Customer Reviews
Hypnotic, exquisite but a little frustrating! - By: Phil Shanklin, 08 Oct 2008 
I read this book when it first came out & I must have enjoyed it because I've kept a copy for alll these years but when I picked it up off the shelf to re-read I had absolutely no memory of it- usuallly a book stays somewhere in the subconscious but as I began it I thought I'd never read it before. Until, that is, Bartlett's hypnotic prose began to draw me in once again. The plot is a simple love story- Boy meets Older Man so nothing there was memorable enough to stay with me over the years but Bartlett's style is exquisite- it's a mixture of kitchen sink drama, fairy tale, gay coming of age story, myth & great tragedy yet it ends up being none of these. Enigmatic is probably the word for it but that makes it sound inaccessible which it isn't. At times it is a book of extraordinary power & beautiful writing, in places it is a little frustrating & borders on being pointless but it is certainly worth reading even if time hasn't led it to be the "classic" it promised to be when it was first published. I'm putting it back on my book shelf to re-discover in another fifteen or so years.
Don't waste your time or money! - By: jonpeter27@yahoo.co.uk, 02 Apr 2001 
This is without doubt the most dis-jointed, pretentious & self-indulgent drivel that I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. I realised by the time I reached the end of the first chapter that it was going to be hard going, but I forced myself to continue in the hope that it would improve. It did not! None of the characters had any substance, & it progressively got worse until it reached its dismal non-conclusion.
Sexy, erotic, romantic, fascinating cast of characters - By: , 11 Mar 1999 
This book is short is one of the best works of gay-oriented fiction I have ever read. The book has a varied & fascinating cast of characters, in addition to being very sexy & romantic. Neil Bartlett has an incredible power of capturing the beauty of the English Language. 'Ready To Catch Him Should He Falll' was definately a page turner for me. I was somewhat disappointed with 'The House on Brooke Street', however.
Moving, erotic and troubling - By: , 16 Dec 1998 Gay sex lacks paradigms - it lacks EXAMPLES. You might not want to get involved in the whole "bottom" or "top" scene, but that doesn't mean that you want to have sex as an "equal". In fact I can't think of anything worse than two people undertaking a responsible & calmly thought out reasonable act of sex, or sexual relationship. WHAT WOULD BE THE POINT?! It would be like junk food. Neil Bartlett provides an archetype for a new kind of relationship - a deconstructed relationship with power relationships & contradictions, but THANK GOD, no compromises. This book is astonishing in that it draws you into a plot that is moving, but more importantly into a relationship that is fundamental, new, exciting, transgressive & yet equal (in its own way). In no way is this a trashily sentimental or sexy book. Nor is it at times an easy book to read. But christ bounce on me, it's a bloody brilliant one...
