Gordon Merrick is the dirty, fetishg loving, Jackie Collins cousin to the more highbrow works of Armistead Maupin. Which means it is melodramatic, filled with sex and two impossibly good looking leads.

I loved it.

Honestly though--the works of Merrick live in a strange twilight world of fiction--one of the first series about gay men, a successful series and written by a straight man. This is second in the Peter and Charlie series started in "The Lord Wont Mind" and follows the two lovers through Greece and the Mediterranean in the 1950s. While there is plenty to wince at with some odd dialouge, groan inducing interalized homophobia within the characters and a sly and slight bit of sexism at play--despite all this I found myself in love with and rooting for the books young-ish lovers and there attempts at happiness.

I think the other reason I loved this book is quite simply this--there is not much fun fiction out there for a gay audience and something this that is parts fun, lux and sexy is worth more than it's weight in gold.


5 s Stewart708 9

The novels of Gorden Merrick are delicious trash, full of glamour and explicit gay sex -- manna from heaven for one timid gay adolescent in the 1970s whose heart would pound in fear as he handed them over to check out clerk at B. Dalton Booksellers in the local mall and would be up all night reading under the covers with a flashlight.1970s 20th-century american ...more3 s BookLuva2898 14

Although I was a bit indifferent, if not to say agitated by the overwrought information on sailing, One for the Gods adequately earned it's rightful place as the second installment for this overlooked, underrated trilogy. Gordon Merrick manages to take the reader on a voyage of human nature that is both savage and complex in it's raw emotion. I was worried that along the way, the plot would be lost on me with it's somewhat exhausted take on another man's Odyssey, but it managed to divert itself from the mundane sexual tropes, misadventures and reaffirm the layers of the relationship Peter and Charlie are trying to navigate despite the many obstacles obstructing their goal of living out their lives together in perfect (imperfect) balance. exotic-locales m4m own1 reed357 8

Makes you wish you were rich and sailing around the Greek Islands having drama with your hung gay lover.2 s Martin482 4

This was the second volume of the Peter and Charlie trilogy and it was quite different from the first. There was the usual gratuitous sex but this time the sex was used to defining roles in within the relationships. Most of the action took place on a boat and plenty of nautical action in running a sailboat through the Mediterranean. I am starting the third book now.1 Jack425 1 follower

Haven’t seen this much ham-fisted sailing information since Moby Dick. Fitting, I suppose lgbtq mlm-romance romance1 Suzanne StrohAuthor 3 books28

The saga of Peter and Charlie continues. The war's over and they're on the French Riviera....wearing next to nothing....and going to parties where real Matisses and Picassos hang on the walls. If only Peter would stay indoors!

More great scenes of sex and love... with some pretty girls and great sailing thrown in. This is the second book in the trilogy, and I think it's the best of the three. This was cutting-edge for the 1950s, and if you retro and gay and packed with great, big, raw, um, intelligence, you can't do better.by-the-bedside epics-and-cycles erotica ...more1 Florebunda419 2

The sequel to The Lord Won't Mind catches up with Peter and Charlie in 1950 in the South of France and charts a turbulent few months in their relationship, including an interesting yacht trip to the Greek islands. I found the sequel much more enjoyable than the first story, maybe because the emotions felt more real. Although the dialogue still sounded odd and in my head, they sounded Bertie Wooster. But written in 1970/1, you've got to hand it to the guy, it's seriously racy stuff.borrowed-book paperbacks relationship-over-years1 Mike Adams94

Another cheesy classic in the genre of over-the-top gay affairs with rich hung "beautiful" men. Gosh, what glorious trash.1 David GeeAuthor 5 books9

Originally published in 1971, this is the first of two sequels to The Lord Won’t Mind, Gordon Merrick’s ‘landmark’ novel about gay love and gay sex in postwar USA. Our hunky well-endowed heroes Charlie and Peter are on an extended holiday on the French Riviera. Charlie is heartbroken when Peter two-times him with a cute local lad. After this little hiccup they join their rich friends Jack and Martha for a cruise to Capri and the Greek islands. More hiccups.

The yacht trip begins with a night storm which is almost in the Herman Melville league. Then Charlie, who has bisexual tendencies, decides he wants to have a child with Martha. He also – spoiler alert – wants Peter to have sex with Martha, at which point the novel unravels into tawdry melodrama.

Rich people on a yacht drinking too much and screwing their brains out, there’s a faint echo of Scott Fitzgerald, although some of the writing – “his dark eyes were soft with desire” - is more evocative of Barbara Cartland than Fitzgerald. The sex scenes are hardcore without being too crude, but here too there are lapses: I’m not sure if Barbara Cartland ever described a blowjob (I’m trying not to picture her giving one!), but she could well have written “he lay back and surrendered to the rapture of Peter’s miraculous mouth.”

As gay porn One For the Gods delivers the goods, but as a study in gay relationships the story’s artificiality weakens its conviction. A ‘juicy’ read, then, but not much more.literary-fiction Roger - president of NBR United -712 27

I remember reading this when I first discovered MM romance. Then because new to the genre everything felt fresh. Now as a veteran reader of the genre it seems dated to the morals of the time it was written. A manners novel and infidelity definitely not my favorite. Charlie and Peter are so charming and a bit naive. It is well written just not for me.fiction glbt m-m-romance ...more Michael1,071 6

Reading Challenge 2017: book about travel. Starting on the island of Saint Tropez, Charlie and Peter travel in a sailboat with the Kingsley's, a couple with issues of their own. Sailing in the Aegean Sea, stopping at various Greek islands, until Charlie has a fit, leaves the boat and buys a house on Hydra Island, which ends their journey. A storm at sea, lusty bandits, a drunk captain, a possibly pregnant wife, friendly islanders, and a self-realization make for an interesting tale. This only makes me want to travel to Greece to visit as well. The second book of the trilogy is a vehicle for the third in that it gives Peter and Charlie a reason to leave America behind and live on the Greek island. lgbt Jonny_jinx_nz30

Generally, if I start a book or series, I go on to reading to the end but that was not the case with Gordon Merrick's 'Peter and Charlie trilogy.

I struggled to read "The Lord Won't Mind" but for some reason, I just could not get more than halfway through the second book "One for the Gods" and "Forth into Light" didn't even get a look in.

Mind you, I bought the series in December 2014 and from memory, it was the struggle to remain faithful and the influence of religion on the relationship, that put me off.

Now nine years later, I might give the series another go, however I have hundreds of books to re-read before I get around to them. Reader (Show me, don't tell me)313 1 follower

I often wonder why it became necessary to tag people who prefer their own sex as gay= happy, faggots = kindlings, fairy = mythical little creatures with wings, queer = strange, etc. etc.

There was a time when many of those words esp. the above three meant something totally different and it saddened me greatly that I cannot use them anymore to mean their original meanings. None of those words described a human (person).

The fact that I think this way in 2017 must mean that as much as homosexuality has to some extent been accepted, there is so much more that still has not been accepted or tolerated. And that is just heartbreaking.

There are many, many Charlies around still and for the life of love and goodness why can't the world be less hypocritical? Why must people be labelled and villianized because of something they have absolutely no control of? God or Nature created them the way they are. It makes me so, so mad that people have to fight for their lives for a very basic and necessary thing as Love. To love as freely as the rest of us.

Anyway, *deep breath*, this second book about Charlie and Peter is just wonderful and one cannot help but feel compassion and sympathy for them.readable-contemporaries Estarianne457 12

I have to wonder why fictional gay relationships always have to include sanctioned infidelity. I don't generally it. At least in this book it wasn't all massaged into inertness, with the "it's just sex" line. Basically this entire book was a run-up to a preordained confrontation that, when it happened, was pretty anticlimactic. I will say that the characters are engaging. These two cause each other a lot of pain in the stories, so it is kind if hard to see the elapsed time between them as being peaceful and a sign of longevity, but the stories are suspenseful. Doujia2139 13

Autor del comentario:
=================================