Childish Loves - Benjamin Markovits

 

The book is a frame narrative, rather cleverly constructed.
The story is told by Ben Markovits, but is not necessarily a sort of autobiography.
To me it looks like fiction. He tells the story of the writer Peter Sullivan who wrote a few books about Lord Byron. Ben Markovits tries to find more information about him while working on the last book (of 3). These books are published posthumously because Sullivan died.
Markovits also tries to find information about the things Sullivan writes about Lord Byron. There is plenty of stuff to be found, but it is spread all over England and the USA, so he needs to travel a bit too. Also to visit places where Sullivan lived and worked.
There seems to be a wanting to find similarities between Sullivan and Lord Byron and even himself.
I did not know a lot about Lord Byron. He is mentioned in lessons in English literature in school, but it never is very explicit.
So I accept what is stated in this book. The man was a romantic writer and philanderer who not only chased women but was also very interested in young teenage boys. The book seems to want to give a reason for him to be like that. On the Wikipedia page of Lord Byron there is far more info and his life seemed to be even wilder than the book shows to the reader. I will not give more info than this, don't want to spoil the pleasure of reading this book for other readers.

Four stars, well deserved