WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 71. Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick (Gay Romantic-Comedy)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56293845-playing-the-palace

Oy Vey! What happens when you mix some of the plots from Casey McQuiston’s award-winning Red, White, and Royal Blue with a 21st-century situational comedy, involving a gay Jewish New Yorker that feels like a rebranded Fran Drescher? I went into this book with high hopes based on the premise, since I loved McQuiston’s original concept and I was in the mood for a royal comedy this summer to break some of my manga and anime refreshers. However, unlike the self-aware style that I was hoping for, Paul Rudnick falls back on what I’d call “situational comedy” plots, made famous in the 1950s by Lucille Bell, aka Lucy, and revived in the 1990s by Fran Drescher. Was this book worth the money and time I put into it? Was it funny? Well fellow readers, here’s my take on this book.

Length: 272 pages and 7 hours 34 minutes on audible, it’s a decent book to read and finish within a day or two. There are a few heavy moments, but nothing dramatic or even suspenseful as the writer has navigated the plot lines trodden by others in similar genres before. There are a few moments, where you will laugh and find yourself inexplicably amused at the absurdity.

Plot: Carter Ogden is a neurotic events planner, who has had a horrible time with love. His former boyfriend a Hollywood celebrity had cheated on him, which made him loathe himself even more. As he wallows and tries to get through a hectic job assignment organizing an event at the UN for an environmental initiative, he meets Edgar, the openly gay crowned Prince of Wales. They make a strong impression on each other, which starts a whirlwind romance. However, Carter has a lot of self-doubt and issues over how he presents himself, not just to Edgar, but to the British people. This causes several minor public relations nightmares going from faux pas of decorum to a very public incident on “the Great British Bake-off” (Imagine the worst thing that can happen on that show time a hundred). With the Queen breathing down Carter and Edgar’s necks, while Edgar’s princely brother and his wife play mind games to unsettle Carter further, the entire romance is a nightmare. Then, on top of it all, Carter’s celebrity ex-boyfriend comes to the UK and creates further tension. It does have an uplifting and nice ending.

Review: This book is not Red, White, and Royal Blue, if anything it reminds me of a hallmark or lifetime made-for-TV movie, which I admit are guilty pleasures of mine. It’s corny, cheesy, and unbelievable at times, but it made the book entertaining, at least for some parts. I was hoping for a little more depth and character with this kind of subject matter, but I think Paul Rudnick gave up the ghost after around 50 or so pages into the book. It felt like he took rudimentary elements from Casey McQuiston’s book, then added absurdist scenarios about British culture, sprinkled with a bit of slapstick and even Jewish humor. The plot makes no sense at times, except to lampoon American and British society, which it did quite well. However, it sometimes distracts from the storyline, especially when British news commentators are thrown in since Paul Rudnick tried to make social commentary and failed due to how he structured his story as a comedy of errors. Unlike McQuiston’s story, where comedy came naturally from the characters, so she could address social issues. It felt forced.

To start, I must address this as many others have noted in other commentaries, the story is entirely told in the first-person from Carter’s perspective. This isn’t usually a problem with gay characters, but one thing is that Carter is neurotic and frenetic throughout the book, making his narration jumpy. Dynamic first-person narratives are also not a problem either, because there have been several gay authors who make this kind of character work by exploring rationale and relations with other characters. However, here’s where the major headaches come into Paul Rudnick’s novel, we may be reading the story from Carter’s perspective, but we don’t get to know Carter’s rationale for behavior, including how he fell in love with Edgar. I don’t doubt Paul Rudnick, who is a playwright by profession and a gay man, knows how to emote characters. However, writing a novel is different from writing a play. Telling an audience what a character’s emotion is at the moment through actions is fine when you have live actors. However, in a novel, you need to address depth through multiple levels of character interactions, which Carter and Edgar do not appear to have done. Their romance was very skin deep due to how the narrative was structured to favor comedic moments. However, not all playwrights operate like Paul Rudnick. Some playwrights like Steven Levenson, the creator of Dear Evan Hansen, created a first-person narrative that was compelling and showcased both the narrator’s and other characters’ drives. Mr. Rudnick’s story shines at comedic moments, but when it came to character and dramatic buildup with how the story was set up, it fell short.

The main couple is interesting, but they feel like shallow images of characters rather than fleshed-out representatives of humanity. Edgar is trying his best to live up to his family obligations, aka one day being King, and being a good boyfriend to Carter, which falls short several times. He’s under pressure from various angles from his family and the press, but you never can understand why he feels this way. You also do not know why he fell in love with Carter, to begin with, or why he stays with Carter despite all the red flag issues that they run up against. Carter for his part is an interesting character, who is a fish out of water in the world of British nobility. He presents himself best when he’s with his family and he can show off his Jewish background a bit, but when he’s with Edgar, other people, or even his friends, readers will get this same issue, why does he continue to do these things? Why does try to accommodate Edgar to the point of being an insecure mess? How can he be an Events Planner, when he is so uncoordinated at the simplest tasks in life? Why doesn’t he reach out to his friends for emotional support? Basically, despite being the first-person narrator, we don't understand what motivates him or how he can exist in his role/relations with others.

Then, the supporting characters are one-line bit players at best, who just further the plot or add some artificial plot device to help move things along. I am not quite sure how they all fit in or what motivates most of their actions, except Edgar’s brother and sister-in-law, who are gunning for his line in succession. Even Edgar’s gay manservant, who has the most depth of the supporting characters, just feels like a surrogate father figure in the book. We get tidbits about this man and how he chose to not be with his lover, which to be honest, would have made a far more interesting story, like a gay British version of Lee Daniel’s The Butler.

Ultimately, I know this story is played off as a comedy, and its failings as a drama should not make it unreadable. Yet, a comedy without logic, especially in a book, is just hard to swallow. Maybe if Casey McQuiston had not written her brilliant gay romance with similar themes, along with superior comedy, Paul Rudnick’s treatment wouldn’t need to be measured to such high standards. For what it is, the story is serviceable as a romantic comedy imitation of Red, White, and Royal Blue.

Rating: 2.75 out of 5, I did find it funny. However, I just can’t get over how lackluster the story and characters are.