I Am Not Raymond Wallace

Product Information

It reminds us how bad things were for LGBT+ people within living memory - and indeed continue to be in many countries around the world.

I couldn't put this book down, I had to make myself when I had things to do, otherwise I would have sat in one place until I finished it. Raymond Wallace, a recent graduate of Cambridge of age 21, arrives in NYC in the summer of 1963 for a 3-month internship with the NY Times. The romance is pretty much doomed from the beginning, given that in 1963 homosexuality is still the love that dare not say its name.On an undercover assignment, a secret world is revealed to Raymond: a world in which he need no longer pretend to be something or someone he cannot be; a world in which he meets Joey. This history cannot be forgotten by younger generations, just like forgetting that abortion was once illegal and resulted in many tragedies (oh yeah, that's changed hasn't it).

He serendipitously gets into a bar that requires a secret knock and meets Joey and feels a very strong attachment. The decision he makes will ricochet destructively through lives and decades until—in another time, another city; in Paris, 2003—Raymond’s son Joe finally meets Joey.This in no way makes me more likely to give the book a glowing review because when we used to sit together in school orchestra, he was quite annoying. There are and were scenes of gay sex portrayed quite vividly, but this should be a story that anyone and not only gay men or boys, should read if you know what true and real love and love for LIFE is all about. In part two which is set in 2003 and starts two thirds of the way through the book - some of the characters use 'letters' to communicate with other people to continue the narrative. As my self a gay boy growing up in the early 60's and knowing it at the age of 6, I could relate to SO MUCH of what was going on in this book made this THE story that i will NEVER ever forget, nor will I forget Raymond Wallace.

So begins a relationship which sees Raymond becoming part of a family very different from his own at home in Britain. And the way that gay men of the time, under the pressure of all that, tended towards hot, furtive, anonymous sex with strangers.He soon discovers his elusive boss, Bukowski, is being covertly blackmailed by an estranged wife, and that he himself is to assist the straight-laced Doty on an article about the ‘explosion of overt homosexuality’ in the city. It’s shocking to remember that Raymond had come from a country four years away from decriminalising his sexuality, and, of course, it would be many more years before same sex relationships could be both celebrated and recognised in law. Surprisingly graphic in a few places, the story is lovely and warm, and you can fall in love with the protagonist of the title easily.