*The Plaster Fabric by Martyn Goff (Putnam, 1957)

This is the second book by Martyn Goff that I have recently read, and I enjoyed it.  Like The Youngest Director, it is about a young gay man in London, probably set in the mid 1950s.

Laurie (Laurence) our mostly unheroic hero, is an artistically talented young man who works as a bookseller in a London bookshop (apparently working in a bookstore was once considered a decent and respectable job, if not career).  He lives by himself in a tiny basement in Chelsea.  During the War he was a member of the RAF.  Now, he works at the store, paints and sketches, and hangs out with Bohemians at the artsy club he belongs to.  His closest friend is a young woman named Sue, who is attending art school.  She is beginning to figure out that the reason their long and intimate friendship has never developed into a romance is because Laurie prefers boys to girls.

As the book begins Laurie meets Tom Beeson, a large, handsome, and sexy Guardsman.  Tom is uneducated and uncultured, but he is a proud and friendly young man who would like to better his circumstances.  Sending a possible patron in Laurie, Tom flirts with him, leading Laurie who, despite a short failed romance with another RAF pilot, has never managed to find a true companion, to believe that Tom might be the one.  But Laurie makes the mistake of introducing Tom to Sue, who quickly pounces on the handsome soldier and is soon married to the man Laurie loves.

The inevitable demise of Tom and Sue's marriage and Laurie's tangential involvement plays out over two years.  A third of the book is set in Florence, where Laurie goes on a disastrous holiday with his employer and companion.  Laurie is a weak, thwarted and mostly unlikeable character and there are many sad and disturbing moments in this book.  Like The Youngest Director, much of the tension and suspense surrounds Laurie's fears of being outed and loosing his job, family, and friends.  He considers his sexuality a natural anomaly that is nevertheless a serious character flaw.  And it seems that, at least in the world of this book, gay men who are upper-class and cultured cannot be sexually compatible, as they all seem to be sexually interested in only rough trade or young boys.  Laurie's older companion, who he lives with for two years, suggests that they continue living together and seek sexual excitement and satisfaction elsewhere.  Laurie, still enthralled with Tom, says no.

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[Fabulous jacket illustration and design by John Minton.]