I do have a passing interest in vintage gay pulp books, and I try to read them whenever I can. While they are often as sleazy as you may expect, about half the time you can be surprised with a bit more depth than expected.
I had already read the book Go Down, Aaron (review here) by this same author (Chris Davidson), and found it shockingly literate… despite the double entendre title and lurid cover, it actually read much more like a historical romance that had a few sexual elements. So I was very curious to read another book by the same author… and it was a bit of a bonus to have it set at a contemporary (well, it was written in 1968) college.
So it was a bit disappointing to find this book doesn’t really have much of a plot… it’s basically a horney guy entering college that has sex with nearly every guy he encounters, including all the men in his frat, his drama teacher, a old flame, and a date of his female friend. That said, with a few exceptions, the sex scenes are not super detailed (at least, given how often he has sex, lol).
The book does balance out with some intentionally amusing humor… there are chapters told entirely from the point of view of various mail correspondence he receives, the most hilarious of which is a case of mistaken identity from a jewelry store that thinks he’s a woman who ordered an engagement ring. Seriously! But he also gets letters from an old female friend, his parents, and notices from his frat and university.
There was a also a very self-aware moment in the book where the main character of the book, Buffy, purchases a sex novel, and while reading it in the park, a passing guy says:
“I was just walking by and I couldn’t help but notice that you were reading ‘Go down, Aaron’ by Chris Davidson, and I was just wondering how you liked it. I just finished it and I thought it was great, how about you?”
“I’m not finished with it yet,” Buffy said, “But I like it so far.”
I actually laughed out loud when I read that. That book came out a year before this one (1967), so I suppose it must have been pretty successful, haha. Shows a sense of humor to directly mention it in this way. It toes an unusual line… there’s a lot of sex, but the majority of it isn’t explicit (though there are a few passages), and despite the amusing humor, I wouldn’t exactly call it literate either. I think this may be more the equivalent of a soft core porn with humor.
