Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: The Lord Won’t Mind
SERIES: The Peter & Charlie Trilogy #1
AUTHOR: Gordon Merrick
PUBLISHER: Open Road Media
LENGTH: 336 Pages
BLURB:
Charlie Mills always played the role of the good grandson, and his grandmother rewarded him for it handsomely in the form of all the gifts, money, and attention a boy could want. Entering college in the late 1930s, Charlie just has to keep doing what his grandmother expects of him in order to continue to receive her gifts. He has to find a nice girl, get married, and have a few kids. Then one summer, he meets Peter Martin.
Peter is everything that Charlie has ever wanted. Despite all the obstacles, Charlie immediately craves and pursues Peter, who happily obliges him. As they grow closer, Charlie is forced to choose between two options: complying with the expectations of society and family, or following the call of true love. In this, the first book of the Charlie & Peter Trilogy, Gordon Merrick creates an enduring portrait of two young men deeply in love, and the tribulations they endure to express themselves and maintain their relationship.
REVIEW:
I want to start by saying there are words and situations in this book which some might find highly offensive. I’ve included some of them in my review below for examples. They are by no means words I would ever utter.
How do you do a review on a book that spent 16 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list when it was published in 1970? I remember the first time I saw this book in a book store in Manhattan in 1980. I had to have it, lurid cover and all. If any of you remember the original paperbacks, they were obviously about gay men, as you can see from the original paperback cover that I put in below. Only problem, I was in the Navy, stationed at Brooklyn Navy Yard and read the book in my open bay barracks hiding that damn cover! As a 19 year old gay kid, this book was a huge eye opener for me. It was a romance, but with gay guys!
So, those sayings about how you can’t go back are really true in this case. I remember being enraptured the entire time I read this book and the other two in the trilogy 35 years ago (boy do I feel old now). I definitely would have rated it 5 stars if I’d been reviewing back then.
The Lord Won’t Mind was written sometime in the 1960’s and published in 1970. It was a very important work for its time. America was in the middle of a social and sexual revolution. Remember that in late June 1969, the Stonewall Riot occurred. Police in 1969 were still arresting gay men and lesbians in the US. Along comes Gordon Merrick, who not only writes a smutty book about gay men, but sets it 30 years before then in 1940. And even worse, he had the bad taste to be one of the first, if not the first, author to give the queers a happy ending. Prior to this, queers were allowed in books and movies, but they always had to be miserable, die alone, and always die before the end of the book or movie. Sad pathetic little men were what homosexuals were portrayed as prior to this.
Charlie Mills is a spoiled rich kid. He has always been his grandmother C.B.’s favorite and has never wanted for anything. He spends summers with her in her coastal summer home, hangs out at the country club, etc., etc. All that changes one year when C.B. introduces him to Peter Martin, some sort of distant relative. The two young men fall in love instantly, and forbidden sexual activities soon abound on the third floor of C.B.’s home. The insta-love that many people don’t like in today’s m/m fiction has it base somewhat in historical fact. Many men fell in love with the first man they slept with. To actually find someone who shared your desires was wonderful. So it isn’t really a surprise that it was portrayed that way in this book.
I had remembered the books with the proverbial rose tinted glasses. I had forgotten how much angst there was in the story. Charlie’s denial of his homosexuality. The bitter split between the men. The violent relationship between Charlie and his wife of convenience, particularly that one scene that had guys cringing in sympathy. I had also forgotten that this book was written as a historical drama set in 1940, when homosexuality was an offense you could be dragged off the street and sent to jail for. Finally, most importantly, I’d forgotten how people spoke, and the words that were commonplace then that wouldn’t be in a book today. Queer, Faggot, Queen and Fairy you still hear in 2015 from the unenlightened, and some younger LGBT individuals actually prefer the word Queer although us older gay guys shudder. But words like Darkie, Nigger, Nigra, and Monkey, being used by white people to describe black people, as well as the “commonly known fact” that black people had smaller brains and were more “simple”, have thankfully for the most part fallen to history in most parts of the US. C.B.’s huge scandalous family secret that she finally reveals to Charlie near the end of the book, today would be a “so?”.
Now…how do I sum up this rambling? I recommend this book, but recommend it more as a view into where we’ve been. I think the book is important for its place in gay history, so I’m rating it 4 love bytes because of what it is. Don’t read it as you would a modern m/m romance novel. It is a romance of sorts, but filled with denial, angst and dark times. I had originally intended to re-read all three of the books in the trilogy, but after finishing this one I’ve decided that one trip down memory lane is enough for me at this point. As I said above, in 1980 I would have given the book a 5.0. In 2015, it doesn’t come close to some of the great books I’ve read over the last few months. Sorry if I’ve tarnished anyone else’s memory of the book! 🙂
RATING: 
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