talyseon's Full Review: Yoshinaga Fumi - Gerard & Jacques 2
Gerard & Jacques 2 by Yoshinaga Fumi. (ISBN 1598165429)
Gerard & Jacques 2 is a Yaoi novel. Yaoi is a Japanese artform, graphic novels about gay romances written almost exclusively by women and for women. These books can range from sweet romances to torrid sexual adventures. This book and this review deal frankly with sex between men. So if this is not your cup of tea, well you have been warned.
In Gerard and Jacques 1 we met the wealthy Gerard Anglade and his servant, the impoverished Count Jacques Phillipe Du Saint Jacques. Though they met in a brothel, eventually through kindness and a greater understanding of each other, they fell in love.
Now in G&J2, that love is heating up, but so is the French Revolution!
Jacques, who was sold to a brothel by his impoverished father, and after being rescued by Gerard, served as his servant for over three years. Now, Jacques mother has remarried, and sent for him, to be adopted by her new husband. Is this the end of Gerard's happy home?
No. The new husband has Jacques' face. He is probably the lad's real sire. But Jacques loved his father, and won't abandon his name, and asks to stay on as Gerard's retainer.
All of this has a profound effect on Gerard, calling to mind his own wife's daughter, so casually discarded. The effect on Jacques is more profound; suddenly overwhelmed by his feelings, he faces them and approaches Gerard, wanting sex, wanting to know if this is love.
In yaoi the uke or passive partner, usually younger and smaller, is almost never the aggressor. The seme or more masculine aggressive partner is expected to do all the seducing. This is a refreshing change.
Now a couple, they face the next hurdle, Raul De Amalric. Raul was Gerard's wife's lover, and the man who introduced Gerard to the pleasures of a man's company. He was also the sire of his wife's daughter, whom Gerard claimed as his own.
Gerard ventured to his mansion for a Salon, to tell him of Natalie's passing. He knew, but uses the visit as an opportunity to drug and rape Gerard.
Concerned by his absence, Jacques goes to collect him, unaware of the dire circumstances into which he is walking. Raul, a true snake in the grass, tries to bribe Jacques away from Gerard, and then to seduce the lad. But Gerard, weak and wobbly, rescues his paramour. Together, they flee.
Into the very bowels of the French Revolution. Gerard, struggling to finish the eleventh volume of his pornographic lesbian melodrama, is astonished when his publisher announces it will not be published. It is attracting too much attention at a time when to stand head and shoulders above the crowd was an invitation to be mowed down by the guillotine. The Public Committee is closing in.
Gerard is summoned to the Bastille; Raul De Amalric begs him to help him be released. Gerard does not have that kind of influence. Once Raul realizes this, he tells Gerard that he reported Jacques as an aristocrat three days ago. And now the couple are fleeing for their lives.
Yaoi is an odd thing, gay romances for Japanese women. Often things that they take for granted make no sense to us in the west. Yaoi is usually too frankly sexual to be a true romance, and far to emotional to rate as gay porn; it is neither one thing, nor the other, but something different. This story is different even in that category, not focusing on Japan or the modern day.
The art in yaoi is as important as the story. It features graceful slender rather effeminate men, the kind Japanese women do not find threatening. Ms. Yoshinaga's particular style is very graceful, minimal line, shading by ink washes, much like the delicate art scrolls.
Also, this volume, like most manga and yaoi, reads back to front and right to left. It takes a page or two to figure the flow from panel to panel, working in reverse. Still, it adds to the foreign feel; like the fortune cookie at the end of the meal.
G&J2 is more sexually explicit than the first volume, and the story is more action oriented. If you are looking for a change of pace, I highly recommend this book and its brother.
Heartwrenching and incredibly romantic, this boys love series is set during the tumultuous time of the French Revolution. Recommended for adults.More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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