Oscar, who has never really been in love and is content enough with one-night stands feels lost in a world that seems to be passing him by without a glance. He befriends an older writer named Sean and places him on a pedestal after discovering he has written about the hardships endured by many gay men and takes on a newfound motto, “I vow, henceforth, to live by cock alone,” which he extracted from one of Sean’s novels.
With homophobia on the decline, he resents having grown up with unaccepting parents, particularly his strict father, and having had to endure an adolescence and young adult life filled with distain from others who refused to accept his difference. Oscar, a graphic designer, is angry at the world that he believes has become too gay-friendly and accepting. However, he finds some solace in alcohol, gardening, and literature. Taking Arthur’s hoodie home that he had left behind in the classroom, and sleeping alongside it, highlights his despair. How can he achieve this, however, if his mind is transfixed by 17-year-old Arthur? Despite his intense feelings he knows that this young man is on the opposite side of a line that he can never cross which results in him merely drifting along in his day-to-day life. Sebastian convinces himself that he is looking for a lifelong partner and a quiet easy life. He is mesmerized by Arthur’s self-confidence and wishes that his time of growing up had allowed gay young people to be open about their sexuality while at high school. Sebastian is a lonely schoolteacher who becomes totally infatuated with one of his students, Arthur, who belongs to the school’s LGBTQ+ group that they helped set up. The reader risks being left with wondering if the reason for their unhappiness is because they are gay or is part of a wider American obsession with happiness-the feeling that everyone has a right to be happy or, at least, feel happy. But after 50 pages, the story begins to gel better resulting in the reader investing a little more in trying to understand the viewpoints of Sebastian and Oscar as they mull over various facets of being gay.īut their perpetual struggle to find meaning and connection in their own emotional struggles prevents the reader from appreciating that a larger percentage of gay people are happy and content in their lives than those who are not. Some readers may give up on the story in its early stages because Sebastian and Oscar appear unlikeable and are totally egotistical and absorbed with themselves. They are also both desperately seeking freedom from the loneliness and rejection they have found in themselves. They are resentful at the world for the many changes that benefit younger generations of gay people, whose experiences are far richer than the ones they endured growing up. By this stage, both men are in their mid-thirties and looking for love and meaning in their lives. The story begins by bringing them together after an absence of over 20 years.
Let’s Get Back to the Party is a story of two gay men, friends since childhood.
However, they both fail to reach a conclusion, leaving the reader to assume that unhappiness has clouded their minds.
Here is a story that is saturated with angst as it unravels the innermost thoughts of its two central characters-Sebastian and Oscar-who attempt to fathom out what it means to be a gay man in today’s world. The constant searching, yearning, and lusting after happiness seems to take central place in this debut novel by Salih. The novel contains a rich vocabulary, has a good flow to its narrative and contains an impressive knowledge of English literature.” “ Salih has the potential to be a good writer.