reviews_and_ramblings | Chasing Victory by Tory Temple

Probably from a novel set in the Race Cars Circuit you expect it to be more glamour, more “under the spotlight”, and obviously, being not exactly a gay friendly environment, you expect the usual trouble from a relationship that has to remain in the closet. But instead Chasing Victory has more a “homey” feeling. It’s strange, maybe the reason is that, after all, the Stock Car Racing is more a like a small town in comparison to a metropolis, it has its fans, but the money around it are less than the bigger international circuits. And so, also the drivers are more small town boy than big shot international champion.

At 35 years old Mitchell is in the middle: he is too young to retire but he is not more the young prodigy that makes the media talk. But since Mitchell is there not for the media, but for the joy he has from racing, it’s not that he is questioning: racing has lost its fascination on Mitchell, he is probably tired to be always in motion, to not have a really home and someone to go back to. Mitchell has an old father and nice home in Georgia, but both are getting old, and Mitchell is always too far away to be with them.

One thing that I like is that Mitchell doesn’t make a drama of his need to be discreet; Mitchell is gay and he knows that it’s not good for sponsors and all, and so he lives his relationship always far from the spotlight. I didn’t feel like Mitchell is denying himself, it’s not that he craves male companionship since he was deprived of it for too long, Mitchell wants a relationship since, I believe, he is ready for it. When he meets Pacey on the circuit (he is an ER doctor), it’s only natural for them to live the relationship with the timing of the Car Racing circuit. Pacey seems also to understand the need to be discreet.

The relationship between them is nice and quite, they are good together and they know that. Mitchell is always really open, taking Pacey to meet his family almost from moment one, and not playing the “scared in the closet” gay man with his friends. Again, Mitchell is not making a public statement, but he is not even denying his lover.

Everything actually has a “comfort zone” feeling in this novel, there are no excesses, even when Mitchell brings Pacey in Paris for a short trip, a situation that usually is described in “big words” in most of the books, here is like they are having a week-end trip on the neighbourhood town, yes, it’s nice, but nothing special. It’s strange, but in the end, I have the feeling that this is almost a family story, and that Mitchell and Pacey will have a good life together, an happily ever after without firecrackers, but for sure with high chances to be a forever type of thing.

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