B. J. Freedman

This is a genuinely well written story of a 12 - 13 year old boy's friendship with an older man. The boy and the man meet on the beach: The man - a photographer keen to photograph interesting people, and the boy - a lonely adolescent bored with his dull existence looking for someone to befriend him. The boy develops a crush on the man, and after posing for some erotic shots, they embrace in mutual and loving intimacy. The relationship lasts for a long period. The boy's parents tolerate it and it only comes to an end when the man moves from the area and the boy must choose between his friend & lover and the loyalty he feels toward his ailing father and mother. It reveals (kind of autobiographically) how the author sees the potential for intergenerational intimacy to be beneficial to adolescent boys, if society can simply overcome it's subjective moral judgementalness. It is not pornographic, although some of the intimate moments are described in detail and may be confronting to prudish conservative readers who have hang-ups about sex and sexuality.… (meer)