Chiaroscuro by Jenna Jones

[reviews_and_ramblings]

This is a choral book. It's a very long and full of characters book, so take a good handful of patience, get comfort and start reading. And be aware to have plenty of time ahead of you, cause I think you will not want to drop it off until you finish it.

Jamie is a good guy. Englishman in San Francisco and gay. Perfect. He has plenty of choice when he needs to get laid. Dune, for example, the ever present and "naked" friend he can always rely when needs a date. Dune is a "modern" son: he has two fathers, Leo, the biological one, and his partner Adam, and two mothers, Frances, the biological one, and her partner Ocean. And Leo lives in a quite and happy building, with nice neighboorhood like Ben, a cake decorator, who works in the one hundred and fifty years old family's bakery. Jamie and Ben even meet during a wedding and almost make out in the kitchen during the party.

But Jamie has a crush for Micah, a nineteen years old colleague, little engineering genius, who is like a bud starting to blossom, and Jamie wants to be the sun for him. And everyone around him tries to convince him that Micah is too young, that Micah is not out with his family and his friends and he, Jamie, deserves better, he deserves someone like Ben. And the reader knows well and he knows that Micah will fail and then Ben will be there for Jamie and you will have an happily ever after... but what happens if Ben doesn't want to love again? what happens if he, maybe, will be a lot more pain for Jamie than Micah?

Chiaroscuro is a novel who flows like a river: sometime peaceful, sometime with rapids. Jamie is the center of love for all the men around, Dune, Micah e Ben, and he loves them all. He is the sunshine of the story. Ben instead is a bit of shadows and rain. I like the rain: when you lie in bed and listen to the rain outside it could be peaceful, but rain could be also a storm; rain waters the gardens but can also destroy the buds. And so Ben can take care of Jamie but can also choke the fragile love he has inspired.

Chiaroscuro decipts a community and a way of life that maybe only in San Francisco you can find. Every page I turn I will find a new "maybe" couple: Dune-Jamie, Jamie-Micah, Micah-Ryan, Dune-Daniel, Daniel-Jamie, Jamie-Ben, Ben-Ian, Ian-Micah, Jamie-Stuart.... It's like a domino play, what will be the latest piece to be play?

Amazon: Chiaroscuro
Amazon Kindle: Chiaroscuro
Paperback: 356 pages
Publisher: Torquere Press (June 30, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1603704132
ISBN-13: 978-1603704137

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle