Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy

[Octobercountry]

Sean Kennedy's Tigers and Devils had been well-liked over on the old AfterElton board, but I don't think it's yet been mentioned on this forum, has it? At any rate, I enjoyed it so much that I thought I'd give it another shout-out.

Football, friends, and film are the most important parts of Simon Murray's life, likely in that order. Despite being lonely, Simon is cautious about looking for more, and his best friends despair of him ever finding that special someone to share his life. Against his will, they drag him to a party, where Simon barges into a football conversation and ends up defending the honour of star forward Declan Tyler -- unaware that the athlete is present and listening.

Like his entire family, Simon revels in living in Melbourne, Victoria, the home of Australian Rules football and mecca for serious fans. There, players are deemed gods and treated as such - until they do something to cause them to fall out of public favour. Declan is suffering a horrendous year of injuries, and the public is taking him to task for it, so Simon's support is a bright spot in his struggles. In that first awkward meeting, neither man has any idea they will change each other's lives forever.

As Simon and Declan fumble toward building a relationship together, there is yet another obstacle in their way: keeping Declan's homosexuality a secret amidst the intrusion of well-meaning friends and an increasingly suspicious media. They realise that nothing remains hidden forever... and they know the situation will only become more complicated when Declan's private life is revealed. Declan will be forced to make some tough choices that may result in losing either the career he loves or the man he wants. And Simon has never been known to make things easy - for himself or for others.

A very enjoyable novel indeed; I found myself liking both of the main characters very much. Narrator Simon can be snarky and sarcastic, a bit of a grump sometimes, but I found that rather endearing. And Declan, well, he's a bit too good to be true, perhaps, but then I suppose there are many very nice people out there in the world after all....

The story explores a couple of interesting situations. First off, what it is like to be in a serious relationship where one member is closeted---how much is the other half of the couple willing to give up, and to change, to keep the secret? The second part of the book deals with the problems faced by a high-profile couple, when only one member is a celebrity. I was totally taken with the story all the way through, and I'm pleased to note that everything does end very well.

While this is set within the world of Australian football, it should be noted that no interest in sports, nor familiarity with the game, is needed to appreciate the novel. The book isn't really about the game itself; indeed, Declan could have been involved in an entirely different high-public-profile profession, and it really wouldn't have affected the plot very much. (I know NOTHING about Australian football---have never even seen a few moments of a game on television---and I loved this book. So, as you can see, an knowledge of the sport is completely unnecessary while reading this.)

Highly recommended! And woohoo, there's a sequel, which I'll mention in a separate post.

(Oh, the most recent release of this book has been slightly revised by the author, but since I've only read the original version I can't say for sure what changes have been made.)

[Bob]

I found the story very boring and unrealistic. it is the first book in a very long tme I did not finish

[Aussie54]

That's interesting, Bob. I guess the writing wasn't strong enough to hook you in when the storyline didn't work for you.

I quite liked it. Unlike Octobercountry, I do know and follow Aussie Rules football, so I was pretty keen to read this book.

There was a geographical mistake in the original edition, which was corrected in the second version, and some grammatical ones, which weren't fixed. Like nails on a blackboard! It did worry me enough to drop a star in my rating.

[PaperMoon]

Having read both "Tigers and Devils" and "Tigerland", I prefer the first book but both were good reads for me.

[PaperMoon]

Someone helpfully pointed out that Mr Kennedy has listed When You Run, You Eventually Have to Stop as a freebie at his site:
http://seankennedybooks.com/my-books/...

and I just had to go see more of Simon and Dec. It really a very short read - an amuse bouche really but nicely done whereby we get a different POV (Declan's) regarding one set of events outlined in Tigers and Devils.

As a bonus - I've found frontal shot of Simon and Declan (or least of the models used for them in the book cover hah).
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