The Nothingness of Ben by Brad Boney
Not for the first time I found myself liking a novel without really liking one of the main characters. Actually I was so not loving him that I was almost hoping for his current boyfriend to dump him and go for the future boyfriend… that would have taught him a lesson!
Ben Walsh is not a bad man, but he is basically selfish and callous; from what we can gather he didn’t have a bad experience growing up gay in small town Texas, a college neighborhood just outside Austin (the gayest city in Texas) and his college professor father and at home mother supported him step by step. But I had the feeling that Ben didn’t like to admit he was from the country to his uptight Manhattanite friends, and when he had the chance to move to New York City, he went into the closet… not denying he was gay, but that he was a country boy.
Now Ben is really good in what he does, he is a successful lawyer, with a bright future in front of him; he has a nice boyfriend, really nice, David. David is older than Ben, 38 against 28, and a commercial pilot; despite being older, and also bigger, than Ben, he is the submissive in their relationship, Ben has a Dom attitude that he brings from his job to his bedroom. I really like David, and he is the boyfriend I said above I would have not minded to see giving a low blow to Ben, to teach him a lesson. But David is too good a man to be mean, and I think Ben got it easy with him.
When Ben’s parents unexpectedly die, leaving Ben the guardian of 3 teenage boys, he has to reconsider his life and options. Again, I don’t think life was hard enough with him, sure losing his parents was a bad knock, but Ben is not in an insurmountable mountain, just a small hill. And to make it easier to him, Ben finds the help of Travis, same age guy who volunteer to be Ben’s second hand in raising the kids. From friends to lovers is a small step, but Travis got in line to the list of people who, according to me, make everything to easy for Ben.
Now, you are thinking I don’t like Ben: sure, as a person, I don’t like him, as a character? I love him. I love when a character in a novel is original, and I think that Ben has plenty of originality in him. I love his callousness, I love his uptight attitude, I even love when he is so clueless of other people feelings that he can hurt them with just a word. Not an easy character to write, and I think this author did a good job with him.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3368
Amazon: The Nothingness of Ben
Amazon Kindle: The Nothingness of Ben
Paperback: 248 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (November 23, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1623801389
ISBN-13: 978-1623801380
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle