The Inverts by Crystal Jeans

 

374 pages

Publisher: The Borough Press

 

Blurb

 1921: A BOY, A GIRL, A MOONLINT MIDNIGHT KISS

A TERRIBLE, REPULSIVE KISS.

Bettina and Bart have grown up as best friends, so surely they will end up together? After all, Bettina is young, rich, headstrong … and gay. Bart is young, rich, charismatic … and also, definitely, gay. Any doubts are dispelled by, in short order: that ghastly kiss; a torrid encounter for Bettina in school boiler rooms; and an eye-opening Parisian visit for Bart.

Society will never stand for it. What else can they do but enter into a ‘lavender marriage’ and carry on indulging their true natures in secret? As the ‘20s and ‘30s whizz past in a haze of cigarettes, champagne and casual sex, Bart and Bettina have no idea that they are hurtling, via Hollywood and Egypt, Paris and London, towards tragedy and bloodshed …

Hilarious and heartbreaking, fast-paced and filthy, THE INVERTS is like nothing you have read before. A glorious hymn to friendship, a scintillating murder mystery and a frankly outrageous portrait of the decades that invented wild parties, it confirms Crystal Jeans as one of the freshest and most original writers we have.

 

Review

Wow.

I finished this book a few hours ago and I’m still not sure if I would call it a delightful reading experience or a depressing one. Most of the plot can be found in the blurb, so I won’t go into that too much. What I do want to mention is that the story took me from thinking that the arrangement Bart and Bettina came up with was both inspired and perfect for them to the realisation that ‘forced’ proximity and the need to lie about yourself and your life is a sure-fire way to destroy the best of friendships.

In case you’re wondering, I used the word ‘forced’ for their proximity here because they only got married because it was the only way both of them could indulge in their same-sex attractions without the world at large being aware of it or, if people were aware, without society having to acknowledge it and deal with it.

And that brings me to my happy vs. sad dilemma. For a large part of the book, Bart and Bettina were a delightful couple. They knew each other well, maybe even better than a lot of (married) partners get to know each other. As a result they sparkled together. Their conversations were quick, sharp, sometimes hurtful, but always interesting. The relationships they both developed with other, same-sex, partners on the side gave them what they needed while their friendship and two children allowed them to sustain the illusion of married bliss. Until the friendship failed. Because no friendship (or marriage) can survive years of being forced to lie. And, as both Bart and Bettina learned, not being in love with each other doesn’t mean you won’t get jealous or resentful when your partner’s attention is mostly focussed on others.

This book is more than ‘just’ the story of Bart and Bettina trying to live their best lives, though. It is also a story about society and its rules forcing people into positions and situations not of their choosing. It shows the hypocrisy of people who are willing to ignore what they know to be true but only as long as deniability is an easy option.

Overall, however, The Inverts is a book about friendship and being there for each other when it really matters, regardless of what may have come before. The ending was a little ambiguous, tinged with sadness, but ultimately rewarding for reasons I won’t get into because I don’t want to spoil it for others.

The Inverts is a fast-paced and fascinating queer book and I highly recommend it.