It's really common for a closeted guy to "prove" he's not gay by going above and beyond in homophobia, though. Like I said, methought he maybe doth protested too much.
Also the dressing in drag wasn't a drag disguise at all in the way you mentioned. He dressed in disguise as a pregnant woman so he could walk by Ross' apartment building without raising alarm. He actually seemed annoyed by the whole process but was pleased by how much he didn't look like himself.
I don't get it, how does that contradict what I described?
This guy gets sexually aroused many times in the book but not when he was in the pregnant woman disguise. If when he describes where he picks up the gay guy, he states he needed a body. He had no interest in this guy.
Right, but as I've also said already, this is all according to him—not an omnipotent narrator describing his actual thoughts as they happen—and he's a delusional nutter, so you can hardly take his word for it. When he talks about his record store job and co-worker, it's easy to read between the lines and see who the real creep at that place is. Reading between the lines in general, "he's suppressing his homosexuality" seemed like a possibility to me.
(And anyway, getting sexually aroused by wearing women's clothing means you have a fetish about wearing women's clothing. It's not a gay thing and it would say nothing about that either way. But the circumstances of his doing it, and describing it, in the book seemed to me to be in line with someone desperately suppressing feminine aspects of themselves. I can go into boring detail about if you want but won't if you're not interested. A brief point about it: why'd he go through all the trouble of describing the disguise, and how he liked the effect but not for any fruity reasons or anything, really, instead of just writing "I disguised myself"?)
On another note that might prove the point against him being gay, which I am not sure anyone picked up on, I've read the book twice now and if you read it again, really read it, you will see very cleverly placed clues that were obvious to me that Breen had been with Ross on personal level.
So what are they?
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BatPopsicle
8 years ago
I don't want to spoil it for someone who might want to read the book.
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enfilmigult
8 years ago
Well that shouldn't be a problem; nothing stopping you from using the spoiler tags. Like this!
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BatPopsicle
8 years ago
Hope this works since I don't usually do spoiler tags Sally writes in many of her letters about seeing a man named David. After one of Douglas Breen's letters where he talks about his young age, blue eyes and good looks Sally mentions David as being young, goodlooking with blue eyes. Belle talks about David seeming not to like her. After Belle is attacked she can't remember her attacker so she never connects David with Douglas. Sally mentions David pressuring her to go on a vacation with him after we already know that Douglas is planning a get away for the two of them. There also other subtle clues. The author does in pretty cleverly and doesn't spoon feed it to the reader.
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enfilmigult
8 years ago
It worked!
Ah, that guy. Isn't he just a red herring though? My memory of the book isn't perfect, but as I recall we do get all those clues for a while (I don't know how to say it without seeming like a rude dick, but they aren't very subtle and I think the intention was that he be a suspect as soon as he shows up), but he turns out to be just a gigolo type sponging money from her, which doesn't seem very Douglas of him, and meanwhile Douglas still writes about meeting and sleeping with her at last, etc., after this guy already has.
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BatPopsicle
8 years ago
but he turns out to be just a gigolo type sponging money from her, which doesn't seem very Douglas of him
Remember Douglas gets fired from the record store and he writes his parents for some inheritance money his grandmother had left him. Parents say that money was already spent on the college troubles he had and they would not give him any money. Douglas needed money to live. Plus he had no job but was somehow sending depost money for a room and flowers for the getaway he was planning.
meanwhile Douglas still writes about meeting and sleeping with her at last, etc., after this guy already has.
When Douglas wrote that to Sally he was describing dreams he had of her the night before, and he does say dreams.
When I say "subtle clues" it's because even though the clues were obvious to me, based on some of the responses I see on this board, it seems like a lot of people didn't catch them.
You also said Douglas isn't a reliable narrator. Well there wasn't one narrator; they all were. Should we assume we can't trust the others either? Belle did seem to make a lot of jokes about Sally's new boyfriend. Belle talks about her dead husband and the possibility of dating. Maybe Belle was lying too and had an attraction to Sally, like Douglas implied. Yes Douglas stretched the truth but it was only when he felt victimized by someone or when he was bragging.
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enfilmigult
8 years ago
Nah, I don't mean everyone is equally unreliable--Douglas is the one who thinks Sally's madly in love with him but being blocked from communicating, etc., so clearly we can't trust his perceptions of anything.
I really don't think he's that guy.
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