I Am Not Raymond Wallace

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In part two which is set in 2003 and starts two thirds of the way through the book - some of the characters use 'letters' to communicate with other people to continue the narrative.

So begins a relationship which sees Raymond becoming part of a family very different from his own at home in Britain. As my self a gay boy growing up in the early 60's and knowing it at the age of 6, I could relate to SO MUCH of what was going on in this book made this THE story that i will NEVER ever forget, nor will I forget Raymond Wallace. I Am not Raymond Wallace is a multi-stranded story of queer redemption spanning multiple generations, told with precision-tooled prose, sharply-imagined settings and compassionately-observed characterisation.

And the way that gay men of the time, under the pressure of all that, tended towards hot, furtive, anonymous sex with strangers. It’s shocking to remember that Raymond had come from a country four years away from decriminalising his sexuality, and, of course, it would be many more years before same sex relationships could be both celebrated and recognised in law. Kenyon does a nice job recreating the pre-Stonewall milieu and there are some nice touches to the story. The romance is pretty much doomed from the beginning, given that in 1963 homosexuality is still the love that dare not say its name.

Delightfully chosen adjectives skilfully woven into a tale of hard choices in a difficult time, loss and being found. year old Raymond Wallace is going to Cambridge University and is sent to New York for a 3 month internship at the New York Times, and he has no idea that he is gay. Raymond is assigned to Doty, a journalist who has piece planned on the ‘overt homosexuality’ which apparently has New York in its grip. It tells important history of what it was like to be homosexual in the 1950s and 1960s - fear of losing job, being blackmailed, thought to be sick, etc, etc.The Raymond's controlling mother arrives to spend a couple of days with him at the end of his internship and accompany him home. The decision he makes will ricochet destructively through lives and decades until―in another time, another city; in Paris, 2003―Raymond’s son Joe finally meets Joey.