False Colors, by Alex Beecroft

False Colors: An M/M Romance


Alex Beecroft

There is something about the Age of Sail in historical fiction that is highly conducive to M/M romance. Perhaps it sets the stage (or should I say "deck"?) for inevitable personal contact with quite immediate and fatal circumstances. Unlike two men in love in the landlubber world, there is little chance to hide the relationship, and however hard one might try to avoid the other, there is no way to do it. Further, since part of the theme of the genre and even part of its poignant appeal is the constant threat of exposure, you are going to find lots of room for gay relationships in the work of such authors as Alex Beecroft with this novel and Captain's Surrender and M. Kei's Pirates Of The Narrow Seas series.

In False Colors Alfie is attracted to his superior officer John, presently captain of a ship set up for failure. For his part, the strictly brought up John is puzzled by Alfie's unusual friendliness and relaxed behavior around him. They become friends, but it is not until Alfie so caringly looks after John when he is severely wounded that Alfie has an opportunity to show his affection, something John firmly rejects. When Alfie's old captain, Farrant,  arrives and John learns of his notorious life as a sodomite he confronts Alfie, is horrified by his candor about his sexuality, and rejects him once and for all. Alfie takes off and signs on with his former captain. John and Alfie meet again in Jamaica. John has come to grips with his own sexuality by now, but Alfie is on trial for sodomy. Unbeknownst to him, John goes to bat for him and exposes the plaintiffs at the cost of a captaincy of his own again. They sign on with the same mission to the Arctic where they try hard to avoid each other, but it's no use. A tense and ill fated encounter in John's cabin makes matters worse. It is not until they are back in Jamaica that there is any chance for a rapprochement.

It sounds like a simple story, but there are many facets to the fractious romance. The former captain, Farrant, is terrified of falling in love and acts recklessly, almost suicidally. Farrant's wife has been convinced by her husband's doctor that he is ill and that a cure can be found, a suggestion still made in these more enlightened times. John's childhood with a philandering father and religious zealot of a mother contrast with Alfie's antiquarian parents' utter rejection of their homosexual son. The impact of torture on each man, under different circumstances, stands as both a bond and a barrier between them. The seamier life of "sodomites" in the era comes up to shake John's growing acceptance that he and others like him are "made this way by God".

This is a well told story with really only one flaw. Beecroft's handling of scene changes and time passing can be abrupt. We lose some of the character development that could have taken place. This is the earlier of the two novels, so it cannot be faulted for the fact that Captain's Surrender bears a strong resemblance to it. I hope Beecroft gets out of this mold for any further books, which I fondly hope she writes.

What I liked about this novel, and I liked it a lot, is that unlike many M/M romances, it is not afraid to show struggle and self reproach as would be the case in such an era. Beecroft told me wshe has gotten grief for the more "real" aspects of her writing, things like rotten teeth, scurvy, and other "unromantic" parts of the scene. Personally I think the book was much the better for it, but then I am not what you would call a romance fan. I read books like this as literary historical fiction, and Beecroft satisfies the need for more than just a love relationship with its fits and starts. She gets into the times, not only the events but also the cultural impact constant even hysterical condemnation has on people who are simply in love. She handles John's religious self questioning and Alfie's hopelessness about finding love. He thinks to himself at one point that all he wants is to have someone in whose arms he can awake. To me that is the quintessence of love and, for lack of a better word, marriage. That anyone, including a god, can seek to deny anyone that homely comfort appals me. I thank Beecroft for making that point so strongly in this gutsy novel.

I bought this novel for use on my Kindle 3. As always, I thank the author and publisher for allowing text to speech to be enabled so I could read it.

Captain's Surrender, by Alex Beecrost

Captain's Surrender

Alex Beecroft

Josh Andrews stands at attention as the highly homophobic Capt. Walker hangs one of his crew mates for sodomy.  He is sure Walker knows that he shares that "abomination" and that the first proof he can get he will use to destroy him.  When the ship's new lieutenant, Peter Kenyon, pulls up in a fancy carriage to start his duty on the Royal Navy ship and Walker catches Josh's admiring look, he assigns Josh and Peter to share quarters just to torture the midshipman. 

The two young men not only must deal with the Captain's cruelty but also the mutiny brewing among the crew because of it.  When Walker is stabbed during the attempt Peter takes over the chip and sails it on to Bermuda.  This gives Peter the chance to get Josh, who had once given into impulse and kissed him, alone so he can fulfill Josh's fondest hope, and they become lovers.  Josh tells him from the start that he knows someone like Peter is ambitious and wants a normal life, so he expects him to break it off someday and would rather not entertain any false hope.  Peter seems to go along with this.

When Peter starts casually to court the daughter  of an important man in Bermuda,  Josh sees the writing on the wall.  That the woman is not in the least interested in Peter seems not to be taken into consideration by anyone.  When the two men are on a mission to assess French designs on Hudson's Bay, Josh takes a chance to save Peter and the other ships by sending his own crew off and firing the ship, expecting to die.  Peter is captured but ransomed and goes back to Bermuda to mourn for his friend.  In the meantime Josh has met some Indians who saved his life and teach him that men who love men are considered special and holy in their culture.  The man wants to make Josh his second wife, but Josh will only do that if Peter truly no longer wants him.

More than anything this novel about the two men's understanding of their sexual and affectional proclivities.  Josh has known he is gay from childhood, has been taught he is wrong, a sinner.  Peter doesn't seem to think very hard about why he is boinking a man, seems to think he is just doing it to make Josh happy.  While he tells Josh he cannot separate sex from love, he certainly acts like he can.  When Josh is first presented with the idea that there is nothing wrong with him, he is liberated to feel free to love a man, no matter how careful he and that man need to be to be safe from man's law if not God's.  To the eleventh hour Peter continues to see conventional society the correct one.  I absolutely cannot forgive him for what he contemplates just before coming to his own epiphany.  He does not deserve Josh, who is the much better man.

The main problem I had with this novel is that dramatic tension seemed to llack at the the most unlikely times.  Three weeks go by in a flash at the beginning, a period where  Peter and Josh would be getting to know each other.  More feeble is a later scene when a "molly house" or male brothell is burned down and Josh can hear a man inside dying horribly.  All Josh seems to focus on after an abortive attempt to enter the house and save the man is to take Peter's rival for the young woman's acffections and buy him a drink and tell him not to give up.  An atrocity has just taken place and they are off having a beer.  The dramatic potential of that scene in particular is tragically lost.  The one thing about that scene I appreciated was that it demonstrated how the classes were treated differently in terms of gay men.  The molly house is no finer than a brothel and the perpetrators of the arson will be overlooked, for they are upper crust and alouwed to commit murder but the low caste male prostitutes will receive no justice.  This is a concept that I know for a fact many people don't consider, that punishment for "sodomy" is applied based on class and not universally.

Nevertheless the characterization is credible and well drawn and the plot holds together and is exciting at times.

A persistent theme in what is often called M/M love stories is that the two men in love go from doing what comes, according to their society, unnaturally, but eventually conclude love is love and love is worth the risk.  There is almost always some threat of being caught and punished.  It can be emotionally harrowing to read these books.  Fortunately there are a few M/M and gay novels where fear is not as strong a motivator as attraction and love.

I listened to this novel, which I bought at the Kindle Store on Amazon, on my Kindle 3.