Larre
Larre
bildeston
bildeston
AGENDER
australian
asexual
author
THE SPACE ACE OF
MANGLEBY FLAT
THE SPACE ACE OF
MANGLEBY FLAT
On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn't yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam's wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.
Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:
1. Get a pet dog
2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.
an aesexual
As Sam comes to terms with the shameful family secrets revealed in a series of letters left to him by his deceased uncle, Sam falls in love again: first with his adopted poodle-cross, and then, much more slowly, with a kind and generous trans woman from his tennis club.
Reina is so visibly and proudly queer Sam can’t imagine the two of them share a single thing in common. If only humans came with a guide book...
1. Get a pet dog
2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.
coming-of-middle-age
for the lost queers
LINKS
my modern met
andrea mariana
the queer museum
our voices podcast
audre lorde
queer AS FACT podcast
POST-READING
In what ways does the space metaphor weave its way through the novel, connecting to the experience of asexuality?
Discuss Sam’s relationship with Lisa. What does this relationship fulfil for each partner?
Discuss the various ways in which Sam’s relationship with Reina differs from his relationship with lisa.
Discuss Sam’s decision to cut Reina out of his life. What factors played into this choice? Do you believe one person was in the wrong more than the other?
Discuss asexuality as described in the novel. How is SAM’S experience of asexuality similar to more universal experiences of sexuality among the (allo)sexual CHARACTERS?
Did it surprise you to learn that Reina is ON-THE-PAGE Autistic? Had you thought the same thing? In what ways do you think the experiences of asexuality and Autism might SOMETIMES overlap?
What was your perspective on the ending? What future do you envision for Sam, Reina, Lisa and Anya?