Gerard & Jacques
By Fumi Yoshinaga
Rated M, mature
BLU, $9.99
Gerard & Jacques opens with a rape. Gerard, an older, wealthy man, is visiting a brothel, and the brothel-keeper has a special treat for him: a new kid. Jacques, who is 16 or 17, is an aristocrat whose family has lost all their money and sold him into slavery, a fact he’s unaware of until Gerard enlightens him. And he’s disgusted by the idea of having sex with a man. Gerard tries to make nice, but when Jacques resists, he goes ahead anyway.
It’s a weird sort of rape, though. Gerard is a commoner who hates aristocrats, and he and Jacques have quite the intellectual discussion before Gerard announces “Now, I’m going to treat you in the manner befitting a whore who angers his client.” Yet the first thing Gerard does is bring Jacques to climax, before going ahead with the rest of it. When he’s done, Gerard buys Jacques his freedom, throws out a few gratuitous insults about how he won’t be able to survive on his own, and leaves.
You know what would make this book satisfying to me? If Jacques were to exact some revenge for being raped and humiliated. Instead, he ends up working as a servant in Gerard’s household. We’re supposed to think Gerard is a good guy because he treats his servants well and doesn’t pester them for sex. As the story goes on, we also learn that he has a Secret Sorrow. Jacques, for his part, continues to profess disgust with Gerard’s behavior but seems to be bothered by more than righteousness when Gerard brings a prostitute home.
Given the setting, pre-Revolutionary France, this could have been an interesting, complex story with lots of intrigue, but the first volume doesn’t live up to that potential. Yoshinaga tries to add a bit of depth to the characters but it’s fairly predictable: Jacques, the aristocrat, is pretty good at chopping wood, and commoner Gerard—gasp!—reads books. In fact, those who are enjoying this book purely as porn may be distracted by the frequent detours into Philosophy 101 territory (“Rousseau is the philosopher who sharply criticizes the class system while arguing freedom, equality and justice.”) I do hear that the story gets more complex in the second volume, though.
This is a Tokyopop book so there are no frills, but the production quality is good. The cover is attractive and the print quality is excellent. Yoshinaga’s art, which is uncluttered to the point of being minimalist, demands clean, sharp printing, and Tokyopop—er, BLU—has delivered the goods. However, Antique Bakery fans may notice that the trim size is smaller.
G&J is an elegant, well drawn book and an entertaining read, if you can get past the opening chapter. But for this reader, that’s too much to ask.
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher.
An interesting and thorough review, Brigid. Sounds like it wouldn’t be my cup of tea, either. But I’m curious — I know yaoi/BL is not your thing — what prompted you to buy the book?
Interesting review… I had a similar reaction to the second volume of “Gorgeous Carat.” I thought the illustrations were nice, and the plot hummed along at a good clip, and then wham! there was a God-awful raped-by-a-sheik scene that just made me cringe. At least none of the characters waxed poetic about Rousseau. (Though if this is fin-de-siecle Paris, why aren’t the characters haunting Le Chat Noir and listening to Debussy?)
Alex,
I forgot to put on the review that it was a complimentary copy from Tokyopop. But actually, I have been starting to read yaoi—I just bought Antique Bakery and liked it a lot better than G&J. Any recommendations for future reading?
ChunHyang,
Wrong century! It’s the end of the 18th century, so the Revolution looms. Think of the possibilities for intrigue and betrayal! Also, it was a time of great squalor, on the one hand, and ornateness and elegance, on the other, neither of which is really reflected in the art. Yoshinaga’s style is elegant in its simplicity but doesn’t really do the period justice.
Well, Challengers would probably top my list for you — you can read my review of it over at my site. It’s light, fun, smartly written and very accessible. Right now, it would definitely be the “first boys love book” that I’d recommend to any of my friends who were starting to get curious. :-)
Actually, my comments about Debussy were referring to “Gorgeous Carat,” which is set at the end of the 19th century. (Hence the Eiffel Tower and primitive steam cars that factor prominently into an early story.) For some reason, You Higuri used a similar nobleman sold into slavery plotline in “Carat.” Guess that’s just one of those BL conventions that doesn’t speak to me.
Actually, I think Antique Bakery’s classification is odd. I think I heard Ed Chavez say it comes from a magazine that was transitioning between genres at the time and was josei at one point or another. (It probably doesn’t help that DMP titles are often presumed to be YAOI since most of their work falls in that genre.)
As for recommendations, Only the Ring Finger Knows is a solid entry title. I agree with David Welsh’s positive impression of Shout Out Loud! though that one is on a slow release schedule.
Tentatively, I’d recommend Fake which has a good romance story mixed with bad police stories (charmingly bad, I say)… it’s a title I’d recommend if you think you can handle all the cheese. I also liked Yellow, which reminds me of one of those sexploitation action films, but with two guys. It’s dumb fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously.