Book Review: Timoleon Vieta Come Home: A Sentimental Journey by Dan Rhodes

I must say that it isn’t such a smart idea to read this book after the week I had to put my dog to sleep, so if you’re going through like that, I suggest that you put down this book for a bit and give yourself time. This book talks about a composer who is still closeted in his 60’s and the feeling I’ve got of why is that he fears to be the judgement of the people he composes for, but he almost doesn’t care about coming out anymore.

In a way, this dog that showed up out of nowhere has become the only partner he ever needed, and it shows that clearly because as in real life the only thing that stays by him is his dog, not his one-night stands. What made me furious is that Cockroft, the human, gives up his dog because of a lover that hated dogs, and, in my mind, I find it unreasonable to give up on my best friend that stood by my side for years, and we went through thick and thin together for a lover that might leave tomorrow.

On the one hand, this book shows the deep connections with our pets, on the other we see the stupid decisions that we human beings make at the spare of the moment that we make to regret later in our lives. This book left me with mix feels because I do get humans because I’m one of them. However, I don’t understand why Timoleon Vieta Come Home: A Sentimental Journey is being portrayed the way it is. Anyways, I gave this book a three of out five stars because of as a man who has been in relationships with another man, animal lover and LGBTQIA+ writer would have written about this topic differently. Having said this, I’m keeping in mind that Dan Rhodes, the author of this book looks like is not queer from the quick search I did, so that aspect of the book must be pure fiction.

Alex