Review: Simon’s Mansion by William Poe

Running from your present and confronting your past speak to the heart in Simon’s Mansion, a moving work of LGBT literary fiction by William Poe.

Not long out of rehab, Simon Powell returns to his hometown of Sibley, Arkansas, eager to leave behind his destructive life in Hollywood. Given his relatively young life, Simon is a man with many ex’s to his name – ex-husband of Masako, a Japanese woman he had briefly married, ex-cult member and former follower of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and ex-junkie, with cocaine and crack his drugs of choice.

He’s also a former film distributor of gay porn on the run from some Spaniards, whose money Simon’s former assistant, Charlotte, had stolen. His lover, Thad, with whom Simon has had a tumultuous relationship, follows him to Sibley where they settle into the family mansion with Simon’s widowed mother, Vivian. Despite estrangement from the extended family, Simon takes a course at the local college and begins painting again while Thad keeps Simon’s mother company watching soaps.

As the days go by, Simon begins to worry about their depleting funds and reluctantly contacts his former business associate in order to resume distributing his porn films, to which the former grudgingly agrees. Thad, on the other hand, slowly becomes restless and decides to temporarily go back to Hollywood to do sound effects for porn movies. Thad’s return to Hollywood scares Simon to death since there’s a risk of the Spaniards finding him through Thad, something he simply can’t afford to risk.

One of the hallmarks of literary fiction is its emphasis on character over plot; Simon’s Mansion, Poe’s third installment in the Simon series, has both. Simon’s life has been a series of extremes – his ideas and insights shaped by religion and spirituality while his considerable knack for business sidelined by his addiction to drugs. Here we have evocative descriptions of Simon’s difficult relationship with his father, and loving relationship with his mother, in small town America. Largely a story of redemption, Simon learns what it means to be human and what it takes to get by in the world.

Poe’s writing is understated but still plenty hard-hitting. He doesn’t try to beautify Simon’s previously tumultuous relationship with Thad. Both have gone through rehab and come out the other end with their souls relatively intact, though Simon’s insecurities about Thad are never far from the surface. Porn is a cutthroat business and when Simon’s past dealings in the business put Thad in harm’s way, Simon realizes that he must confront his past in order to save his lover, no matter what the cost. This may sound like an odd, or even unsympathetic, focal point for a redemptive story, but the inner conflict and emotional turmoil Simon suffers truly resonate, as does his deep-rooted feelings for his mother, Vivian.

All told, Simon’s Mansion is an engrossing literary novel that offers a moving tribute to those who are unafraid to make their choices and live by them, for an inspiring story of absolution over adversity.