Jarek

by Rigby Taylor

A high school student in a small tropical country town, angers the female teachers and is forced to disappear. Jarek, an idealistic young teacher who is encouraged by the Principal to run week-long camps for adolescents in the rainforest, also earns the enmity of a small group of liberated women when he dumps his girlfriend. The lives of both young men and those around them become seriously complicated by an assassination attempt followed by a suspicious death. In an attempt to escape their enemies they leave town and head for the coast. However, their enemies follow them, assisted in their determination to eliminate the young men by the president of a militant women’s organisation. Sebastian becomes a welcome ally in their struggle for survival, but even he seems impotent.

Genres: Gay, M M Romance, Abuse

238 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 29, 2012

About the author

Profile

I live on several acres of rainforest in sub-tropical Queensland, Australia with my partner.
I've published five novels:- 'NumbaCruncha' 'Sebastian', 'Jarek', 'Dome of Death', & 'The Price of Freedom'; a biography - 'Dancing Bare' , and a volume of short stories:- 'Time to Think'.
I write the sort of fiction I like to read - fast paced with some danger and heroes who are decent, honest, reliable and unafraid to make decisions, and who reckon that more than enough is too much.
I have always enjoyed the symbolism of Renaissance Art in which, among other things, purity, honesty and truthfulness is depicted by nudity. Titian’s “Sacred and Profane Love” and Michelangelo’s "Sistine Ceiling" and “Doni Tondo” are obvious examples.
It is in that sense that I use nudity in my novels. Only the good guys run around naked. Nude is not rude! Actions can be evil or good; bodies are merely natural vessels and, if well maintained, are admirable.
My characters live in the real world, not in a ghetto. They just happen to be gay and any sex is part of the story, not gratuitous or explicit.
All my novels are set in tropical Australia.

Reviews

[Tim Trent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is wonderfully insane, based on the premise that these things, as they unfold, might have happened that way. It's a satire in the Tom Sharpe mould, complete, in its way, with Konstabel Els and the elephant gun from Riotous Assembly.

Very little is exempt from the satire. Militant feminism takes a veritable broadside, as do the Abrahamic religions, societal morality, and so much else. No, not the Konstabel.

[Dee]

Intriguing but I am getting a bit sick of all the feminist talk. And men sitting around bitching about how awful women are in general. Seriously not one guy is happily married o.O

I also find it odd how easily Zeno's parents accepted and encourage his relationship with Jarek. Given Zeno has just turned 16 and Jarek is his 25 year old teacher. That seems very liberal, even in this day and age.

Shelving it for now.