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Glove Puppet
GLOVE PUPPET is a love story, an erotic gay novel, a confronting, sordid tale of chance, sex and manipulation. The narrator is Johnny/Vaslav, a world weary twenty year old who's seen more and done more than most boys his age. Raised by his drug addicted prostitute mother, Johnny knows only drugs and paid sex, violence and destitution. The seeds of his "badness" are planted in this urban English childhood. The death of his mother and a chance encounter with a stranger bring Johnny to Sydney where he becomes Vaslav, son of a prominent dancer and gay activist. But the fairytale turns awry as "Johnny" refuses to be laid to rest and a forbidden love affair begins and ends - with tragic consequences.
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 5, 2010
Glove Puppet was a quick read. It was well written, from the viewpoint of a damaged young man, Vaslav, growing up in Sydney, Australia after being “adopted” by Martin in London, who’d recently lost his own 7-year-old son to a car crash. Martin, a prominent star in the entertainment strata of Sydney’s elite, struggles with providing Vas with a proper upbringing, while Vas stumbles through life more or less shocked by his mix of good fortune and the inability to shake his original, dank, world-view as the son of a prostitute. The story relates Vas’s experiences from age 7 to 20, taking place in the mid-80s and early 90s.
This was an interesting, somewhat graphic, story that takes in some of the seedier Sydney nightlife while, at the same time, depicting Vas’s life of privilege. The dichotomy only serves to damage Vas more, as he inadvertently goes through life destroying everything around him that is good and healthy, including his relationship with Martin.
There’s an overall sadness to the story, which is hard to take, but which is integral to it. I liked it, but I’m not sure I would recommend it to anyone without some strong warnings about some of the sexually graphic scenes and the ultimately, and unfortunately, twisted relationship between Vas and his adopted father.
This was an interesting, somewhat graphic, story that takes in some of the seedier Sydney nightlife while, at the same time, depicting Vas’s life of privilege. The dichotomy only serves to damage Vas more, as he inadvertently goes through life destroying everything around him that is good and healthy, including his relationship with Martin.
There’s an overall sadness to the story, which is hard to take, but which is integral to it. I liked it, but I’m not sure I would recommend it to anyone without some strong warnings about some of the sexually graphic scenes and the ultimately, and unfortunately, twisted relationship between Vas and his adopted father.
September 1, 2024
(revised to read more fluently in April 2024).
If I had read this novel through at the galloping pace I started it I would probably have given this novel four stars, certainly three but now I feel I am doing a kindness in giving it two rather than one star. Neal Drinnan writes extremely well and tells a compelling story but, and isn't there always a but, once you pause and have time to think about the story line not only does the plot collapse from the sheer quantity of coincidences that drive the story but you begin to realise that a great deal of the underlying basis of the novel are shockingly offensive.
So from now on be warned there will be plot spoilers but I will try and keep them to a minimum and, in any case, as it is over twenty years since the novel was published I don't think that there are many real plot spoilers to reveal.
The novel hinges on seven year old Johnny and his heroin addicted prostitute mother being at Victoria Station late at night were she expires from an overdose and he finds his way into the arms Martin who is waiting for a train to take him to Heathrow Airport and a flight back to Australia.
Problem one, Heathrow is linked to central London only by underground train and that was not completed until 1977 (and even it it had been the underground in the 1970s didn't operate after 11pm) so Johnny's 'adoption' by Martin has to take place earlier to accommodate the, admittedly vague, timeline of the novel. Until the underground was completed travellers who didn't drive to Heathrow went to the West London air-terminal on the Cromwell Road were they checked their luggage and went through all formalities and were taken by coach to the airport (I can remember all this from travelling to London in 1976). So if Johnny found himself orphaned at Victoria station there is no way then or now he would have encountered Martin the Australian who adopts/saves him.
Problem two, Martin had come to the UK from Australia to collect his son named Vaslav who was approximately Johnny's age and living with his mother in Yorkshire. Unfortunately he arrives in Yorkshire to discover the mother has killed herself and Vaslav by driving into a reservoir. Martin buries them and heads back to London, very conveniently as it turns out, with his dead son's passport and birth certificate. So when he encounters a child next to a dead female on a Victoria station platform he sees it as god, fate, karma or whatever giving him back his son, so he just wanders off with the boy onto the non-existent train from Victoria to Heathrow and then by plane to Australia. This is where the convenient coincidence of carrying around his dead son's birth certificate and passport comes into play (another absurdity is a seven year old child having his own passport in the 1970s. Almost invariably children under twelve were placed on their mother's passport) and, as no one in Australia had ever seen his son there was no problem introducing Johnny as Vaslav to his friends and lover. Of course conveniently Martin is gay, he is actually the founder and leader of Australia's leading contemporary ballet company and comes from a very wealthy family - that his son was named Vaslav was a bit of a give-away.
You might be surprised to know I have actually eliminated and simplified this tale of absurd coincidences which are way too many for any law of probability.
Then there is the problem that Johnny, now called Vaslav, grows up to be gay (let me repeat the coincidences and improbability of a future gay, seven year old orphan boy, son of a smack addict prostitute mother, managing to be found by a rich Australian gay man who conveniently has the birth certificate and passport of his just dead eight year old son on hand, who Johnny resembles sufficiently as well, to facility the introduction of this boy into his world and family) and to lust after and ultimately seduce his 'dad' Martin. Their secret is discovered because they both catch gonorrhoea at the same time, though from different people and even though Martin is at boarding school they both use the same doctor, etc. It is just another level of unlikely and improbably coincidences - way too many in fact.
The 'incest' plot is were the novel gets really offensive - not because of the underage/incest theme (please read on I am not going to go into some man boy love justification) - because Drinnan writes Vaslav as a split personality who, despite being removed from the sordid situation he was born into and grew up in until the age of seven, has a genetic predisposition to become Johnny a destructive, irresponsible, sexually omnivorous rent boy from a council estate. Drinnan writes as if Johnny's life was already fixed at seven and that no amount of love, good schools incredible advantages and chances can change him from being a council estate oik or chav predisposed to criminal acts and behaviour. Which is about as revolting an example of Eugenic social engineered condemnation of the poor as being bad because they were born poor and are doomed to be poor and criminal as I have ever heard. It is also grotesque in the way it implies that thirteen years of Martin rearing Johnny/Vaslav as his son, loving him as his son, treating him as his son, dealing with his colds, runny noses, childhood illnesses and fears, everything involved in rearing a son (and I don't see any difference in a son as a biological entity and an adopted one) will go out the window as soon as the boy gets into puberty and puts on height, weight and a bit of muscle. Drinnan takes it for granted that 'dad' will be unable to keep his hands off this desirable bit of teenage boy flesh.
Drinnan doesn't write it as either a eugenic tract or a homophobic one but it has all the coarse simplicity of either. The story is all told from the point of view of Johnny/Vaslav so we don't get any real insight into Martin's thoughts or actions - let's be honest this is not 'Pages From Cold Point' - all we have our rampant dicks.
The only reason I don't give this novel one star is because I think within it there is a great deal of the author's own experience (not with incest) but of being young and sexually active on the club scene in Australia (but it could have been anywhere) which can consume, chew up, spit out, and certainly callously use the young, the inexperienced, the unwary, the stupid - and honestly any one at 18/19/20, male, female or anything else, will be all those things at some stage when dealing with those older, more experienced, richer, more ruthless, more uncaring then they realise. Somewhere deep within this novel was a story about the use and abuse of the young by others but it got lost in the telling and creation of this novel. It is a pity because he is a good writer, better then this, and the worst thing about this novel is that his talent hides the really objectionable things in the novel.
If I had read this novel through at the galloping pace I started it I would probably have given this novel four stars, certainly three but now I feel I am doing a kindness in giving it two rather than one star. Neal Drinnan writes extremely well and tells a compelling story but, and isn't there always a but, once you pause and have time to think about the story line not only does the plot collapse from the sheer quantity of coincidences that drive the story but you begin to realise that a great deal of the underlying basis of the novel are shockingly offensive.
So from now on be warned there will be plot spoilers but I will try and keep them to a minimum and, in any case, as it is over twenty years since the novel was published I don't think that there are many real plot spoilers to reveal.
The novel hinges on seven year old Johnny and his heroin addicted prostitute mother being at Victoria Station late at night were she expires from an overdose and he finds his way into the arms Martin who is waiting for a train to take him to Heathrow Airport and a flight back to Australia.
Problem one, Heathrow is linked to central London only by underground train and that was not completed until 1977 (and even it it had been the underground in the 1970s didn't operate after 11pm) so Johnny's 'adoption' by Martin has to take place earlier to accommodate the, admittedly vague, timeline of the novel. Until the underground was completed travellers who didn't drive to Heathrow went to the West London air-terminal on the Cromwell Road were they checked their luggage and went through all formalities and were taken by coach to the airport (I can remember all this from travelling to London in 1976). So if Johnny found himself orphaned at Victoria station there is no way then or now he would have encountered Martin the Australian who adopts/saves him.
Problem two, Martin had come to the UK from Australia to collect his son named Vaslav who was approximately Johnny's age and living with his mother in Yorkshire. Unfortunately he arrives in Yorkshire to discover the mother has killed herself and Vaslav by driving into a reservoir. Martin buries them and heads back to London, very conveniently as it turns out, with his dead son's passport and birth certificate. So when he encounters a child next to a dead female on a Victoria station platform he sees it as god, fate, karma or whatever giving him back his son, so he just wanders off with the boy onto the non-existent train from Victoria to Heathrow and then by plane to Australia. This is where the convenient coincidence of carrying around his dead son's birth certificate and passport comes into play (another absurdity is a seven year old child having his own passport in the 1970s. Almost invariably children under twelve were placed on their mother's passport) and, as no one in Australia had ever seen his son there was no problem introducing Johnny as Vaslav to his friends and lover. Of course conveniently Martin is gay, he is actually the founder and leader of Australia's leading contemporary ballet company and comes from a very wealthy family - that his son was named Vaslav was a bit of a give-away.
You might be surprised to know I have actually eliminated and simplified this tale of absurd coincidences which are way too many for any law of probability.
Then there is the problem that Johnny, now called Vaslav, grows up to be gay (let me repeat the coincidences and improbability of a future gay, seven year old orphan boy, son of a smack addict prostitute mother, managing to be found by a rich Australian gay man who conveniently has the birth certificate and passport of his just dead eight year old son on hand, who Johnny resembles sufficiently as well, to facility the introduction of this boy into his world and family) and to lust after and ultimately seduce his 'dad' Martin. Their secret is discovered because they both catch gonorrhoea at the same time, though from different people and even though Martin is at boarding school they both use the same doctor, etc. It is just another level of unlikely and improbably coincidences - way too many in fact.
The 'incest' plot is were the novel gets really offensive - not because of the underage/incest theme (please read on I am not going to go into some man boy love justification) - because Drinnan writes Vaslav as a split personality who, despite being removed from the sordid situation he was born into and grew up in until the age of seven, has a genetic predisposition to become Johnny a destructive, irresponsible, sexually omnivorous rent boy from a council estate. Drinnan writes as if Johnny's life was already fixed at seven and that no amount of love, good schools incredible advantages and chances can change him from being a council estate oik or chav predisposed to criminal acts and behaviour. Which is about as revolting an example of Eugenic social engineered condemnation of the poor as being bad because they were born poor and are doomed to be poor and criminal as I have ever heard. It is also grotesque in the way it implies that thirteen years of Martin rearing Johnny/Vaslav as his son, loving him as his son, treating him as his son, dealing with his colds, runny noses, childhood illnesses and fears, everything involved in rearing a son (and I don't see any difference in a son as a biological entity and an adopted one) will go out the window as soon as the boy gets into puberty and puts on height, weight and a bit of muscle. Drinnan takes it for granted that 'dad' will be unable to keep his hands off this desirable bit of teenage boy flesh.
Drinnan doesn't write it as either a eugenic tract or a homophobic one but it has all the coarse simplicity of either. The story is all told from the point of view of Johnny/Vaslav so we don't get any real insight into Martin's thoughts or actions - let's be honest this is not 'Pages From Cold Point' - all we have our rampant dicks.
The only reason I don't give this novel one star is because I think within it there is a great deal of the author's own experience (not with incest) but of being young and sexually active on the club scene in Australia (but it could have been anywhere) which can consume, chew up, spit out, and certainly callously use the young, the inexperienced, the unwary, the stupid - and honestly any one at 18/19/20, male, female or anything else, will be all those things at some stage when dealing with those older, more experienced, richer, more ruthless, more uncaring then they realise. Somewhere deep within this novel was a story about the use and abuse of the young by others but it got lost in the telling and creation of this novel. It is a pity because he is a good writer, better then this, and the worst thing about this novel is that his talent hides the really objectionable things in the novel.
February 2, 2026
really well written but dude, who's side are we supposed to be on in this
December 27, 2018
It's been a little while since I've read a book that grabbed me from the first chapter like this. It's also an incredibly 90's book, and I don't mean that in the bad way. Weirdly, it felt very nostalgic for me... gay themed fiction, set in Australia, in the late 1990's. It felt... familiar. Not that I'd experienced anything the character went through, just that it's very indicative of a specific decade and location.
It's also an interesting story given that it's at times temporally fluid... it jumps around, mostly between the "present" and whatever point in the past is relevant. But the line between them can be vague and often takes leaps of time.
I also found it interesting that for a main character who is essentially the architect of his own downfall, still manages to be sympathetic. Even when he's being a complete idiot, you still have sympathy for him and the situation.
The fact that the "downfall" is mostly handwaved over... it's forecast early in the book, and so by the time the story catches up with it, it doesn't really NEED to be detailed, it's obvious what went on. Which I appreciated.
The book does just end though... don't get me wrong, it does everything it needs to do and gets out once it's all done, but it did feel a little abrupt... or maybe I just wanted more.
Which is always a good thing in a novel.
It's also an interesting story given that it's at times temporally fluid... it jumps around, mostly between the "present" and whatever point in the past is relevant. But the line between them can be vague and often takes leaps of time.
I also found it interesting that for a main character who is essentially the architect of his own downfall, still manages to be sympathetic. Even when he's being a complete idiot, you still have sympathy for him and the situation.
The fact that the "downfall" is mostly handwaved over... it's forecast early in the book, and so by the time the story catches up with it, it doesn't really NEED to be detailed, it's obvious what went on. Which I appreciated.
The book does just end though... don't get me wrong, it does everything it needs to do and gets out once it's all done, but it did feel a little abrupt... or maybe I just wanted more.
Which is always a good thing in a novel.
June 1, 2017
loved it 20 years ago when I read it
June 3, 2024
This book kept my attention throughout a nice short but intense read.
April 19, 2011
Glove Puppet is a racy story with themes of love, incest, moral fiber, and adolescent sexuality. It's a very quick read with wonderfully developed characters, a controversial and twisted story, and a look at the underground gay scene in 1980's and early 90's Australia.
This is the rags-to-riches story of Johnny, who is orphaned at the young age of 9 or 10. He is taken in by Martin, who is an affluent man and prominent figure in the gay community. Martin has recently lost his own son, Vasilev, and plans to bring Johnny up as his own. Johnny "becomes" Vas, and his his past is still a large part of him. The combination of Johnny/Vas's past trauma and his highly sexualized upbringing causes to be troublesome for the family. The young boy becomes obsessed with his "father" and lusts after him, almost seducing him. Obviously, not much good can come of that situation.
It's an super quick read, with some gratuitous gay sex scenes involving minors, and this could be quite disturbing for some readers. I wouldn't recommend this if you may be offended by gay sex, or adolescent sex, but if you find alternative lifestyles fascinating, you may enjoy this read. It really is an edgy story, and since it's fiction, I feel fine reading it and this book is definitely one of my guilty pleasures.
This is the rags-to-riches story of Johnny, who is orphaned at the young age of 9 or 10. He is taken in by Martin, who is an affluent man and prominent figure in the gay community. Martin has recently lost his own son, Vasilev, and plans to bring Johnny up as his own. Johnny "becomes" Vas, and his his past is still a large part of him. The combination of Johnny/Vas's past trauma and his highly sexualized upbringing causes to be troublesome for the family. The young boy becomes obsessed with his "father" and lusts after him, almost seducing him. Obviously, not much good can come of that situation.
It's an super quick read, with some gratuitous gay sex scenes involving minors, and this could be quite disturbing for some readers. I wouldn't recommend this if you may be offended by gay sex, or adolescent sex, but if you find alternative lifestyles fascinating, you may enjoy this read. It really is an edgy story, and since it's fiction, I feel fine reading it and this book is definitely one of my guilty pleasures.
March 1, 2009
A seven year old boy is kidnapped at the scene of his prostitute junkie mother's death in London. That's good news, because the man who takes him doesn't mean to harm the boy, he does it because he believes he can give the boy a better life. And he does, to a point. To give the boy a fresh start, though, he must pretend to be the man's recently deceased son, and considering that the boy considered himself "counsel estate white trash" and now he is the son of a very wealthy man who loves him so much he can't see the harm in what he's doing, it's not hard to understand why the boy goes along with the deception. Things go bad (very bad, seriously....very bad...and very sad) when the boy reaches adolescence and the experience of living with a junkie prostitute for the first seven years of his life starts to manifest itself in the young man's inability to understand the difference between love and sex.
January 25, 2011
A really amazing book, but sad and rather tragic. The main character is named Johnny until age 7, and then becomes Vaslav and goes to Australia. He gets heavily into drugs and sex as a young teenager, and begins to recognize his Johnny side (bad) and his Vaslav side (good). Brilliant writing and definitely recommended but be prepared for a 'dark' story.
January 16, 2015
Interesting read about the controversial subject of adolescent sexuality. Somewhat of a dark story, and not for those seeking titillation.
(Not M/M)
(Not M/M)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews