Poor Boy by Jaime Samms

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Who is the poor boy of the title? Reading the blurb you can expect that rich boy Roy is the lucky one, and hustler Scooby is the poor, but in this tale what you expect is not all what you get.

Roy is the classical spoiled brat of a too wealthy family. His mother is a drunk who killed a family while driving; the money of the husband saved her from prison, but not from her problems, and now she is an empty shell. His father is only preoccupied to avoid for his son to be on the first pages of z-rated magazines, and not to avoid for his son to have reasons to be on that pages. His brother was killed one night while trying for the endless time to convince him to come back home instead of going away with his addict boyfriend... Apparently there are no hopes for Roy to redeem, and actually no reasons. When his father finally kicks him out, obviously his boyfriend does the same and Roy is on the street, like the two kids of the family his mother killed were so many years ago.

For Roy is like a falling to hell, in a world he has never been, neither in his worst period. A world were you can be killed on a street, but also where only the poorest help the poor. And so it's only Scooby, a young hustler, who offers an hand and a shelter to Roy. But Scooby for Roy is not a stranger, in him Roy sees the boy his mother orphaned and his father didn't help, and so, even if he is not even capable to care for himself, Roy decides to take care of Scooby. Scooby is an hustler, but it's not like what Roy did with his friends and for his friends is so much different.

It's not even a love story at first, Scooby latches to Roy and he sometime does with his brother Clark, a man who would like to have a life of his own, but can't since if he leaves, for Scooby will be the end. In a way Roy wants to prove also to Clark that he is able to provide for Scooby, but Roy realizes that he can't do that alone, and he also realizes, maybe for the first time, that he is really alone: no more father to pay him out, no more boyfriend to throw in the face of his father, no more brother to help him; Roy is all alone with Scooby, a man who is too unstable to be of any help.

The story is till too much real and cruel, but the world in which Roy ends it seems almost a metaphor of the dark side: it's described in a way that makes it feel full of shadow and with an endless night, and when Roy, for brief moments, escapes it, it's like if all of sudden the light breaks through. Roy's quest for taking Scooby away from it, reminds me some mythological fall in Ade with the hero who tries to save his lover. Nor Roy or Scooby will escape without scars, some old, some deep, and it's not like in the end all is perfect and the past is behind them, the past, the hell, is only meters away and the path toward the full light is still long.

 

So, in the end, who is the poor guy of the title?

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Comments

[clarelondon.livejournal.com]

A lovely review, thanks for that Elisa. I love the way you tell us what the light and shade is in a book. You are always honest and perceptive, yet your enthusiasm shines through.

I love Jaime's style and maturity in her writing, so I'm off to buy it! Her subjects are not always easygoing or HEA but that's part of the pleasure and reward of reading. I can still empathise and care for her characters, she draws a lovely 'slice of life'.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's definetely a book in which you can feel for the characters. Elisa