Hello there, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on The Charioteer 😀
HELLO!!
The charioteer made me realise the hype of the twilight love triangle.
I started off as an Andrew person, I thought he was sweet and it was going to be some innocent romance and then suddenly R.R Lanyon just appears. At the beginning I didn’t think Ralph would be a love interest, more a guide for Laurie through queer culture at the time (this is when we meet him at the party). Then seeing more of Ralph’s character I completely fell in love with him. Ralph is my exactly type and I know it’s not related to the book but HOOOOOLY HES SO FIT. Anyways, I really enjoyed the book!! Team Lanyon
I think Laurie and Ralph’s relationship is very interesting, Ralph understanding Laurie and Laurie feeling understood by him while surrounded by all these people who are nice and supportive but not fully UNDERSTANDING him. Bit nsfw but I love the dynamics in Ralph/lauries relationship; there’s definitely a dom/sub thing going on and I need that more in media and I think it’s very much important to their relationship with the whole Ralph taking over and Laurie not needing to worry/think.
My only problems (which are completely personal) is that because I’m dyslexic I had to re-read and re-listen to it a few times to fully grasp what was going on, I think the writing is incredible but it leaves a lot up to interpretation and implications and it’s hard to get that implications; I’ve seen people on here talk about Ralph kissing Laurie in school which I haven’t picked up on yet (if someone could tell me where that would be very helpful) and I had to search up to confirm they had sex after the wedding. It’s probably because it was written in the 1950’s so it couldn’t be fully explicit but I need to sit down and fully study the book!
The ending I didn’t know how to feel, I like it and I like that Laurie ended up with Ralph however I felt like it could use more but that’s just me and my personal taste!!
Overall though I think it’s an incredible novel, really itched the spot I’ve been having after finishing ‘in memoriam’ 2 years ago- if anyone has any other gay war books to recommend go ahead!!
