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Reviewer: aglaja5 Signed [Report This]
Date: Dec 05, 2021 6:37 am Title: Chapter 1

Yeah, maybe I'm misinterpreted John. Maybe I also just see him from the point of view from straight people. I truely believe you when you explain that losts of gay men were forced into a heterosexual marriage by society, but there are lots of straight men and also women who don't end a marriage for different reasons but have a affair, a love beside... Maybe that's how I see John. So, sorry, but in my opinion somehow it's not fair what he did to Carolyn and to Brian. And in my opinion it's tragic thinking that Brian has not just his parents but in some way also John and his marriage as real bad examples. If we imagine that this is something he experienced in his youth, his development is no wonder.

Reviewer: Paul Plesko Signed [Report This]
Date: Dec 05, 2021 5:28 am Title: Chapter 1

I think you're misinterpreting John. He's married; he has two sons. He's a professor who fell in love with one of his (remarkable) students. He's gay, or at least Bi-...and he feels trapped. He doesn't want to break-up his family because he knows that Carolyn will be vindictive. But, he loves this young man, whom he abandons and pushes away. It's a classic case of a gay young man who has chosen to marry by social and family pressures 30-to-40 years ago. He's fine in the marriage for several/many years, but as he gets older he feels the pressure of never having the sexual release he dreams about. He's not a predator; he just longs for male companionship. He's a victim of a society that did not accept homosexuality. I know several guys who were in this situation. Of all the characters in my stories, I feel saddest about John.

I didn't know where the hope was, twenty years ago. Get together, split up, get together, split up...it was an emotional roller coaster. I suppose the "hope" was that the writers of the series would come up with a solution and an ending that would satisfy us all. That didn't happen.And you can't hope for a change 20 years later...unless someone rewrites and reproduces the whole series. A new generation has taken over this unsettled feeling about QAF. But, it is what it is. That's not a good answer to your question.

Reviewer: aglaja5 Signed starstarstarstarstar [Report This]
Date: Dec 04, 2021 11:37 pm Title: Chapter 1

Hi again! Thanks for another great story... That was so hot and then so sad... But first of all, I've got a question... Brian was trying to forget the last two loves???? Justin and John??? I really like the way you wrote this time with their alternating thoughts. It's interesting also to learn something about Justin's thoughts. And it's great that you also let Justin stay total in character. And I have to admit: Slowly but surely John is getting on my nerves. He is such a hypocrite. And since I've read these two stories so quickly one after the other, I'll quote Brian briefly: "Being forced to say it is a sadness; it means the perception has not been felt." Or, in John's case, maybe to make yourself better, to feel bigger. Ah, I like him less and less. Back to your story. There were moments, I could have cried... "If I can't have what I want... his love and companionship, I'll want what I can have... [...] I'll be his trick".... ""I didn't want to leave you," [...]" "He finally had accepted the "Trick-leaves-in-the-morning" rule... just when I was ready to rescind it. I sank back onto the bed... hands stretched out to my sides... fists clenched... eyes tightly closed." Ah, that's so sad. And hey, what had I just written in my previous review .... Where is the hope here, the positive?



Author's Response: Brian was recovering from two past loves; Lee, his high school lover ("Prometheus Unbound") and John, his college professor (Requiem.) I think that readers who think that Justin is Brian's first love are mildly delusional. An almost 30-year-old gay man who has never loved someone else? That is totally fiction, at least in my experience.

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