A Man and His Pride by Luke Rutledge
Luke Rutledge’s debut novel, A Man and His Pride (2023), explores the life of a gay man struggling to embrace his identity and find his path in life. Set in Brisbane during Australia’s 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite, this book shows that finding your pride is a journey best taken with the people who love and support you the most.
A Man and His Pride follows the life of Sean, a 26-year-old gay man as he navigates the many challenges he faces day to day: his strained relationship with his family, friends, and himself. He subconsciously tries to be the least amount of gay possible – he works out obsessively and dresses plainly, never listens to his favourite musicians when others might hear it, even going as far as not voting in the same-sex marriage plebiscite. Other than having sex with men, Sean is passable as a straight white dude. As a result of these constraints, it is in his sexual life that his identity tries to blossom, jumping from one man to the next in an effort to block out the constant shame he feels overwhelmed by.
His life is further complicated by his relationship with ex-partner turned best friend Abby, his homophobic boss, and his mum who prefers to live with her head in the sand. However, his chance meeting with a flamboyant, proudly out gay nurse, William, finally sets his life on a path toward forgiveness, self-discovery, and pride.
As a character, Sean is chronically unlikeable. He is shallow, egotistic, and seriously self-centred. He doesn’t believe in love, proper relationships, or the idea of marriage and having a family as a gay man, but he also doesn’t take any steps towards trying to understand those who do. In his self-absorption, he stays blind to others’ experiences with queerness, lending his world-view a very one-dimensional quality – hours spent scrolling and thirst-trapping on Grindr, only to have sex and never see the person again.
While his journey throughout the book leads to many improvements in his personality, he is largely undeserving of William’s kindness and friendship. He acknowledges this himself halfway through the novel, a tentative first step towards bettering himself:
“Those guys were shallow, many of them ruthless and downright cruel when it came to rejection.
I should know. I was one of them.”
Although the ending holds a revelation that explains much of his personality, it comes too late to change our perception of Sean, rendering him a rather obnoxious and unpleasant narrator. While this twist is hinted at throughout the book – a traumatic experience from Sean’s childhood that ended in a tragic accident – it isn’t explained properly until the end: a decision that probably cost Rutledge those few who would have liked Sean more if they’d known of his background earlier.
As such, it is up to William to elevate this book with his lovable personality and relatable relationship issues – and that he does. It is through him that Sean learns to take control of his life. He teaches Sean that “there were many ways to be a gay man…and we could have it all if we wanted.”
Through him, Sean begins a transformation against the backdrop of the plebiscite, a smart commentary on the effects and outcomes of “basically just the world’s most expensive opinion poll.” And yet, as Sean joins the celebrations that follow the positive outcome of the vote, he has an epiphany walking the streets of Brisbane.
“I whirled around, seeing everybody going about their day in the sun, and I wondered what it would mean to me, if anything, to know that the majority of these people had voted yes. That regardless of what I thought about marriage itself, Australia thought enough of me to give me the option. I still hated that we were seeking permission, outcasts begging to be let into some exclusive club. Yet, in the end, it would be nice to know, for once, what all these people actually thought.”
A Man and His Pride is an honest exploration of what comes after coming out, and what it means to be out in every aspect of one’s life. Like two very different sides of the same coin, Sean and William prove that what’s central to queerness is community, and that pride is much easier found with others to help you along the way.
Fruzsina Gál is an aspiring writer, born in Hungary but living in Australia. She has been a reader all her life, and her first short story, 'The Turul' was published in Griffith University's 2018 anthology, Talent Implied. Her writing is often focussed on identity and the effects of immigration on the self. You can find her online at www.fruzsinagal.com or @thenovelconversation.