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A Gay "Godfather" of our Own

© Dennis Cox

Those who were enthralled by the “glamour” of “The Godfather”, “The Sopranos” and the British film “Lock, Stock an Two Smoking Barrels”, will not be disappointed by the exploits of SoHo gangster Harry Starks. What is the fascination for the lives of those deviants who resolutely persevere in a life of criminality? Is it a craving for a sense of “familia”, the same sense that motivates some disenfranchised persons to join a gang?

In his novel, “The Long Firm”, author Jake Arnott draws a compelling portrait of a gay gangster who is devotee of camp art, Judy Garland and beautiful rent boys, yet who is equal to the less feminine skills of torture, intimidation and mundane strong-arming.

Arnott tells the story of Harry Starks through the eyes of five narrators, each with distinct voices.

The first is Johnny, an insolvent messenger boy who catches Harry’s eye. In exchange for, as Harry puts it, “looking after the place..look after me a bit”, Johnny gets treated to free rent, expensive clothes and gifts and also gets to meet borderline "celebrities".

Guileless Johnny had never intended to become a rentboy, but he is enticed by Harry’s power and wealth, and is surprised to find Harry an attentive and satisfying lover. However, when he realizes that he cannot walk out on Harry just like any other ordinary lover, Johnny grows restless to do just that. To affect his escape, Johnny must join in on a scam on Harry and Arnott adroitly hooks us by opening the book with Johnny’s exposure and dangerous predicament, which features a “white, hot poker.”

The next narrator is self-described as a “flabby faced old buffer in a bow tie”, Lord Teddy Tursby. Lecherous Tursby is attracted to Harry for his ample supply of rent boys; Henry is quite generous in supplying the boys in exchange for Teddy’s sitting on the boards and adding his government respectability to letter heads of Harry’s questionable business enterprises. Harry plays Svengali to Teddy’s Bertie Wooster and we get a few laughs from Teddy’s fruity attempts to cope with rougher aspects of underworld crime.

Insights into Harry’s personality are further provided (with varying depth) by Jack the Hat, a bearish goon, and Ruby Ryder, a fading Diana Dors type actress whose career Harry tries to revive.

Finally, Arnott brings a sociologist on stage. Harry is sentenced to prison and meets Lenny who moderates weekly group discussions with the inmates. Larry finds himself befuddled by, and, at the same time, fixated on this unique character who upstages him with street-wise intelligence and sophistries. When Harry escapes from prison, he enlists (with a typical presumptuous élan) Lenny’s aid to conceal his whereabouts. In an implausible conclusion, Larry is abruptly converted from an urbane intellectual to a sanguineous hood.