BOOK REVIEWS
BY GRAEME AITKEN
THE ADVERSARY by Ronnie Scott
This Australian debut novel has a wry charm and a very distinctive literary style. There is very little plot. The narrator and his best friend, Dan share a house in Brunswick, Melbourne. Dan has a boyfriend, Lachlan, and the two of them are intent on the narrator befriending Lachlan’s outlandish flatmate, Chris. But the scheme doesn’t unfold simply and is complicated by a visiting American with the unusual name of Vivian, who Chris is entangled with and who the narrator also feels attracted to due to his prominent crotch.
The Adversary is unusual for a gay-themed novel in that it is relatively sex-free, despite a great deal of searching and studying Grindr, which occasionally leads to hook-ups. The online banter is exceptionally written and the sex, when it does happen, is highly entertaining as it tends to be disastrous. Case in point – an unsatisfying sexual encounter between Dan and the narrator early in the novel.