Corpus Christi Carroll

2012-01-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

Available to purchase on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005X0MSFM

Liam Whittier, the junior house-master at a boys' boarding school, is able to drift through life, feckless and disaffected, until the arrival of a new boarder, the fourteen-year-old Corpus Christi Carroll. Almost at once he falls in love; aesthetically obsessed, seeking to possess the new boy, who has arrived with secrets of his own. The plot is interspersed with flashbacks to Whittier's earlier life. In these sections, the depiction of a close-knit, modest family adds a naturalness that opens up the novel and leads gradually to the culmination of the plot in the present.
Corpus Christi Carroll is a literary work, evoking, in theme and style, Nabokov's Lolita, and Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. Louche, melancholy, though with a quizzical, modern eye for the absurd, the novel follows the narrator as he reels between lyric idealism and sated regret, dizzy desire and the dingy truth. With modern cultural relevance, Corpus Christi Carroll is a universal tale of obsession, love and death, fashioned from a particular life.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005X0MSFM

***** A disturbing but beautifully written work. 14 Jan 2012

Matteo_B (Kent UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corpus Christi Carroll (Kindle Edition)

I bought this after reading the author's "War for Cole's Sexual Orientation" and found the writing to be just as good as that first book. Shapiro tells the story of a housemaster in a private school's passion for a new and beautiful new pupil with a mysterious and troubling background. The book is masterful at portraying the man's wrestling with his forbidden desires the books will leave a lead weight of unease in anyone's stomach at reading his plight, especially with the horror that paedophilia invokes in modern society. This is because even though one may be repulsed at the desires of the protagonist, the author is skillful enough to envoke the reader's sympathy for the man and for the turmoil that is occouring in his mind. I would recommend it just as highly as the author's first work. He is very brave to take on such a taboo subject.

The War For Cole's Sexual Orientation

2012-01-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

Available to purchase on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005V7OZSU

The neuro-science faculty of a small California college posts an on-line appeal for subjects to take part in a trial procedure. The fact that the procedure involves the hypothalamus region of the brain, which regulates gender and orientative behavior, and the stipulation that the applicants be homosexual, instantly ignites a controversy. As the implications of the approaching neuro-surgery become clear, the faculty, headed by the mercurial Dr Lacey, rapidly becomes the center of a culture war between liberals and conservatives.
   Cole Lasseter, eighteen, and only recently having 'come out,' isn't making much progress in the evangelical-based 'reparative therapy' course he has been enrolled in by his parents. He is entered into Dr Lacey's programme.
   Dr Lacey, using post-mortem and neuro-imaging studies, may have uncovered the precise neural-nets underlying sexual preference, allowing for the genetic component of homosexuality to be dramatically, even fundamentally influenced. The dizzying implications – nature versus nurture; the ethical questions; the possibility of homosexual people having the option of an elective procedure to 'orientatively-reassign,' causes an escalation of protest, and internal debate amongst the outside groups who descend upon the campus. The other test-subjects withdraw, one by one, succumbing to pressure, or because they fail screening tests as suitable candidates, until only Cole remains to undergo the procedure – with devestating consequences.
   The narrative is told through a chorus of voices; a succession of different perspectives – and agendas – of the activists, parents, subjects, friends and lovers involved in the momentuous events, with a final twist, as the story culminates, as to the actual 'definitive' voice behind the story.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005V7OZSU

***** Topical and well crafted. 14 Jan 2012

Matteo_B (Kent UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The War For Cole's Sexual Orientation (Kindle Edition)

I read this following a recommendation and I think it is a wonderful sensitive work. The thing that impresses most is that the author does not condone either side of the debate.Both the gay characters, the liberals and the evangelical christian characters are portrayed as essentially decent people though they hold diametrically opposing views. Anyone therefore looking for demonisation of anti gay conservatives will be disappointed. The writing is of a very high standard too and the author is espeically skilled in characterisation and giving his multitude of different characters their own unique voice. One may initially be disconcerted to be introduced to a fast stream of characters but the work flows well. It is as though each character is addressing you in turn and the soul searching and despair that sometimes shines through is very real, especially from the girl in love with the main character.

All in all then a lovely, incisive and haunting work. It is great that the new medium of the Kindle is allowing indy writers such as this to get their work out there. I wish the author success and thoroughly recommend his work.

FROM GOODREADS:

Michael Millar rated it

This is a major LGBT work of fiction, a kind of Proustian panorama of queer life and culture in the early 21st century. It's also beautifully written and well researched. This could make waves if it catches on. The theme is a fascinating one: what if orientation could be influenced by neuro-scientific experimental surgery? How would society deal with the implications? The format was fascinating, with an unexpected conceit at the end.

Nicholas Shapiro Author

Corpus Christi Carroll

The War For Cole's Sexual Orientation