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Quince
It's 1936 and Stephen Faith, a young English schoolboy arranges to spend the summer in Zahara Spain with the family of the mayor. A friend of his father's from their school days, the mayor has invited Stephen to come and tutor his youngest son in English while offereing him a chance to improve his Spanish.
Stephen learns more than Spanish that summer beginning with his liaison with Pedro the mayor's older son and then with Pablo the mayor's youngest. While both boys are homosexual and willing to teach Stephen a thing or two, the Spanish civil war erupts and soon Stephen is learning about things other than love.
Stephen learns more than Spanish that summer beginning with his liaison with Pedro the mayor's older son and then with Pablo the mayor's youngest. While both boys are homosexual and willing to teach Stephen a thing or two, the Spanish civil war erupts and soon Stephen is learning about things other than love.
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 1988
33 people want to read
About the author
David Rees
40 books24 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
David Rees was born in London in 1936, but lived most of his adult life in Devon, where for many years he taught English Literature at Exeter University and at California State University, San Jose. In 1984, he took early retirement in order to write full-time. Author of forty-two books, he is best known for his children's novel The Exeter Blitz, which in 1978 was awarded the Carnegie Medal (UK), and The Milkman's On His Way, which, having survived much absurd controversy in Parliament, is now regarded as something of a gay classic. He also won The Other Award (UK) for his historical novel The Green Bough of Liberty. David Rees died in 1993.
David Rees was born in London in 1936, but lived most of his adult life in Devon, where for many years he taught English Literature at Exeter University and at California State University, San Jose. In 1984, he took early retirement in order to write full-time. Author of forty-two books, he is best known for his children's novel The Exeter Blitz, which in 1978 was awarded the Carnegie Medal (UK), and The Milkman's On His Way, which, having survived much absurd controversy in Parliament, is now regarded as something of a gay classic. He also won The Other Award (UK) for his historical novel The Green Bough of Liberty. David Rees died in 1993.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 26, 2021
This is the story of Stephen Faith, a young English schoolboy who is caught between love and the Spanish Civil war. At first the summer guest of a socialist mayor in the small Spanish town of Zahara, Stephen falls for the middle son, a car mechanic who is also a revolutionary. When the revolutionary is called away in the opening days of the war, Stephen finds himself handed down to the youngest son. The struggles, the deaths, the halcyon moments and the tragedies make this a compelling read.
The Quince of the title refers to the fruit that is abundant in the trees of Zahara. The quince is an ancient fruit that many feel has been confused in literature with the apple. It may well have been the Quince that was involved in man's expulsion from the garden of Eden. It was also most likely the quince that was involved in the beauty contest that started the Trojan War.
The quince in this story plays a slightly less prominent role but the story is just as doomed and just as tragic.
Unlike so many gay-themed stories, the main dangers here are not from homophobia. That the main characters here sleep with men is obvious, and it does play a role in this sad tale, but it's by no means the main danger.
This book is well written and compelling and the story draws the reader in, but it is a sad story of a sad time. The history revealed and the lives and struggles of the main characters make it well worth the read and it's not all tragedy. There is also growth and acceptance and message for those that want something beyond the typically self absorbed gay-themed novel.
Frequently as I read bits of this I had to remind myself that elsewhere, at the same time, Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte were living their considerably less harrowing story at the same time.
Just as The Merchant of Venice allows us a glimpse of what being Jewish in the age of Shakespeare was like this book gives us a glimpse into the tragedy that was the era Fascism and the Spanish Civil war.
The Quince of the title refers to the fruit that is abundant in the trees of Zahara. The quince is an ancient fruit that many feel has been confused in literature with the apple. It may well have been the Quince that was involved in man's expulsion from the garden of Eden. It was also most likely the quince that was involved in the beauty contest that started the Trojan War.
The quince in this story plays a slightly less prominent role but the story is just as doomed and just as tragic.
Unlike so many gay-themed stories, the main dangers here are not from homophobia. That the main characters here sleep with men is obvious, and it does play a role in this sad tale, but it's by no means the main danger.
This book is well written and compelling and the story draws the reader in, but it is a sad story of a sad time. The history revealed and the lives and struggles of the main characters make it well worth the read and it's not all tragedy. There is also growth and acceptance and message for those that want something beyond the typically self absorbed gay-themed novel.
Frequently as I read bits of this I had to remind myself that elsewhere, at the same time, Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte were living their considerably less harrowing story at the same time.
Just as The Merchant of Venice allows us a glimpse of what being Jewish in the age of Shakespeare was like this book gives us a glimpse into the tragedy that was the era Fascism and the Spanish Civil war.
August 23, 2018
If you wanted a book that was 150% different from The Milkman's On His Way, this could be it. David Rees is a novelist I don't know much about. It's hard to find him on the Internet because there are so many people with the same name ... and because the English novelist by that name (the David Rees you want) passed away in 1993. Obviously no one is keeping an online presence for him, which is a shame because he wrote quite a few good books.
The Rees novel I enjoyed the most is Milkman, (which I must settle down and review soon. It took me years to find a copy). Quince is a very good read, but it's clearly a book written by a gay male, for gay males, about gay males. There is *nothing* wrong with that, but I need to run up a warning flag here: a number of m/m readers would be sadly disappointed, not to say potentially disillusioned, by this novel. The romantic angle you get to expect with books by a female writers -- that feel-good sensation, even when the material is a long way from "fluffy bunny" -- is utterly absent. Quince does *not* have a happy ending. Two people do not settle down to a life together.
In fact, the opposite is true. The central character (one has a hard time saying "hero") is Stephen Faith, a young gay guy who goes out to Spain to teach English to young Pablo, son of the local mayor. He falls in love with Pablo, but when the Spanish Civil War breaks out he's caught in the meat grinder. Pablo betrays him, which lands Stephen in prison ... and he doesn't just fall out of love with Pablo, he falls out of love with love itself.
This is the exact opposite of those novels about a guy's journey from the promiscuous sleep-around to the love affair and the settling down. Stephen goes the opposite route. After Pablo, betrayal and dire experiences behind bars, he becomes the promiscuous sleep-around guy. And from the "epilogue" or tag taking place in 1986, about 50 years after the main body of the story, we know he never finds love again. Never encounters a single person to settle down with, which is ... sad.
Quince is gritty but at the same time casually under-written. Nothing much is detailed. In some places (especially in the prison scenes) it reads like Rees's notes for a full narrative he never got around to writing. A thread of storyline is jotted down but left curiously undeveloped. This way, Rees manages to skate or skip over a body of material that could become burdensome, overwhelmingly heavy, if he wrote at length. Not to put too fine a point on it, Stephen is tortured in the prison, but you can read it without much hardship, because events are covered as a series of bald statements.
Quince is a rather quick read, at something like 70,000 words, max; you can plow through in one or two sittings. The characters are sketched in shorthand, but they do "ring true," and it's set in a time period and place that are so unusual. The truth is, almost everything I know about the Spanish Civil War comes from reading this book!
For this (the research and unusual nature of the "where and when"), and for the challenge Quince presents to the reader, I recommend it. Things do not come out right in the end. The book does not recommend falling in love and settling down. Nobody rides along to rescue Stephen, who apparently spends the rest of his "love life" in public loos and so forth. It's sad in many ways, yet even while it's being sad the novel has a reality which is almost alien. Hard to explain ... you'll have to read it for yourself.
Recommended for the above reasons: it's good to stretch yourself occasionally, not just read the easy stuff. I'd say, 3.5 out of 5 stars ... because it's a difficult book as well as being unforgettable.
The Rees novel I enjoyed the most is Milkman, (which I must settle down and review soon. It took me years to find a copy). Quince is a very good read, but it's clearly a book written by a gay male, for gay males, about gay males. There is *nothing* wrong with that, but I need to run up a warning flag here: a number of m/m readers would be sadly disappointed, not to say potentially disillusioned, by this novel. The romantic angle you get to expect with books by a female writers -- that feel-good sensation, even when the material is a long way from "fluffy bunny" -- is utterly absent. Quince does *not* have a happy ending. Two people do not settle down to a life together.
In fact, the opposite is true. The central character (one has a hard time saying "hero") is Stephen Faith, a young gay guy who goes out to Spain to teach English to young Pablo, son of the local mayor. He falls in love with Pablo, but when the Spanish Civil War breaks out he's caught in the meat grinder. Pablo betrays him, which lands Stephen in prison ... and he doesn't just fall out of love with Pablo, he falls out of love with love itself.
This is the exact opposite of those novels about a guy's journey from the promiscuous sleep-around to the love affair and the settling down. Stephen goes the opposite route. After Pablo, betrayal and dire experiences behind bars, he becomes the promiscuous sleep-around guy. And from the "epilogue" or tag taking place in 1986, about 50 years after the main body of the story, we know he never finds love again. Never encounters a single person to settle down with, which is ... sad.
Quince is gritty but at the same time casually under-written. Nothing much is detailed. In some places (especially in the prison scenes) it reads like Rees's notes for a full narrative he never got around to writing. A thread of storyline is jotted down but left curiously undeveloped. This way, Rees manages to skate or skip over a body of material that could become burdensome, overwhelmingly heavy, if he wrote at length. Not to put too fine a point on it, Stephen is tortured in the prison, but you can read it without much hardship, because events are covered as a series of bald statements.
Quince is a rather quick read, at something like 70,000 words, max; you can plow through in one or two sittings. The characters are sketched in shorthand, but they do "ring true," and it's set in a time period and place that are so unusual. The truth is, almost everything I know about the Spanish Civil War comes from reading this book!
For this (the research and unusual nature of the "where and when"), and for the challenge Quince presents to the reader, I recommend it. Things do not come out right in the end. The book does not recommend falling in love and settling down. Nobody rides along to rescue Stephen, who apparently spends the rest of his "love life" in public loos and so forth. It's sad in many ways, yet even while it's being sad the novel has a reality which is almost alien. Hard to explain ... you'll have to read it for yourself.
Recommended for the above reasons: it's good to stretch yourself occasionally, not just read the easy stuff. I'd say, 3.5 out of 5 stars ... because it's a difficult book as well as being unforgettable.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews