Crocodilia

by Philip Ridley

When eighteen-year-old Dominic meets his new neighbour, the sexy, green-haired, tattooed punk Billy Crow, it's lust at first sight. And judging from their smouldering first encounter, Billy seems to feel the same way. But when Billy mentions a previous lover, Dominic demands to know all about him. And so a story starts to be told. A strange, fantastic story that begins to obsess Dominic more and more, until he finds himself wondering where that story ends . . . and his story begins.Set in London's East End in 1982, Philip Ridley's novel is a masterwork of LGBTQ fiction with a glittering, labyrinthine narrative and a firework display of images - a house full of crocodiles, Elvis Presley in a gold Cadillac, a cinema bathed in green neon - not to mention sex scenes of such dizzying eroticism that they take the breath away.In the years since its first publication in 1988, Crocodilia has become a cult classic, and for this new edition the author has expanded and developed the novel further, presenting it now - for the first time - as it was always intended. Already known as a visionary film director and one of the most original playwrights of his generation, with this new release Ridley confirms his place as one of our most innovative, distinctive, and dazzling novelists.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, LGBT, Queer, Gay

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Vittoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

The strangest thing happened to me while I was reading this book.
I literally became obsessed about a book about Obsession.
I adore Philip Ridley - he has been my favourite author since I read Meteorite Spoon when I was 12.
This isn't my favourite book of his, and all of his books have struck me deeply, and are brilliant in their own special way.
I have often spent sleepless nights finishing books that I couldn't possibly tear myself away from, but the singular feeling I experienced while reading this one was and to this day remains unprecedented. It went to my head! It is one of the books which I promised to myself I wouldn't re-read out of the fear of having that peculiar state of mind evaporate into nothingness.It would be crushing!
I'm not sure if I'd recommend it, chance is, if you are a fan of Philip Ridley's, you have already read it, but if you aren't, I'd recommend reading other more plot-driven books of his. I seem to recall that there weren't many developments in that direction.
I had a mind to give it four stars - compared to other books of his I adored, that is, but due to my personal experience with it it definitely deserves five.

[Jesse Stclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was wild. All the gay sex and crocodiles anybody could want

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Synopsis from the cover of the 1988 first edition of Crocodilia from Brilliance Books:

'Billy was fascinated by the crocodiles. "They live for hundreds of years", he said to me. "Do they?" I stood as close as possible besides him. "Just think of it. We'll live and die and they'll still be there. Watching. Safe in their hard skins."'

'Dominic Neil, an eighteen-year-old East End lad, meets and becomes obsessed with Billy Crow, a young punk who lives next door. Through Billy, Dominic is propelled into a world of jewel encrusted crocodiles, masturbation, fantasy,letters, photographs, deceit and people with lives so bizarre he can scarcely imagine they are real.

'A dazzlingly erotic spectacle, CROCODILIA is Philip Ridley's sparkling debut as a novelist.'

I have quoted the above because if you compare it to the synopsis on GR drawn from the 2021 Valecourt Press edition you will notice the absence of things like 'Elvis Presley in a gold Cadillac, a cinema bathed in green neon' you may also note that Billy Crow's hair is changed from blue to green but then this is the original text that Philip Ridley wrote and published not the '...new edition the author has expanded and developed the novel further, presenting it now - for the first time - as it was always intended.' I don't know that Ridley back in 1988 was prevented from publishing Crocodilia as he 'intended'; until I read the author's essay in the new edition (unfortunately something not likely to happen anytime soon as it would mean buying a copy) if there is any foundation to this assertion.

The 1988 text became a cult classic in the UK, Italy and Russia and I think it is dangerous and even counterproductive for an author to substantially rewrite their early works. Revisions and corrections are one thing but the original Crocodilia was 125 pages and the 2021 edition has 288 which suggests the 2021 edition is not simply new or improved but a new novel (see my footnote *1 below). Reading the post 2021 reviews with they talk of magic realism, stories within stories a narrative that interposes letters, interludes, and odd fairy tales within the main storyline, differentiated by using different fonts. There is none of that in the 1988 version and although it was wildly erotic and sexy I can't help wondering if the number of comments on the sex scenes in the book:

"...Its blurb promises "sex scenes of such dizzying eroticism that they take the breath away" and I have to say that they were not exaggerating or being overconfident. The smut is plentiful and good as things get repeatedly "ahem" heated." (GR reviewer Areed Ahmad on January 26, 2022 for example)

do seem to reflect a more extensive erotic descriptive presence. Overall I can't help feeling that the Crocodilia as it has been revised for the 2021 edition is a book that reflects the changes that have occurred since its original publication. But there's the rub - the 1988 Crocodilia was so wonderful and became an underground classic because it emerged in 1988. It was refreshing and delightful because there had been nothing like it - despite the onset of AIDS and increasing establishment homophobia (188 was the year Clause 28 was introduced in the UK) the eighties were, for UK gays, their time of explosive triumph as they stepped out of the closet and strut their stuff in a delirious carnival. It was a decade later than New York but it was just as real and important. Crocodilia did not explain, justify or demand anything. It ignored AIDS it was about being young, sexual and free. There was nothing quite like it and that Mr. Ridley's next novel 'In the Eyes of Mr. Fury' in 1989 would come out from Penguin, one of the most establishment of UK publishers, suggested that the world was changing.

The problem is that whatever the 2021 Crocodilia is, and it maybe an absolutely first rate book, it isn't the '...dazzlingly erotic spectacle...(and) sparkling debut' novel of 1988. Books emerge from their times and that is what makes them great - novels by Jane Austen, William Mackpeace Thackary, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle are alive and read in the w1st century because though completely rooted in their times they speak beyond them. Crocodilia in 1988 was the creation of a young (24 years old) writer of enormous and varied talents and it spoke to people in the UK, and later in Russia in 1999 because of that. In 1899 the poet William Butler Yeats wrote in his poem 'Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven'

'I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.'

Once an author releases a book it ceases to be purely theirs, particularly if it is one those rare but wonderful books that captures the imaginations of readers and becomes part of their dreams. Unless Mr. Ridley was savagely censored back in 1988 he had no right to foist the 21st century version on readers. I cannot think of any significant work of fiction that has been as drastically rewritten in the way Crocodilia has - that does not mean the 2021 work is not good - but it is not the 1988 book which was so wonderful.

My original review of Crocodilia:

A dazzling novel which contains love, loss, bildungsroman, family, the past and how to live with and escape it, the future and how to face it and wonderfully fun and erotic first time sex celebrated and described with a relish and honesty that is just wonderful to read. It is an extraordinary first novel and if you ever doubt that the publishing industry is blind to talent and riddled with closet homophobes then you have to look at how it took over thirty years for this brilliant novel to get anything like a mainstream publication.

Read it and enjoy it for all its wonderful fantast, truthfulness and sheer brio and love of life. A truly memorable book.



*1 The same increase can be seen in his other novel 'In the Eyes of Mr. Fury' which when republished in 2017 had grown from 188 to 386 pages.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was captivating, such a great little book. I only wish it could have been longer (it could have done with some more about the twins though, I felt that their story got a little rushed and would have been better to have a bit more to it). I'd love to move house and find a beautiful punk living next door.

I really don't know why Philip Ridley isn't more widely read. This is the second of his I've read (the first being In the Eyes of Mr Fury, which, though I remember it being fantastic, I can barely remember the plot of, one to re-read I think), and it was also wonderful. I suppose that 1988 was probably not the best time to publish a book about homosexual relationships, with the whole AIDS fear still being around, this may contribute to why he/this book isn't so well known (possibly???)

Such a lovely book!

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I wanted to kiss the shadowy figure's face. But I woke up before I had a chance. In a way, the story I want to tell begins there. The night when I had my first wet dream and woke before I kissed my lover's face. So we'll say - for the sake of convenience - that the story has already begun. Although nothing much will happen for another five years. For five years I slept... waiting for crocodiles."

Set in London's East End in 1982, Scott's debut novel Crocodilia became a cult classic when it was first published in 1988 and even sort of an underground phenomenon in Russia. I had few basic expectations from the book when I got it so I was pleasantly surprised when it was more than a straightforward story of young l̶o̶v̶e̶ lust. Stories nest within stories, the surreal slithers into the routine. It has, as the closing interview says, "surprising twists, sudden leaps into the uncanny." Ridley's narrative interposes letters, interludes, and odd fairy tales within the main storyline, differentiated by using different fonts.

Its blurb promises "sex scenes of such dizzying eroticism that they take the breath away" and I have to say that they were not exaggerating or being overconfident. The smut is plentiful and good as things get repeatedly *ahem" heated. I particularly liked the fantastic elements, those prancing crocodiles, the entrancing frescos, the eerie repetitions, and coincidences, almost like history repeating itself. It is a fairly quick read; I can almost call it airy. I would not have minded more substance, more weirdness, perhaps a bit more exploration of characters to ground them, and a slowed pace to better connect with them.



(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

[Ter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mio amatissimo Philip Ridley, vorrei avere una casa editrice solo per ripubblicarti. Grandiosi personaggi queer punk che tuttə avremmo bisogno di leggere.

[Judah Tasa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Experimental, and interesting, in two ways:

- it's told in multilayered stories, letters and tales and books within books
- it imagines a 1980s Britain in which being gay is unremarkable and commonplace

I'm not sure it fully delivers on either front, unfortunately.

The different stories are interesting, but the written voices are too similar. Too many of the characters use the same vocabulary, the same tone, the same approach to storytelling. Much of the book is presented in a form of second-person, as conversations between the author(s) and the reader. But the conversations take on too many of the same linguistic patterns, such that ultimately they all sound like they're being told by the same person.

In this edition, the different stories are rendered in different fonts, which seems consistent with the art-project origins of the story. But while I found the experience of reading those fonts a little tedious, the more serious problem is that it became a crutch, standing in for a true diversity of voices from the various authors. (A fairy tale is already going to "feel" more like a fairy tale when it is printed in blackletter script.) At first I thought the similarity in characters was intentional, a kind of Gabriel Garcia Marquez-ish blurring of identities across generations. But ultimately it didn't seem to really pay off.

The second problem is that the main character is a bit insufferable. Because Philip Ridley explains in an interview appended to the end of the book (more on that in a moment) that the narrator was very much a Mary Sue stand-in for himself, that becomes a pretty fatal flaw. I get the age-appropriate interest in romance and sex, the disinterest in the rest of your family, and the framing of every conflict as life-defining. But that kind of context, to be intelligible or interesting by anyone besides other just-18-year-olds, requires some work on the part of the author to give it some meaning. And the meaning just wasn't here; at best the climax was that all the stories were just stories. (It doesn't help that every character who isn't a sexual interest is pretty thinly drawn and inconsequential to the story.)

And while imagining a 1980s England in which gayness wasn't unusual enough to be commented on is interesting -- especially when it was written -- it sometimes seems as if every male character the protagonist encounters is gay. It just feels a little...much. Because the somewhat overwrought main character is the only engine to the plot, some of the supposed "twists" feel pretentious rather than creative.

At the end of this edition there's an interview with the author. The interviewer isn't named, and the consequence of that is a feeling that Philip Ridley is having a conversation with himself. Ultimately this interview felt like a key unlocking the rest of the book's shortcomings: this is how the author talks, and it's how he writes -- every character. Since the book is itself a collection of stories, ending with an interview about the creation of the book feels like a meta-conversation that is as much a part of the novel as any of the other plot lines. Unfortunately that doesn't turn out to be a good thing.

In the closing interview, Ridley mentions the artistic milieux in which he was operating in the early 1980s, referencing Derek Jarman in passing. I do think the book is Jarmanesque in its more hallucinatory aspects, and certainly in the primacy and vividness of sex. (I haven't talked about the detailed gay sex in the book, because if you know anything about this book it's probably that, and while scandalous 40 years ago it's not enough to lift the novel today.) But Jarman was simply more creative, had a better range of characters, and really just had more to say.

tl;dr An interesting historical artifact, with some artistic moments and some passionate gay sex, but in the end not something that's going to stick with me.

[Choyang · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Crocodilia' by Philip Ridley

Convoluted storyline with tales within tales...and tails! Wowza! I really liked this book, maybe because I also have a creative mind, so it was pretty trippy trying to follow the chaos of the storyline! There were funny, and chaotic, and scary kinda horrible scenarios and it was mind-blowing trying to unravel what was really happening, from what was fantasy! Maybe it just didn't matter...

So, hold onto your hat, you're in for a hellava ride!

The blurb promises "sex scenes of such dizzying eroticism that they take the breath away"...omg, yeah! Too steamy for prime-time! 🥴🐊🐊🐊😉

Two thumbs up! 👍👍

[Georhos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Можливо письменник і хотів донести якийсь глибокий сенс цим оповіданням, в другій половині йому це, навіть, частково вдається, та загалом починаючи читати, тебе з усіх сторін накриває сценами сексу та мастурбації. І тільки починає проглядатися внутрішнє переживання героя, як знову все зводиться до сексу.
Зі сторінки сорокової секс уже не сприймається як щось неймовірне, скоріш як рутина, частина життя, яка змушує героя відмовлятися від усього і метушливо бігати в пошуках тілесного задоволення
Лише наприкінці автору вдається відкинути секс на другий план та завершити книгу цікавим фіналом

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some wonderful writing particularly in the virtuoso chapter in written in multiple texts but the story and execution reminded me of Young Adult books. I was expecting a psychedelic cult classic and got a YA anodyne family novel. The Valancourt edition has an interview with the author.

[Sweeney Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a life changing experience for me. As a queer person, I wish I could have read this when I was younger. It’s one of those pieces of art that reminds you of how truly beautiful gay love is, and makes you proud to be queer. This one will stick with me the rest of my life 💚🐊

[leir · Rating 4 out of 5]

«E io ti piaccio?»
Gli sfiorai il ventre. «Sì.»
«Splendido. Iniziamo alla pari, e camminiamo nella luce.»

[Mark Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Julian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dirk Bogarde slay I guess

[dănuț]

I love it when the queers get weird

[Rogomelec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine if you stuffed a soap opera, a YA mystery, and a fever dream into a blender, added a splash of gay drama, and then hit “liquefy” — that’s Crocodilia.

This book is wild. There’s a love triangle (maybe quadrangle?), twin mishaps, weird family drama, mystery letters, and more coincidences than you could shake a crocodile tail at. One second we’re dealing with normal sibling tensions, the next a completely fabricated Colombian jungle adventure is happening, or crocodile paintings are literally eating twins (???). Reality? Fiction? Lies? Who knows! We’re just along for the ride.

Honestly, it was enjoyable — messy, weird, sometimes nonsensical, but never boring. That said, it did read very juvenile at times. Dom’s running commentary over Billy’s letters felt like something straight out of a high school group chat, just with an R-rating for all the explicit gay sex. The dialogue-heavy style made everything zip by, but left the characters feeling pretty thin. I knew what everyone looked like in great detail — but as for what they were actually like? Questionable. Most of the “warning signs” about Theo, Tristan, Kalvin, and Billy came secondhand through sketchy letters anyway, so even the drama felt like it had several layers of unreliability baked in.

Still, if you’re in the mood for unhinged, fast-paced gay chaos where logic is optional and drama is guaranteed — Crocodilia delivers. Just maybe don’t try to make too much sense of it.

3.5 ✨ messy, chaotic, weirdly entertaining stars!

[Alessandro Margheriti · Rating 5 out of 5]

E' più crudele chi ossessiona o chi è ossessionato?
Chi inganna o chi è ingannato?
In questo superbo, inquietantissimo romanzo, l'autore apre squarci profondi descrivendo un amore che diventa ossessione. Al punto che la realtà si mescola con la finzione e non si capisce quasi più di chi è la storia narrata.
Ma fino a che punto è quindi lecito voler sapere la storia della persona che amiamo?
E' più crudele la verità o la finzione?
Ma soprattutto, cos'è la verità? Nient'altro che quello che noi raccontiamo agli altri, spacciandola per tale. E' quella la nostra storia.
Nota di plauso anche per il realismo con cui sono descritti i rapporti tra genitori e figli.

[Kevin Rainford · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published as a novella in 1988 and now revised and expanded with an insightful interview with Ridley at the end. As he says. “Well, stories are at the heart of it, yes. The stories we tell to create ourselves. The stories we tell to create others. The stories we tell about the past. And, of course, the stories we tell to fall in love.”
Revisiting this 33 years later like Philip was wonderful. Wild, twisted and very sexy.

[Ada · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non so.