In the Purely Pagan Sense by John Lehmann

(Blond and Briggs, 1976)

 

 

A very unusual book.  A memoir in the form of a novel, in which Lehmann exhustively and in great detail describes (just about) all of his sexual experiences with boys and men before, during, and after WWII.  Most of the book is set in Vienna, where Lehmann lived before the War, and London, where he lived during and after.  Lehmann apparently had no qualms or misgivings about his sexuality and pursued, and bedded, younger men with impressive frequency and success.  (Apparently he was a handsome man with a big cock.)  Because he basically had only one type -- younger well-built boys with shapely buttocks -- the encounters he describes don't have much variety or singularity (except for a few boys who have kinks that are memorable), and despite its frank and detailed descriptions of male bodies and sexual acts, the book becomes a little tedious and almost unpleasant.  Lehmann has an entitled, grasping attitude; his supreme confidence -- almost arrogance -- which helped him seduce so many boys, does not help him seduce the reader.