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You are here: Polari Magazine / Books / Any Human Face • Charles Lambert

Any Human Face • Charles Lambert

14 Jun 2012 / Comments Off / in Books/by Tim Bennett-Goodman

Any Human Face   ★★★★★
Charles Lambert
323 pages • Picador • May 7, 2010  [PB]
………………………………………………………………………………………….

As I observed in my review last year of Allan Massie’s Death in Bordeaux, of which this is somewhat reminiscent, crime thrillers are not really my thing. Any Human Face however, like Death in Bordeaux, is in another league.

Set in Rome between 1983 to 2008, with a flashback to 1960-1982, Lambert’s novel follows the fortunes of Allesandro (though he despises his real name, preferring Alex); Andrew, a second-hand Scottish-Italian book-dealer, and Jamie, whose real name is James Bond.

Larger-than-life characters such as the eccentric but motherly Birdman, who lives in a flat in the Piazza Vittorio where he feeds wild birds and takes them in almost as he does feral youths, and the monster of an ego art critic, Daniela dell’Orto, populate this novel. It is set in the seamier side of Rome, a gay and criminal demi-monde apparently at odds with the image of the Eternal City, the City of the Pope. But these two faces of Rome form two sides of the same coin and, as it turns out, involve some very unholy alliances indeed.

Starting with an unsolved abduction of a young girl whose father worked in the Vatican, compromising photographs surface years later which Andrew decides to exhibit  above his bookshop with the help (if that’s the right word) of Daniela dell’Orto. When the bookshop is raided by a shadowy arm of the state, the photographs confiscated and Andrew whisked off and held at a secret location for interrogation, it becomes apparent that skeletons in closets at the very highest level of Roman society have been seriously rattled.

The characters are well-drawn and the narrative maintains a breathtaking pace, making it utterly gripping reading. It is also a dark, dangerous, brooding, and (perhaps because of that) very sexy novel. There are, though, some lighter moments and some delightful and really rather sweet relationships – and not just sexual ones but friendships too. The willing suspension of disbelief is also helped enormously by knowing that Lambert has lived in Italy since 1976 and is obviously steeped in its culture, both high and low, which is precisely where this electrifying novel lives.

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Tags: allan massie, any human face, charles lambert, fiction review, thriller

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Polari Magazine is an LGBT arts and culture magazine that explores the subculture by looking at what is important to the people who are in it. It’s about the lives we lead, not the lifestyles we’re supposed to lead.

Its content is informed & insightful, and features a diverse range of writers from every section of the community. Its intent is to help LGBT readers learn about their own heritage and to sustain a link between the present and the past.

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Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

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