Book review: Ally O'Brien -- The Agency

Note: I received an ARC of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme.

Tess Drake is a high-flying literary agent on the staff of a top entertainment agency. Sufficiently high-flying that she wants to branch out on her own, rather than continue to take a salary that's a fraction of the money she brings into the business. As the novel opens, she's just been given one final push in that direction by the death of her boss. Tess liked Lowell; she loathes Cosima, the woman who's about to take over, and the feeling's mutual.

The problem for Tess is that she's made more enemies than just Cosima along the way to success. She's left frantically trying to put together her new business without letting slip what she's doing, in the middle of the uproar generated by Lowell's death from auto-erotic asphyxiation. Oh, and then there's the police investigation into the suggestion that Lowell's death wasn't an accident, and that Tess might have had something to do with it.

It's fast, funny, and more than a little over the top. It's also unashamedly for an adult audience, as is obvious right from the first page. There is swearing and there is sex, and most of it is there for genuine plot and character development reasons. There's also a lot of acidly funny commentary on the entertainment business, with much dropping of real names to add to the realism.

Tess is often unlikeable, but she's also aware of her flaws, and there's real growth in her character during the book. She's also fiercely loyal to a few people for more than commercial reasons, and genuinely regrets the damage she's accidentally caused to relationships she valued.

The book's a blend of chick-lit and mystery, and does a good job of both, but is not going to appeal to everyone. I can see why the reviews on LibraryThing range from loathing to loving it. For me personally it was a page-turner, and while I sometimes wanted to shake some sense into Tess, by the last few chapters I very much wanted her to break free of the trap that had been laid for her. The novel is complete in itself and does have a satisfying ending, but I'd love to see what happened next. I'd gladly read a sequel to this book.

[Amazon and Audible.com links deleted. See this post about Amazon's censorship of LGBT books for why.]
LibraryThing entry
ISBN: 978-0312379445 (hardback)

Amazon hiding LGBT books

Oh joy. There's been some suspicion over the last few days that Amazon has been hiding LGBT books (and possibly small press het erotica) from general view by removing the sales rankings so they don't show up unless you actively search for them by title or author. There'd been a lot of bland evasion when the authors asked them about it. Now a publisher has asked via a publisher-orientated back-channel, and been told that yes, it *is* very deliberate censorship of the "adult" titles to keep them out of general view. And in the case of LGBT titles, it's not just the smut that's been hidden. The YA titles are being suppressed from view as well.

More details via storm_grant's post here: http://storm-grant.livejournal.com/160240.html

I don't normally make a point of this, but in this case I think it's necessary: I'm Kinsey 0, i.e. very, *very* straight. I am, at least on the surface, one of the people Amazon thinks needs to be protected from exposure to That Sort Of Thing. Thanks, but I don't really need to be protected from the knowledge that YA gay literature exists, at least not while you're still happy to show me the raunchiest of mainstream bonkbusters and airport novels.

Easter Sunday

I usually post on Easter Sunday about the Two Great Commandments, and usually in reference to a very specific application of the second of those. This year I was going to do a somewhat different theme, on my choice of Easter eggs, and Fair Trade, and walking away from Omelas. Unfortunately I've got reason this afternoon to go back to the usual.

I will begin by quoting from Teresa Nielsen Hayden's magnificent "Things I believe" post for Easter Day 2004, a beautiful meditation on the Nicene Creed:

I believe in the God of the Burgess Shale, Who not only made creation stranger than we know, but stranger than we could ever imagine.

These are the words of someone who believes, who believes very deeply. And who also believes this:

I believe that any Christians whose religious practices aren’t centered around sacrificing and burning animals ought not spend all their time trying to enforce obscure passages in the Pentateuch.

I believe that as well. As do a number of other people who write, edit or publish books which have just been censored by Amazon for their adult content, where "adult" is deemed to include anything that portrays homosexuality in a positive or even neutral light. This is the thing which many people overlook when they associate Christianity with an obsession with controlling sexuality, who believe that a Christian, by definition, disapproves of homosexuality -- there are a good many Christians who don't. Who believe that the persecution of people for no better reason than their loving, consensual relationships with other adults is a direct repudiation of the second of the Two Great Commandments, and thus of the message which Jesus gave to us. Which he died, horribly and in pain and in public shame, to give to us. This is the passage in question:

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:37-40

And when he was asked, "Lord, who is my neighbour?", he made it very clear through a parable that your neighbours are not just the people you like and approve of. Not just the people who are just like you.

I am not as good as I might be, as I should be, at keeping those commandments. But as a Christian, I must at least try to keep the spirit of the second. As indeed must adherents of other religions with similar messages, and those who follow no religion or faith at all. This is what it means to be truly human -- that whatever we believe to be the source of the impulse to love our neighbours, whether we have one god or many or none, we believe that others are human too.