Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: While My Wife’s Away

AUTHOR: James Lear

PUBLISHER: Cleis Press

LENGTH: 240 pages

RELEASE DATE:  July 11, 2017

BLURB:

To all appearances, Joe Heath is a typical straight married man, living with his wife and two teenage children, commuting to work, playing sports and going to the gym, enjoying a beer and a barbecue. But there are things about Joe that his friends don’t know. For one thing, his relationship with his wife has deteriorated to the point that they’re sleeping in separate bedrooms, only staying together until the kids have left home. And there’s something else: for the last few years, Joe has wanted to have sex with another man.

While My Wife’s Away recounts Joe’s recognition of his sexual nature in a series of encounters–some short, some repeated, some comic, some sad, all of them extremely hot in the way that only James Lear can make them. Each chapter is a self-contained episode from Joe’s life, but throughout the book we see him coming to terms with what he really is, and struggling with his feelings of guilt and betrayal as it becomes clear that his marriage is over. Much of the dramatic tension in the book arises from the difficulties of negotiating his family life with his new personal life, the awkwardness and potential disaster inherent in each situation.

REVIEW:

This is probably my hardest review I have written for Love Bytes so far!

This book is less of the in-depth erotic look into an average man’s life that was advertised in the blurb and more of a piece of well-written fetish fiction—a fetish for infidelity, for being the “straight” man who likes cock on the side, for being coveted not despite being married but because of it. It’s a specific kink, and if you have it, this will push all the right buttons.

But I definitely don’t have it, which I clearly discovered while reading this book.

You’re probably all thinking, what did you expect? The title of the book clearly states this is about cheating. The author makes no effort to hide or diminish that. My goal this year was to read more books that take me out of my comfort zone. Some have worked for me, some have not. I was drawn to this book because I think LGBT people have a unique history with infidelity. Oftentimes marriage spelled a different kind of fate for gay folks, or gay men and women didn’t realize their sexuality until they were already married. That makes for an incredibly tricky and tenuous subject for fiction, rife with moral grey areas. And I am trying to read more books about finding love in all the wrong places and facing the consequences.

But unfortunately, this isn’t a story about finding peace, love, happiness, acceptance, or clarity. It’s about finding an orgasm. Sex. That’s all. Joe loves sex. He’s good at it. He’s horny all the time and will get it wherever he can. And that’s the story.

Joe is not a sympathetic character, and I’d give anyone who thinks he is the side-eye. He’s whiny, privileged, and cowardly on many levels. He feels entitled to his own pleasure to such a degree that nothing else even comes close. After reading about him for a couple hundred pages, I don’t really know a thing about him—his likes and dislikes, his personality, his character traits. He’s a hollow shell of a character, an attractive man who attracts lots of sexual attention. He’s at times a coquettish submissive, other times a demanding top. He masters oral sex and anal sex with ease and soon teaches others the art. He’s the ultimate gay Casanova, a porn-like dream, yet I can hardly squeeze an ounce of character arc or real emotion out of him.

Don’t get me wrong—I love bad characters. My favorite books are ones that take terrible characters and make us love them. I love anti-heroes and well-written villains. But Joe is none of that. He’s just sex, and that’s it. Even when he tries for something real with a man who might really be good for him, his attempts are feeble at best, falling flat as soon as the next pretty face comes along. His disregard for his wife and children feel almost pathological rather than realistic—there’s a real undercurrent of hatred for his family, which felt very unpleasant. He’s narcissistic, vain, deceitful, and callous.

I hate Joe Heath. I hated every sentence I read about him.

But something kept me from rating this book any lower. I don’t think I’d recommend it. I’m not sure who I’d even be able to recommend it to, besides people with an infidelity kink. But this is a very well-written book that I happened to immensely dislike! The prose flows, the erotica sizzles, and even the total emptiness of Joe as a character gave me a proper pang in my chest—not sympathy, but an aching loneliness, like I can’t imagine a sadder man than Joe Heath.

Fiction is supposed to elicit emotion, right? So, in a way, While My Wife’s Away did its job correctly. I’m just not sure how I feel about that yet. And I’m not sure I want to revisit it.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon

Cleis Press