Dating, mating and relating has always been a relevant, hot button issue that has stood the test of time. Whether it be an informal discussion amongst friends, a scholarly lecture, or a silly rom com movie, those three rhyming verbs has always been on the minds of human beings everywhere, no matter what gender or sexual orientation you are.
And the written word has provided a treasure trove about everything you wanted to know or not, when it comes to dating, mating and relating, from textbooks, to self-help books, to even works of fiction.
Prolific novelist Steven Paul Leiva has tackled this subject in the latter category with his latest novel The Reluctant Heterosexual.
In this massive (522 pages) tome – which is also the third and final volume of his Love, Sex and Pursuit of Happiness trilogy of novels — The Reluctant Heterosexual focusses on a man and a woman who make up the most unlikely of couples from two diverse backgrounds. Robert Leslie Cromwell is a prominent research scientist whose father, Buck Ryder, appeared in countless “B” movie westerns during Hollywood’s golden age. He grew wealthy when he co-created two medical products called “Abandon” and “Control”, which were deemed as a sort-of “stick shift” for the human sex drive. Sandra (Sandy) Smith is originally from Azusa, California, the adopted daughter of a butcher and a housewife who was possessed with a love for nature, and a fondness for watching soap operas (“stories”) on TV and reading Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series of detective novels. Sandy’s love of art at an early age transcended into a career as a highly-respected, world class art historian and recipient of the French Legion of Honor.
If you think the coming together of Robert and Sandy would end up as the classic “opposites attract” happy couple, think again! The Reluctant Heterosexual is more like an anti-romance novel, which trumpets the message that sex and love don’t always go together so well.
Although Robert studies sexual trends as a profession, it doesn’t mean he is a good practitioner of it. He is in an enviable position of having any girl that he wants; however, he is rather reluctant to practice dating, mating and relating, no matter how much he is pushed to do so by his studly, playboy-like college roommate. And Sandy is not the type to fall for any man; in fact, a potential suitor has to meet her rigid standards, as if it’s a new acquisition for the art museum that she works at in San Francisco. But when Robert and Sandy finally relent to go on a pre-arranged blind date, it’s not exactly love at first sight and they lived happily ever after. Far from it.
As the reader gets to familiarize themselves with the dating dilemmas of Robert and Sandy, as well as their rather sorrowful backgrounds, The Reluctant Heterosexual becomes an incessant page-turner, as you want to find out more about how this relationship will end up, whether it be delightful or disastrous. Leiva uses elements that are reminiscent of Woody Allen and Neil Simon, with a sprinkling of the ABC comedy anthology series of the late 60s and early 70s Love American Style (and if it ever made it to television, the episode would have been called “Love and the Reluctant First Date”), plus a healthy dose of mature content that will guarantee to make you blush bright red. And he mixes them all together to come up with a novel that delightfully throws out all the conventions of what a romantic novel should be like (the section that tells the story of the messed up first/second date of Robert and Sandy through the streets of San Francisco would have been something that Neil Simon would have gladly adapted for one of his plays). And as an added bonus, the interlude that comes in the form of a series of interview transcripts for a book about Robert and his ground breaking “stick shift” sex drive invention provides an entertaining diversion to the narrative, as well as add more context to what motivated our main protagonists.
Part farce, part serio-comic story and all sexually motivated, The Reluctant Heterosexual is a riveting tale that takes away all the lustre of the fairy tale romantic relationship, and shows that dating, mating and relating doesn’t always happily lead to the two things that go together like a horse and carriage.
Other articles from mtltimes.ca – totimes.ca – otttimes.ca
