Product Description

Christopher Metcalfe returns to his childhood home following the death of his father. Here, he confronts memories of his time at public school and relives the intense, passionate affair he shared with fellow student Stephen Walker. This forces him to come to terms with himself at last.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1389111 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
The novel of remembrance--most often of love lost--is one of the most common of pre-Stonewall gay male literary themes. While it was enthusiastically replaced by the ever-popular theme of "come out and have sex," it has not completely passed into oblivion. William Corlett's enchanting and elucidating Now and Then has a decidedly pre-Stonewall feel to it, a tone of melancholia and nostalgia both surprising and comforting. Christopher Metcalf is a book editor at midlife who, upon returning home for his father's funeral, is faced with the painful memory of a love he lost at the age of 15 when he was betrayed by an older schoolmate whom he adored. Christopher's memories and his slow recognition of how he has squandered his emotional life over the years are moving, even startling. Corlett's language has a touch of classical elegance to it, yet resonates with contemporary idiom and briskness. The most astonishing aspect of Now and Then, however, is its refusal to become sentimental or present tough emotions in an easy or baleful manner. In this, it transforms a pre-Stonewall theme into a decidedly post-Stonewall novel. --Michael Bronski

Review
'Beautifully written and very moving.' - MIDWEEK

About the Author
William Corlett was a successful children's novelist. He wrote widely for television and theatre for both adults and children. Twice he won the Writers' Guild Children's TV Writer of the Year Award. His first novel for adults, NOW & THEN won the Dillons First Fiction Award in 1995.

Customer Reviews

Astonishingly Poignant Love Story
From the onset of his story, William Cortlett brings us into the heart of his main character, Christopher Metcalfe. While summoned home upon the death of his father, the rather detached Chris returns home to deal with lost innocence and the disallusionment of a wasted life. Finding among his fathers belongings a box containing memorabilia from Chris' own days at boarding school. This prompts a moving detail of Chris' romance with an older boy at school. The author brings us the intensity of adolescent love and sexual desire, with all the abandon given to it at that age. Never once do we doubt Chris' reasons for his love, his desire is felt by the reader, as is his confusion as to it's demise. While the focus being Chris' romance with Stephen at school, the chapters of Chris' life at present brings much to the reader as well. His mother's sense of loss is not nearly as profound as one might have expected, and her life parallel's her sons in many ways. These two characters both must deal with lives wasted on denial of one's true being, following safe roads, forsaking the heart by taking the safer and more constant way through life, only to have regrets later on. There are other characters in the Now part of the story who also show us what a treacherous road are hearts can lead us to. There is also much to be said of Stephen, Chris' object of desire while in school. Stephen, for all his classic British Upper Middle classman ship, has chosen to follow his libido through life, beleiving in his own pleasure first, a direct dichotomy to Chris and his Mother. I was left with a feeling of exhilaration after reading this book. I wanted to seize the moments of my life and live each day fully and honestly, wanting no regrets at the days end. I wish to follow the intuitive heart, the sensual path, and beleive I need not worry what sort of impression I'm giving others, but what a life fully recognized has to offer.

Beautifully written, poignant, absorbing and disturbing
I read this book in a day, I was so absorbed and horrified with the similarities between the narrators life and my own. I was brought up in Sevenoaks and went to a minor public school 50 miles away (never got molested once - and I demand my money back!). He absolutely captures the English middle-class attitudes and denial of emotions as well as the horrific nature (for many) of English public-school life. The alternate past and present format for each chapter works extremely well. His description of the thoughts and emotions of the young Chris, and suppressed emotions of the older version are heart-wrenchingly accurate.

a poignant memory of your first love
As a reader who speaks English as a second language, I had to keep my dictionary while reading the book to the end. From the first day I started to read the book, I couldn't stop thinking of Kit's life and his love towards Stephen. His deep, poignant and still moving love made me shiver all the time. I even felt the turbulance of his inner state while he first started to think of Stephen when he sorted out things which his father had kept in his study and encountered his past looking at the photos of his schooldays. I sometimes think that it may be my future when I get fortysomething. Even though I was not in passionate love which Chris was in. I read the book six times in order to understand completely by looking up all the difficult words in the dictionary. I cried and shared all the sadness with Chris. Hope Chris will find his true happiness and let his poinant memories behind. This novel was simply magnificient, beautifully written and moving.