I’m not much of a book reviewer but I just finished reading this book called Shameless by Paul Burston and I kinda have lots of mixed feelings about the whole story. With my busy schedule, it’s not easy for me to squeeze much time to read fictional works but after reading the synopsis of this book my curiosity was piqued so I dived in. Also part of the reason was because one of the supporting characters share my name too…not that she is anything like me in particular!
The synopsis read like this…
“Martin is kind, decent and good-looking. And look where it's got him. His
boyfriend of four years has run off with a male prostitute. His friends John and
Caroline are no help-John prefers infamy to sympathy and Caroline is too busy
trying to work out if her wonderful, sensitive boyfriend is a closet case. And
to top it all, Martin's hippie father turns up to stay, wearing his "Proud to be
an Embarrassing Parent" badge. And so Martin jumps head first into hedonism,
throwing himself into the gay club scene, a world of drugs and muscles, hard
bodies and harder music. Meanwhile Caroline is learning that being Shameless has
its price, and so does she...How long can they keep up with the lifestyle? And
can they find the man of their dreams when sex has become a substitute for love,
and pleasure is measured in beats per minute...?”
This is the first time I actually read a literary work on gays, though fictional. So it was very enlightening to read about gays and their lifestyles….though reflective of most gays in real life or not, I’m not so sure.
The main character, Martin, is a gay who’s going through some reshuffling in his life since his boyfriend dumped him. So he tries going to the gym to build some bulk and get rid of his spare tyre. His friend, John introduced him to the world of clubbing, partying as well as drugs. As Martin tries to build up his self-esteem again after being dumped by trying to find another boyfriend, he finally found out what a two-faced friend John was and cut off all ties with him. Martin finally finds his ‘prince charming’ in the end after a couple of disappointments.
Caroline, his close friend is so afraid that her boyfriend is a gay gets so paranoid that he broke it off with her. She finally finds out in the end that it is her boyfriend’s father who is gay and finally gets back together with her boyfriend.
One of the strongest emotions that I felt while reading this book was the purposelessness of it all. Is life only about partying and having a good time? Is getting your ‘soul mate’ the ultimate purpose and destiny of our lives? Where is that higher purpose in life? There must be more to life than this right? God doesn’t seem to play a role in any of their lives and maybe that what makes the purposelessness so apparent in this story to me.
I believe life is much more than just living for ourselves. We must be meant for a higher purpose than just to live, survive and die. Like King Solomon says,
"Everything is meaningless, utterly meaningless!
What do people get for all
their hard work? Generations come and go, but nothing really changes. The sun
rises and sets and hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south and north,
here and there, twisting back and forth, getting nowhere. The rivers run into
the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers
and flows again to the sea. Everything is so weary and tiresome! No matter how
much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not
content.” ~ Ecclesiastes 1:2-8 ~
King Solomon, who is the wisest and richest person that ever lived, says that everything is meaningless. He had everything he could possibly want; power, respect, riches, wisdom, anything his heart desired he was not denied. Yet at the end of his reflection on life, this is what he says,
“Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord
of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don't wait until the water jar is
smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. For then the dust
will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Here is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is
the duty of every person. God will judge us for everything we do, including
every secret thing, whether good or bad.” ~ Ecclesiastes 12:6, 7, 13 ~
Hmm…if a guy like that finally comes to such a conclusion, so what more us mere mortals, who only seems to live from paycheck to paycheck, struggling to accomplish as much as we can with our meager resources? Enough said.
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