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Seaworthy
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Seaworthy, by K.L. Noone (Character Bleed 1)
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I’ve already pre-ordered Stalwart, the sequel to this. Partly, I did it out of frustration, since this long book did not in fact end with the completion of its story (nor, strictly, did it end on a cliffhanger). I had to find out what happens next, because the characters of Colby Kent and Jason Merillo were, for me, irresistible.
Aargh. (And that’s not pirate-speak.)
The premise of this book is adorable and laughable, rather like its central romantic hero, Colby Kent. Imagine Hollywood, through the sheer force of personality of a youngish award-nominated director and her even younger A-list celebrity best friend, green-lighting an English historical romance about the love between a Regency-era ship’s captain and a consumptive titled polymath. (I’ll pause here if you have to google any words…)
Imagine also if Georgette Heyer had written one of her famed Regency-era historical novels featuring two men as the central romantic duo. The fictional film in this book is based on a fictional novel (that’s not redundant) published in 1949—a book that was a scandal at the time. It happens to be a novel that both Colby Kent and Jason Merillo have loved since they were young.
Imagine then, if you will, that this handsome, English-born movie star—who is openly gay, and beloved by all—chooses as his co-star a big bruiser of a stunt man known best for his franchise of B-movie explosion films under the brand of John Kill.
I’m John Kill. That’s what I do.
The actual book by Ms. Noone starts with Jason Mirelli’s audition for the role of Captain Stephen Lanyon with Colby Kent playing William, Viscount Easterly. It is broad to the point of slapstick, fast-paced, sharply written, and surprisingly poignant. In a relatively short space of time, you also meet several of the key secondary characters, especially Jillian Poe, the director, who loves and protects Colby Kent. Colby Kent, for his part, seems too good to be true, which leads to all sorts of awkwardness.
But Jason sees something in Kent that convinces him that the actor is not a fake, and also that he’s profoundly damaged somehow, in a way he manages to hide from a worshipful general public. This, then, is the story of the filming of Seaworthy, and about Jason Mirelli getting to really know the nicest man in the world. As improbable as it sounds, it works—at least it worked for me.
The narrative is entirely from Jason and Colby’s points of view, with a great deal of internal dithering that brings to mind TJ Klune’s obsessive, repetitive prose style. If you can deal with it, it is a very intense, emotionally exhausting, but ultimately fulfilling kind of writing.
The context for the plot—the various locations where the film is being shot—is nicely constructed, once more in that reiterative style, like repeat camera shots, so that you begin to see the fake deck of the Stalwart, the real Georgian townhouse in London, even the hotel lounge in Los Angeles where the crew hangs out after a day’s filming. The repetitive visuals are important because they drag the reader into Colby and Jason’s minds’ eye. The series title “Character Bleed” refers to the phenomenon of an actor’s actual feelings bleeding into his performance of a role, or vice-versa. That is at the crux of Ms. Noone’s writing.
I frequently fantasize about a favorite gay romance being made into a movie, knowing that it will never happen; not in the Hollywood I know. Seaworthy is just that sort of fantasy, and I am hungry to see how it plays out.