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Helmet of Flesh
York Mackenzie, Canadian, gay, father, married, divorced, and his experiences, now in Morocco
1 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
7 people want to read
About the author
Scott Symons
9 books2 followersHugh Brennan Scott Symons was a Canadian writer. Born into a wealthy family, he attended a number of private schools, the University of Toronto, Cambridge University and the Sorbonne. A rising star of Canadian literature in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he wrote two novels with homoerotic themes before leaving Canada to live in Morocco.
He was openly gay at a time when this was very difficult, publishing his first novel, Place d'Armes, which dealt directly with homosexuality, two years before gay sex was decriminalized in Canada. He was an avid diarist and many of his observations and episodes from his life found their way into his novels.
He died in Toronto at the age of 75.
Symons is the subject of a documentary film, God's Fool (1998), by Nik Sheehan.
He was openly gay at a time when this was very difficult, publishing his first novel, Place d'Armes, which dealt directly with homosexuality, two years before gay sex was decriminalized in Canada. He was an avid diarist and many of his observations and episodes from his life found their way into his novels.
He died in Toronto at the age of 75.
Symons is the subject of a documentary film, God's Fool (1998), by Nik Sheehan.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 8, 2026
I did not finish this novel though I did get to page 271 of its 380 odd pages so when I call this novel 'bad-disappointing' and award one star it is not made either quickly or superficially. Indeed I would refer you to the biographical information about the author and the 'review' by Peter Cameron which I posted before I even began the novel (See after this review). The novel has many flaws but the most overwhelming is the vast egocentric nature of its narrator who is obviously a stand for Scott Symons and from what I have read elsewhere is a pretty good and probably unintentionally honest self-portrait.
The problem with the novel is that Scott Symons seems to have had no interest except in himself and believed that his 'concerns' (read obsessions) were all that mattered. Although set in Morocco it is clear that Symons knew nothing and learnt nothing about Morocco - let me be plain this is not a novel of the wit and subtlety of 'Diary of Innocent' by Tony Duvert but neither is it as problematic because Symons describes all his partners as being in their twenties which again pace Duvert's descriptions may be taken with a pinch of salt. It is interesting that both Duvert and Symons were in Morocco around the same time in the early 1970s but Symon's complete inability to enter into the minds or actions or anyone but himself makes his portrait of his time there completely without interest. Indeed unless you are obsessed with Symons you will quickly grow tired of his rambling self importance.
That Symons, like the narrator of this novel, is one of those I'm not gay homosexuals of that era who might have sex with men, like the author Joseph Brodesky, but maintained an ostensible heterosexual persona e\ven if, as in Symonds case, you were an outspoken proponent of changing anti-homosexual laws. Symons was all about sexual freedom - very hippy - but also very obfuscatory. You don't, as Symonds did (and also the narrator of 'Helmet of Flesh') run off with a 17 year old boy and make a very convincing non-gay person - even if like me you find the word 'gay' problematic.
The worst thing about this novel and Symons is the way he makes his complaints, comments and discussions about Canadian society so boring and provincial. I began to worry that I had a problem - surely the ennui I felt about Symon's ramblings about Canada could equally apply to writers discussing Irish society. Then I remembered that I had read and enjoyed Sam Persky - another Canadian author - so it wasn't just me hating or finding Canada boring - it was Symons making Canada boring - like everything else he wrote about.
It is not often I am so harsh on an early gay writer - the fact that he could write makes it harder - but when I come across the self absorption of the likes of Symon's I can't but rebel. I had intended to read his other earlier novels but I will need a long time to recover from this one before I do.
Comments made before reading the book:
An odd interesting book of which I will say more in a moment but first I would refer you to some information on the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_S... which has the advantage, unlike GR, of including information on Symons most famous novel 'Place d'Armes'. He is an author I would like to read and interestingly he is one of the authors Ian Young writes about in 'Encounters with Authors: Essays on Scott Symons, Robin Hardy, Norman Elder'.
The following review comes from Peter Cameron's site: https://extremelegibility.typepad.com... (this site may no longer exist):
"Helmet of Flesh by Scott Symons
"People (or at least people in books I read) seem to go to Morocco to misbehave and/or fall apart, and York, the Canadian hero of this book, does both. He leaves his partner John and their quiet life in a village in Newfoundland and travels to Marrakesh, where he falls in with a very gay and dissolute group of expats and visitors who are taking full advantage of the readily available men and boys offering (or selling) themselves for sex. York makes a dangerous and debauched journey out over the Atlas Mountains into the Sahara, which ends in Suddenly-Last-Summer violence and mystery. Back in Marrakesh, York takes shelter in a queer hotel populated exclusively, it seems, by eccentrics and degenerates, has a scary visit to a sadistic sheik's isolated castle, and pursues an affair with a decent and beautiful young Moroccan man, who he heartlessly (yet somehow poignantly) abandons when he decides to return to Canada.
"Symons' writing is ambitious and intelligent, if sometimes chaotic and puzzling, but his imagistic and impressionistic prose hits more often than it misses. This book doesn't quite hang together or amount to anything entire, and includes a fairly dreadful flashback to York's life back in quaint Newfoundland, but it's filled with captivating scenes and amusing and engaging characters."
The problem with the novel is that Scott Symons seems to have had no interest except in himself and believed that his 'concerns' (read obsessions) were all that mattered. Although set in Morocco it is clear that Symons knew nothing and learnt nothing about Morocco - let me be plain this is not a novel of the wit and subtlety of 'Diary of Innocent' by Tony Duvert but neither is it as problematic because Symons describes all his partners as being in their twenties which again pace Duvert's descriptions may be taken with a pinch of salt. It is interesting that both Duvert and Symons were in Morocco around the same time in the early 1970s but Symon's complete inability to enter into the minds or actions or anyone but himself makes his portrait of his time there completely without interest. Indeed unless you are obsessed with Symons you will quickly grow tired of his rambling self importance.
That Symons, like the narrator of this novel, is one of those I'm not gay homosexuals of that era who might have sex with men, like the author Joseph Brodesky, but maintained an ostensible heterosexual persona e\ven if, as in Symonds case, you were an outspoken proponent of changing anti-homosexual laws. Symons was all about sexual freedom - very hippy - but also very obfuscatory. You don't, as Symonds did (and also the narrator of 'Helmet of Flesh') run off with a 17 year old boy and make a very convincing non-gay person - even if like me you find the word 'gay' problematic.
The worst thing about this novel and Symons is the way he makes his complaints, comments and discussions about Canadian society so boring and provincial. I began to worry that I had a problem - surely the ennui I felt about Symon's ramblings about Canada could equally apply to writers discussing Irish society. Then I remembered that I had read and enjoyed Sam Persky - another Canadian author - so it wasn't just me hating or finding Canada boring - it was Symons making Canada boring - like everything else he wrote about.
It is not often I am so harsh on an early gay writer - the fact that he could write makes it harder - but when I come across the self absorption of the likes of Symon's I can't but rebel. I had intended to read his other earlier novels but I will need a long time to recover from this one before I do.
Comments made before reading the book:
An odd interesting book of which I will say more in a moment but first I would refer you to some information on the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_S... which has the advantage, unlike GR, of including information on Symons most famous novel 'Place d'Armes'. He is an author I would like to read and interestingly he is one of the authors Ian Young writes about in 'Encounters with Authors: Essays on Scott Symons, Robin Hardy, Norman Elder'.
The following review comes from Peter Cameron's site: https://extremelegibility.typepad.com... (this site may no longer exist):
"Helmet of Flesh by Scott Symons
"People (or at least people in books I read) seem to go to Morocco to misbehave and/or fall apart, and York, the Canadian hero of this book, does both. He leaves his partner John and their quiet life in a village in Newfoundland and travels to Marrakesh, where he falls in with a very gay and dissolute group of expats and visitors who are taking full advantage of the readily available men and boys offering (or selling) themselves for sex. York makes a dangerous and debauched journey out over the Atlas Mountains into the Sahara, which ends in Suddenly-Last-Summer violence and mystery. Back in Marrakesh, York takes shelter in a queer hotel populated exclusively, it seems, by eccentrics and degenerates, has a scary visit to a sadistic sheik's isolated castle, and pursues an affair with a decent and beautiful young Moroccan man, who he heartlessly (yet somehow poignantly) abandons when he decides to return to Canada.
"Symons' writing is ambitious and intelligent, if sometimes chaotic and puzzling, but his imagistic and impressionistic prose hits more often than it misses. This book doesn't quite hang together or amount to anything entire, and includes a fairly dreadful flashback to York's life back in quaint Newfoundland, but it's filled with captivating scenes and amusing and engaging characters."
Displaying 1 of 1 review