The Wild Man

The spectre of my course, and the insurmountable work load ( and the dull, monotonous studying/research! ) looms over me but I refuse to think about it today. It's much to depressing to think about my studies when there is a lovely Sunday ahead. Sundays are one of the days that I get away from work, from my responsiblities - and from everything bugging me actually... and laze around with a good book.

It actually amazed me that I never heard of this author before and when I decided to get her book at a whim, I found myself more than pleasantly surprised. I was in love with the Wild Man. The word bullfighter immediately brings to mind an image of a foolishly brave man, dressed in frilly laces and satin, and yet remarkably macho despite the surprisingly feminine accoutrements. This book plays partly with this odd paradox.

The Wild Man, a book by Patricia Nell Warren brings us back to old, painfully conservative Spain in the 1960s, a country just out of a brutal Civil War, under the reign of an aging Generallisimo Franco. To be anything out of the common, especially a homosexual would be an unpardonable crime - and to be a homosexual torero would be unimaginable.

Trapped in a closet of his own making, the famous, aristocratic torero, Antonio Escudero, finds himself slowly sinking in a pool of loneliness until a brief chance meeting with Juan, stirs his cold heart. Juan, a lusty, gentle peasant youth, has a gift for healing and a burning passion to become the finest veterinarian. In an era of homophobic repression and persecution, the scandalous love affair between these two macho somehow finds a way to take root and blossom - just like the dry wilderness that plays such a large part in the story. The story is certainly imperfect, and unabashedly romantic in a grand old style - but hell, I like it. :)

Ah, old-fashioned romance. I'm a sucker for that. Just have a guy whisper words of endearment ( in some foreign language - hopefully Spanish :) ) in my ear and my knees go weak.