The Red Shoes: A Novel
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Ages: 18+
Lambda Literary Award nominee for Best Gay Fiction
How far would you go to feel alive?
"Set in contemporary New York City, this is a beautiful dark queer re-envisioning of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Wynne immediately engages the reader with finely detailed descriptions, nuanced characters, and an air of mystery that makes this 400+ page novel read like a novella..." (Jamie Jones, Lambda Literary Review)
After John Laith loses his beloved partner Frank, he believes he's lost the will to live life fully -- until he rescues a handsome young dancer from a brutal assault. By way of thanks, the dancer gives Laith a pair of glittering red shoes which lead him down a dangerous path in a vividly brought to life Manhattan. On his new journey he must survive obsessive relationships with unpredictable and chillingly unforgettable characters:
• Silvio -- a macho city cop
• Crewe -- a narcissistic millionaire living in a penthouse with his wife and daughter
• Baily -- a drug-addicted bouncer in a nightclub
An innocent in a sinister underworld, Laith must grapple with grief, obsession, lust, sensuality, and spirituality in a city where salvation and destruction walk side by side. He's left to wonder -- Is his fascination with the dark side fueled by the magical powers of the red shoes...or from hidden forces within himself?
In this riveting battle between the sacred and the profane, Laith must choose: surrender to the darkness, or reclaim the life he thought he'd lost forever.
Reviews
Wynne elegantly blends spirituality, sensuality, obsession, lust, drug (ab)use, as well as interspersed social and cultural commentary in THE RED SHOES. Despite the beauty of Wynne’s language throughout the novel, there are many scenes that are not for the faint of heart, including the aforementioned rape of the young man and several interactions between Laith and other characters in the novel. Some of the explicitly visceral sections in the novel led me to take a break from reading. The intricacy and intrigue of the story, however, brought me back.
I read this so fast I got blisters turning pages. THE RED SHOES is so astonishingly good, original, beautiful and amazing . . . it’s like a sumptuous meal with all flavors—salty, bitter, sweet, hot. I was riveted—John Stewart Wynne writes such brilliant back and forth dialogue. I love the Gothic feeling of terrible impending doom, and the counterbalancing elements of light. I am really astounded at the way Wynne writes about sex—how deep it can go, the different ways it can satisfy. His writing is free of compromise, fear . . . he never pulls his punches. And his voice really doesn’t sound like anyone else’s. He has an almost hyperreal quality, the rare ability to write on a plane floating just above life, or below it, to stay with what is happening just beyond the actions and conversations of his characters. I feel as if I have been given a special line into the narrator’s soul. THE RED SHOES is so pure and beautiful and real and I am entranced by it. I think it is a great work of art.
