Sandel Angus Stewart Books
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Set in the 1960s in an Oxford college, when being gay was still an offence punishable by imprisonment, 'Sandel' tells the story of a love affair between an undergraduate (David Rogers), and a cathedral choir boy (Antony Sandel). Tony - beautiful, provocative, mischievous, sensitive and sometimes overwhelmed by the intensity of his own feelings - bewitches Rogers. Both are talented musicians, and Sandel's astonishing voice, which Rogers explores as his accompanist at the transient moment of glory which precedes it breaking, is soon central to the relationship. Sensual, profound, often funny and never sentimental, Stewart provides a definitive analysis of same-sex love in the context of a relationship that puts sex in its place and reveals love as the one agent of the human condition that can set us free. The setting of the novel in an Oxford college (actually Christ Church, which the author attended) and the well-observed description of life in an English choir-school - short trousers, boats on the river, afternoon tea and cricket before Evensong - along with the stylistic quality of the writing, places 'Sandel' in a tradition made famous by Evelyn Waugh ('Decline and Fall' and 'Brideshead Revisited'). There are echoes too of 'Maurice', the novel by E M Forster published after his death in 1970. On both sides of the Atlantic, 'Sandel' became formative reading for a generation of boys growing up in the 1970s who knew their feelings fell outside the heterosexual male stereotype, and it remains a gay cult novel today, with prices on reaching thousands of dollars a copy. But its fundamental message holds good for all people in all eras whatever their sexual persuasion, and is delivered with great subtlety and skill by a master craftsman. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Angus Stewart was born in 1936, the son of John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, the novelist and Oxford academic who wrote bestselling crime fiction as Michael Innes. He was educated at Bryanston School in Dorset, and later at Christ Church Oxford. Stewart's first published work was ‘The Stile’ (1965), which won the Richard Hillary Memorial Prize. His first novel, 'Sandel’, which is in many respects autobiographical, came in 1968 and is now a cult classic, recently commanding very high prices on the internet. Before and after its publication, Stewart lived for long periods in Morocco. In 2016 his personal memoir, ‘Tangier’ (1977), was reissued in a new edition, including photographs by the author. His experiences there explain a great deal about the author of 'Sandel’, and his exposure to Tangier’s legendary artistic community, which included Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, Francis Bacon, Alan Sillitoe, Ruth Fainlight, Rupert Croft-Cooke, Alec Waugh, William Burroughs, Gavin Maxwell, Francis Bacon, Joe Orton and others, prepared the way for his second novel, ‘Snow in Harvest’ (1969). ‘Sense and Inconsequence Satirical Verses’ followed in 1972, with a Foreword by W H Auden. A third novel, ‘The Wind Cries All Ways’, which includes a startling description of the author’s incarceration in a Tangier mental asylum, has yet to be published. After his mother's death in 1979 Stewart returned to live in England, and died in Oxfordshire twenty years later.
Sandel Angus Stewart Books
Sandel is an odd book. On one hand, it is a fairly unflinching look at a man and boy who share a tight bond of affection in a world that judges such things as inherently wrong. The good part about the book is that the author doesn't try to convince you that this is either a good thing or a bad thing; he places the protagonist (the man) a bit at odds with a good friend who very effectively plays devil's advocate with him and the jury is still out at the end of the book.Now what I didn't like about the book... Besides the circumstances of the boy being a bit fantastic, the book simply ended with nothing learned by anybody. Worse than that, it seemed like the author simply gave up at the climax of the story and ended it in a few paragraphs. The story is divided into three "books", but "book 3" is only seven pages long. The ending didn't even make sense; it was just kind of dropped. It was on the way to saying something profound perhaps, but it never got there.
Another problem with the story (from my perspective) was that the author is from Great Britain. A great deal of the writing uses British phrases that mean something quite different in US English; so many of the passages that may have been enlightening to British readers appeared to me to be non-sequiturs or simply confusing. This seemed to happen at a number of pivotal points in the story; I couldn't determine if the author was being concise or whether he was indulging in the poor assumption that the reader must necessarily come to the same conclusion that he had, when in fact he was simply being lazy and unclear.
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Sandel Angus Stewart Books Reviews
I found the story line hard to follow. I liked the plot, but I found it to be very convoluted difficult to follow.
Though perhaps inevitable, I nonetheless found the ending disappointing. It was also abrupt.
Beautiful story with some sadness, about a developing relationship between a young man and a boy singer.
Such a treasure, this book, reading it slowly so not far enough into it to answer how narrated. But so far each detail rings true, often understated but redolent of the turbulence and uncertainties of growing up gay, spiked with the open, direct and spontaneous (I think) utterances of the younger boy, who, unencumbered by the trappings of early adulthood cuts to the essence of whatever's going on. Love it, love it!
In the current climate it is very difficult to justify Ancient Greek style love between a pubescent boy (Anthony 13) & an older man (David 19) set in the modern day (well, the sixties); however, unlike some modern day paedophiles who seek to justify their acts, Stewart manages to avoid the issues and produce a work of real quality that is spoilt by its occasional descent into pure narrative than a love story. Bruce, David's long term friend from prep school provides the balance - though I found the Jesuitical angle a little implausible but that is looking at the book in the twenty-first century. There are overtones of Mann's Death in Venice but here the book describes not so innocent activities born from the fact that David failed to commit to a similar relationship at his public school & the younger boy committed suicide. One could argue about the subject matter but in the story there is absolutely no doubt that orphan Anthony is the dominant character but in this modern day I think no one could except behaviour that goes further than paternal/fraternal love.
Unless one was around in the sixties and went through the English education system as it was then you would probably struggle to understand why this book was deemed unpublishable when it was written. You might interpret this story as a tale of tender young love or be disgusted by the concept of an older youth captivated by one under age. Whatever your point of view I think the remarks of one American reader who could not get to grips with this book are harsh and unwarranted. Put into the context of when this was written and maybe still even today, many would be appalled at the feelings David has for Tony and vice versa. But the book and the two protagonists keep their respectability throughout - would they if it was written today ? - even when David asks Tony to undress for a photo session. It is always the younger Tony who has the salacious thoughts yet the story line remains proper and restrained. If there is any part of the book that I did not enjoy it was the ending - inconclusive but then David is.
It's good to see this fairly historic little book back in print. It's a sensitive subject these days and this book reveals the gulf between modern thoughts on this subject and 1960's thought. The book is not easy. There are many esoteric passages which I frequently needed to reread for meaning. In between however, his descriptions of the way that both Peter Greaves and Tony Sandel made David feel were vivid and convincing. This was a man writing out of personal experience; the book is clearly, at the very least, partly autobiographical. He is at his absolute best when joyfully describing the way the boys move and behave; when he leaves intellectual conjecture behind and deals with actual reality.
It's amazing that this book was so well received back in 1968. The subject matter would have had the press howling with dismay were it to come out now. It shows how things have changed. One extreme to the other perhaps. Well worth reading.
Sandel is an odd book. On one hand, it is a fairly unflinching look at a man and boy who share a tight bond of affection in a world that judges such things as inherently wrong. The good part about the book is that the author doesn't try to convince you that this is either a good thing or a bad thing; he places the protagonist (the man) a bit at odds with a good friend who very effectively plays devil's advocate with him and the jury is still out at the end of the book.
Now what I didn't like about the book... Besides the circumstances of the boy being a bit fantastic, the book simply ended with nothing learned by anybody. Worse than that, it seemed like the author simply gave up at the climax of the story and ended it in a few paragraphs. The story is divided into three "books", but "book 3" is only seven pages long. The ending didn't even make sense; it was just kind of dropped. It was on the way to saying something profound perhaps, but it never got there.
Another problem with the story (from my perspective) was that the author is from Great Britain. A great deal of the writing uses British phrases that mean something quite different in US English; so many of the passages that may have been enlightening to British readers appeared to me to be non-sequiturs or simply confusing. This seemed to happen at a number of pivotal points in the story; I couldn't determine if the author was being concise or whether he was indulging in the poor assumption that the reader must necessarily come to the same conclusion that he had, when in fact he was simply being lazy and unclear.
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