In His Eyes

by Larry Benjamin

“When you boys fall in love, fall in love with his smile—because his smile will never age or change—and his eyes because in his eyes, you will always see the truth.” That advice launches two young men on the journey to adulthood.

Told in 139 “vignettes,” each dedicated to a single event, this is the story of four young men who meet in college, and follows them for more than two decades as they navigate the landscape of modern gay life.

Often playful and imaginative, but firmly grounded in the reality of gay men living in a perplexing, often hostile world, In His Eyes takes us on a journey with these men as they mature and fall in love, and struggle to maintain relationships among petty disappointments and broken dreams, while navigating the rough terrain of acceptance both internal and external.

As they break apart and come together, wound and heal, we are left to ask does love ever really die, or is it just reborn in another time and place?

Genres: M M Romance, LGBT

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2017

About the author

Writer. Wordsmith. Author.
Words, You See, are the Thing

Bronx-born wordsmith, Larry Benjamin is the author of Excellent Sons: A Love Story in Three Acts, a 2022 Lambda Literary Award winner in the Gay Romance category and a 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist; Unbroken, a 2014 Lambda Literary Award finalist and a 2014 IPPY (Independent Publishers Book Award) Gold medalist; The Sun, The Earth & The Moon; In His Eyes; Damaged Angels, a collection of short stories [out of print]; and Vampire Rising, an allegorical novella. His latest novel, He, will be published in October 2025.

His work has been published by Carina Press, a Harlequin imprint, Bold Strokes Books, and Beaten Track Publishing.

He lives in Philadelphia with his husband Stanley and their two rescue dogs, Atticus and Gatsby. He is at work on his next novel.

Reviews

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars.






I found the writing style here a lot different to the previous books I've read by this Author but,as usual,his words and characters had me captivated.I've got to admit I didn't know what a 'vignette' was,

Definition: a brief evocative description,account or episode.

I found reading a the story in this way so refreshing.






In His Eyes maps the story of four men,

Micah,
Skye,
Reid,
Calvin.


They meet when they are young men,just finding their way in life and all the insecurities that go with youth and follows them into their forties.
They all,eventually,go on their own emotional journey but theirs lives along the way are far from perfect.I don't want to give anything away but the story deals with some emotive subjects.It takes them as mature adults to look deep inside themselves to,firstly,recognize themselves as individuals and in doing so appreciate what they have.

A recommended read....

An Arc of In His Eyes was kindly provided to me by the Author in exchange for an honest review.

[True Loveislovereview · Rating 5 out of 5]

5+++

Micah - Skye - Reid - Calvin. Four beautiful boys growing out to four even more beautiful men.
All the parts gave this whole book so much dynamic. Impressive !

Technically I don't know anything about book terms and certainly not in English, but from my lay perspective this in “vignettes" written story is absolutely stunning and I loved it!
So lividly! Alternately from many different points of view.
Every new headline made my wonder of the meaning and everyone did something to me.....
I smiled, wondered, laugh and sometimes they choked me up and made me spontaneously cry.

"For love can be hidden, it can be pushed into the shadows, but it can never be denied"

An extraordinary read, one because of the structure and two the way it's written.
There are high sensitive parts which made me almost rise from my couch by reading them. They touched my core.

All the delicate details made my heart flutter.
It's just sometimes highly romantic, ohh my heart.... stop beating so hard...

So many things I want to highlight...but that would be to much....so many deeply moving sentences I want to spoil.....no I'm not going there....read it yourself....

But it wasn't all rosy. There were very emotional and heartbreaking parts I cried out loud and just had to stop reading, all those blurred lines.....
And there were parts I got whiplashed.
They all had their own explicit personality and sometimes I wanted give one of them a push in the back...please....go on...you can and even may do it....But no one can be forced....they have to find their path by themselves....Not that I didn't wanted to yell....! Again....my heart.....

“You believe in prayer?”
“Well, not religious prayer, but the sending of positive energy and thoughts into the world, and the ability to make things happen through collective will, yes.”

On the threshold of a big change I separated myself and screamed.....

“Have you ever noticed that often the distance between what we know and what we believe can be measured in miles?”

I had to shorten my review. I was halfway reading and already written a long one....but I wanted so much express how great this story is. How it moved me. How my heart was touched by this journey of four beautiful men who we can follow over more than two decades.

It's all about friendship and growing up, finding your way, in a world where a big part of the population is negative about being gay. Bless the ones who know that love is all what counts. It's about not able to define the color of.... to experience the smell of.... the taste of.....to listen to beautiful notes....all my senses were activated....about friendship, losing yourself, losing someone else, depression, desperation and deep-rooted love....as so all my emotions.

This all written in an amazing captivating way, melted in beautiful sentences like only a real smith can! It will bring you in a high state of awareness.
A journey I will never forget...

"Wildflowers and Rain" God I want to smell it!

~~ Elie <3 ~~


An absolute mustread.

Kindly received an early copy from dearest Deb you are the best <3
You can click on the next pre-order button

BeatenTrackPublishing http://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/...

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/His-Eyes-Larry...

Sometimes you run into ....

[Renée · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, guys, every book is the same formula. It's a period piece with "coming of age" themes, and one of the secondary characters dies from AIDS. What I found gripping in his other stories is just repetitive at this point. I don't consider any of this spoilery because it's the same damn thing in every one of his books so far.

I'm honestly surprised I finished this.

Larry Benjamin.......I need you to write something other than period pieces.

And can you please finish a sex scene?

And can you NOT include a character that dies from AIDS?

And let's not have rampant cheating.

Or drinking one's urine straight from his dick. (I mean, really, you'll write THAT in detail, but I can't get a good sex scene?)

[Denise H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

***** Beautifully written, deeply meaningful, and holds your attention to the end. This is much more than a story, it is a saga of four men's lives that entwine in college, and through the years, plus the events that draw them back together.
Inner struggles, social issues, a mixture of experiences, and the devotion of true friends. There is so much to tell, but this needs to be experienced by each reader. We begin with Micah

and Skye,

college roommates, and expand to the people involved in thier lives. Calvin

and Reid.


Sad past tales, current problems, a reluctant man who can't decide if he's gay, and a relationship that turns to abuse. We get to know our marvelous characters, two black men, two white men, and their mix of friends along the way.



A heart-wrenching tale at times, happiness, too, and we laugh and cry with our men.
It's a magnificent flow of lives and passions.

Highly recommended. ENJOY !

======

[Debbie McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Editor's Review

What can I tell you about the new novel from Larry Benjamin? When I think of how readily I can waffle up a storm in any other circumstances, it's hard to believe I can't find words to do justice to In His Eyes (or, indeed, any of Larry's previous works). I could repeat the blurb, but that's pointless...

Larry will tell you that In His Eyes is very different from his previous novels, and I agree with him up to a point. Whilst he possesses a unique literary voice that shapes all of his stories, this one is told through vignettes and from four different points of view, where What Binds Us and Unbroken are both written in continuous prose and from one point of view only.

It also looks nothing like I expected it to when Larry first told me about it. I envisaged there would be a certain amount of separation between the four narrative strands, with the spotlight falling on one character and leaving the others in the downstage darkness until that character had taken their turn.

What we get instead is a braiding together, and in the same way as each strand of a braid at some point rises to the surface, briefly elevated by the other strands, it remains an inseparable part of the whole, lifting the other strands to the fore when it is their turn. I'm a bit in awe, to be honest, because when I reached the end, it dawned on me that I had travelled decades with these guys, yet not once did I feel there were times unaccounted for.

I realise this review doesn't at all capture the emotional journey of these characters, the ups and downs, the relationships they encounter, or the deep friendship that holds them together. I'm not even going to attempt to do that. You'll need to read it and see for yourself.

[A.M. Leibowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read one book this year, make it this one.

From the very first page, I felt like I'd stepped right into the lives of the characters, and I was oblivious to anything around me. For an afternoon, I was transported to their time and place. This is the fastest I've ever read a book of that length. I kept saying, "Just one more section, and then I'll pause." I never got around to pausing.

This is everything I love in a good literary work: solid characters who feel real; relationships but not a romance; a wide range of emotions; realism without a focus exclusively on angst; sensuality without graphic sex; brilliant symbolism; and a hopeful ending. I don't know that I want to use the word "perfect" (can anything ever truly achieve perfection?), but this is about as close as it gets.

The style was different from what I'm used to, but it didn't take long to acclimate. Each section is told from "outside," in third person semi-omniscient, and followed by one or more first-person more intimate revelations from the characters. I loved it because the multiple perspectives are highly revealing of the characters' insecurities and flaws but also their growth.

I am not necessarily the target audience for this book. I cannot speak to the experience of being a man or black or gay. But isn't the hallmark of a great book that we can still find ourselves in the pages, even when we don't share identity markers with the characters? That is how I felt. There were some specific moments that spoke to my soul, making me laugh or gasp or cry because I knew somehow that I was being seen.

And that is really the running thread of this story. It's a series of moments, all of which contrast the seen with the unseen, the visible and the invisible, in different ways. There's a lot of deeply symbolic elements that would take days to unpack. This is the beauty and complexity of the lives of the men in the novel and of the writing itself.

I think saying much more would invite the temptation to give spoilers. Although there's an overall story arc, mainly this is vignettes from roughly two decades in these men's lives. There's beauty and pain and love and friendship, and there's no shying away from the realities of their experiences. Through it all, though, there's hope, and ultimately, the message here is positive and affirming. Come to this novel armed with tissues and an open mind; you won't be disappointed.

For brilliant and beautiful writing, characters who became like friends, and the best kind of hopeful-ever-after ending, this gets 5 stars. (If there was a higher rating, I'd give it.)

[Melanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

They ate in silence until Calvin asked, "What about you? What was your coming out like?"

"For me it was a non-event. I came out to myself when I was fourteen, and nobody else mattered."

In His Eyes is the story of 4 very different men coming to terms with their sexuality beginning with their college years in the late 70's. Spanning decades, this coming of age tale is written entirely in vignettes which give the reader snippets of important moments in their intersecting lives.

When I first started, I was most interested in the unique structure of the writing style, but I have to say that Skye, Reid, Micah, and Calvin had completely won me over by the end of the story. Their vulnerabilities, flaws, self-doubts, and inner conflicts were all individual and heart-warming - as well as heart-wrenching. They're characters that will stay with me over time. Especially Skye:

"I don't think anyone ever really saw me until Reid looked at me. I sort of feel like I only exist in his eyes. And now that he's looked away - now that he only has eyes for...her - I may cease to exist."

He found a special place in my heart.

There were some really stellar moments in the writing, such as:

I opened the door and he walked in, a dream from my past, and my every hope for the future.

But I admit that I was frustrated at times by the vignette structure. While I liked that it challenged me to think and infer for myself, I found myself a bit overwhelmed by the lack of details I was privy to. It was as if reading through a lens that would pull in and out of focus, a focus that I had no control over.

As I read, I imagined myself slowly building a jigsaw puzzle in my mind of each character, and I would greedily latch on to every tidbit the author gave me to add to the picture over the course of the book. Ultimately, each character portrait was complete, so I think this experiment was a success.

Here is my favorite quote from the book:

Though Calvin lived in the world of books and laws, his real home was in the corner of someone's eye.

Perhaps one of my favorite sentences ever - I'm such a nerd!

A warm thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of his work.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the feels

Everytime I read a book by Mr. Benjamin it just makes me think about his characters for a long time it just seems like people you know and can't help falling in love with them because they have flaws like us all.