is too predictably recurrent, until the final page when a shift occurs and their relationship seems to change into something resembling an old friendship. (There is a charming five-minute documentary video featuring George Hayim in his eccentric home in Sydney on YouTube.)
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