Robin Anderson Author Reviews

Bel Ragazzo
Beautiful Boy
?

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

"Don't count your corpses before they're buried"
GRADY HARP - AMAZON
April 17, 2015

Anyone who has read previous books by the inimitable Robin Anderson is in for a treat with BEL RAGAZZO
BEAUTIFUL BOY. Anderson has polished his recipe for entertainment to a fare-thee-well. He creates
impossibly wild characters who happen to bounce off each other in the most unexpected way, fills his story with incidents that can only fall into the 'naughty range', and yet his manner of writing is so sophisticated and a solid that about one third of the way through his books the reader realizes the farce is meant as good-humored fun and should not be taken too seriously or dissected or analyzed because the author is always just around the corner (or on the next page) with a guffaw to top all previous ones.

Robin starts this rather short novel (150 pages) with a terrific cover of eye candy and the beauties of Europe (sculpture, architecture, and suited male model) and proceeds to carry us through another decidedly delightful romp. Our lead character is Ambrose, and as Robin informs us, `I was beautiful, so unbelievably beautiful: the most beautiful boy in Europe. "Beau garcon," they'd whisper as I walked through the Place Vendome in Paris. "I am beautiful" I would say to myself , a slight smile playing on my rose-coloured, sculpted lips as I made my way down London's uber-fashionable Bond Street. "Bel ragazzo," they would murmur excitedly as I sashayed - blond head held high - along the Via Veneto in Rome. Yes indeed: the most beautiful boy whose countenance, graceful carriage and exquisite manners would eventually prove themselves to be nothing more than an inganno lordo or gross deception.' And from there we are off on incredible adventures of the male sort.
The story is solid, a bit more tightly written than most of Robin's escapades, and that ads to the spiraling whiz of an adventure he has once again successfully woven. A must read for Robin Anderson fans!

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"A Novella of Nastiness"
AMOS LASSEN

It seems as if I start every review of something Robin Anderson writes with I do not know he does it—the man is so prolific yet he turns out book after book that are wonderful reads. He is known for his characters and once again he has created an unforgettable one in Ambrose. (Did you ever stop to think if you ever knew someone named Ambrose? I always think of Ambrose and Wilbur as the names of people I would like to meet). Ambrose thought of himself as “, so unbelievably beautiful: the most beautiful boy in Europe.” He was known as the “bel ragazzo of the title and it hardly mattered that he gave the name to himself. But beauty is as beauty does and Ambrose was not really pretty. Robin Anderson is a master at erotic adventure and there is plenty of that here. Ambrose is one of the many wild characters that Anderson has created and of a man who is sexually involved, he is written about in a sophisticated manner. This is the part of the charm of Anderson—“high falutting” characters that engage in “low falutting” experiences. (Do we still use that “falutting” word or is it a throwback to my southern roots?).

When I first started reading Robin Anderson some five or six years ago, I read him at face value and it was not until about the fifth book that I realized he was writing satires. We get a lot of good-natured “raunch” and “Bel Ragazzo” certainly has its share.

This is a rather short book by Anderson standards but it is still “Andersonesque” in its being over the top. Knowing Ambrose here is something else in that he thinks he is so perfect but we are not hocked to see that he is not as he would have us believe and we like that-—to see him fall. Good posture, a pretty face, a nice body and impeccable manners mean nothing if one is rotten inside. That is all I am going to say.