Welsh Boys Too

by John Sam Jones

Inspired by the lives of gay men in Wales, this collection of stories is funny, poignant, and ultimately revealing.

Genres: Gay, Short Stories

91 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This award winning collection...presents eight charming and sensitively-written stories about young gay men and their experiences of Welsh life." from the back cover of the 2005 paperback edition from Parthian publishers. The front cover carries a strap-line "A joy to read. Contemporary, yet timeless...a vibrant collection. Treat yourselves." from Gay Times (a defunct UK print publication.

I provide the above quotes because they describe this collection of stories and their strengths so well. I have read many of John Sam Jones stories and novels over the past twenty years and have been delighted to discover they stand up to rereading again and again. Maybe it is the Welsh setting, though don't imagine that there are easy Celtic transferences to be made between my Irish, Celtic background and Mr. Jones' Welsh one. Welsh identity and language are tied together in ways that are alien to an Irish person even as a pious shibboleth.

Mr. Jones's voice is uniquely Welsh and completely gay, though I would prefer to say queer. It is the voice of non-metropolitan, non-urban gay life. His stories remind me of those of David Rees. They both share 'provincial' settings but are not in the least provincial. I like his voice, it has honesty that comes expressed from experiences learned in life, not a classroom. His is a voice that deserves to be more widely heard.

[Richard Jespers · Rating 4 out of 5]

At ninety-one pages, the thinnest of story collections with eight specimens, yet each one is packed with what it is (or was) like to be gay in Wales. My favorite story may be “But Names Will Never Hurt Me,” one in which Jones explores the time-honored practice of putting dirty names on something you don’t understand:

They’d started calling you names even before it had dawned on you. You wondered sometimes, if it hadn’t been for the name calling, whether you would even have thought about it. You’d known that there were people like that, in the worlds of soap operas, television personalities and big cities, but your little piece of Welsh coast seemed so untouched. Of course there were the holidaymakers and their antics, but they came and went. The first time they’d called you bum-boy you hadn’t really understood what they’d meant; then it was shirt-lifter, and that one had really baffled you too. Effing queer was much more straightforward, even if you couldn’t understand why they were calling you that. But then. As the months passed, you came to recognize in yourself what others had already seen. It was unspeakable” (49-50).

That last sentence gives me a shudder, bringing back an innocent prank my so-called friends had pulled on me in high school, an ever so subtle way of attempting to get me to see what I was. When the character says “unspeakable,” I think of the restricted use of Welsh in this story. Another character in a different story proudly proclaims something to the effect that Welsh is eons older than English. A certain pride bounces off each page. Perhaps I recognize it because I am one-fourth Welsh, my ancestor having landed in New York in 1790. Maybe not. Maybe I just found this small collection fascinating on its own merits. In any case, I enjoyed it very much.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Each discusses the life of a gay man in some way. However, more than that, many are simply stories of people; people living their everyday lives. One of the stories I found most moving was of two children's weekend with their uncles. A child view of a secure, loving relationship. Nothing alien or different here. Just a life being lived in love.

I really liked John Sam Jones' writing style, I read all 8 short stories in a weekend and I was disappointed when I got to the end. Always a sign of a good book. I'll be looking out for more of his work.