Arabesques by Robert Dessaix

Aren't arabesques intricate dance movements? I think this is what Robert Dessaix thinks this book is about. It's really quite an odd book. He follows the footsteps of Andre Gide, a French writer who won the Nobel Prize for his writing but whose work was subsequently banned by the Vatican. Gide was an extremely wealthy homosexual writer who nevertheless married his cousin but who never consummated the marriage. He spent much of his time travelling to places like Algiers and Tunisia in search of voluptuous boys, not children but newly pubescent boys, and his books describe his sexual awakening (called his 'casbah moment' by Dessaix) at the instigation of his friend Oscar Wilde and his exploits into old age. Dessaix read him at 14 and I can imagine was immensely relieved to find someone who reflected and validated his own sexual longings. So, fascinated by him, Dessaix travels to all the places Gide stayed to absorb the atmosphere and ponder this man's life. Along the way he has some amazingly intellectual conversations with various people too and these can be a real pleasure to read, especially his comparison of Protestantism and Catholicism. He's really got a handle on the cultural basis of religion (as opposed to the belief basis.) The book is languid and slow and thoughtful and of course, like everything Dessaix writes, extraordinarily beautifully crafted, but nothing actually happens so if you're plot driven, give it a miss. And of course, it accepts without in any way confronting the fact of sexual tourism in another age, and that could disturb some readers. Towards the end of the book, Dessaix confronts the question of pederasty and concludes that while he doesn't approve of men prowling schoolyards, 'it is appropriate to love whoever knowingly invites our love and enjoys it.' He also emphasises that Gide's (rarely achieved) ideal was sensual chastity - hence the angst and guilt I guess. While Oscar Wilde and Andre Gide on the prowl for young goatherds and waiters might be a bit Dolly Dunn for some, Dessaix makes no judgment - he is an accepting and distanced observer of the writer and his life. I'd give this book four stars for Dessaix' gorgeous language alone.