On heated rivalry

(or a love letter to Ilya and Shane, and author Rachel Reid on Valentine's Day)

I am all for women reclaiming a voice that was too often denied them, and often the way to do that is in the form of a memoir. There has been a lot of divorce memoirs or novels in the past few years, some better (Maggie Smith, Sarah Manguso) than others (Leslie Jamison). So I read Belle Burden’s elegant memoir of her divorce Strangers over one evening and shut it close thinking ‘men are just the worse’. Then, like every one else, I watched Heated Rivalry and decided that I actually like men very much.

If you had told me in early January that I would love a romance series between two hockey players, I would have raised my eyebrow high. I don’t know anything about hockey - remember I grew up in France, the only national team sport I know is soccer which we call ‘football’ or ‘le foot’. I thought I wasn’t the public for romance novels, let alone m/m romance. And yet. And yet.

It’s been freezing cold here in New York and even the mayor of the city recommended we all stay home and read Heated Rivalry by Canadian author Rachel Reid. Apparently the book sales shot up after this announcement. But this has more to do with the TV show. A friend of mine posted about it on Instagram with the caption ‘I have a life. I have a family. Send help’. It got my attention. So I too started watching this new show on HBO. And I too wanted to scream ‘I have a life to get back to, please send help or don’t actually’ because this show is so deliciously addictive.

Why is Heated Rivalry, a show about two hockey phenoms who meet age 17 and start a torrid relationship that over a decade turns into a gorgeous love story so deeply appealing? Simply because it is a love story, duh. It does not hurt that the main characters look like Greek gods just coming out of a steam room. Because its soft porn visuals meets fairy tale world is pure fantasy. Because never have I seen consent depicted so eloquently and sexily. It’s a show about love and lust, yearning to the point of losing one’s mind, and yes intimacy. The communication between the two lovers is otherworldly. And did I say that everyone is kind? When a waiter drops a plate on the floor his boss tells him ‘Don’t worry, I know you need the money.’ When a son comes out to his mother after years of being closeted, she is the one who apologizes ‘I am sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t tell me’. This show is healing on so many levels. We need depiction of men who are vulnerable, who can do the emotional heavy lifting, who cry. We need it so badly right now.

Then there is the monologue delivered in Russian by Texan actor Connor Storrie in which Ilya breaks down and admits his love for Shane after years of not even admitting it out loud to himself and it’s one of the best scenes I have seen on TV in a while. Connor Storrie’s performance is so nuanced, his pain is palpable in the way his eyes are downcast, in the way he moves his hands. We the audience have turned into Shane, his boyfriend, enraptured by his voice, his vulnerability, his very presence.

So for Valentine’s Day this week, do yourself a favor and watch it if you haven’t already or read the books. As the daughter of publishers, books selling well always makes me happy, books about love and lust and acceptance selling well make me so happy indeed.

Ya tebia Lyubyu

I have always loved Nicolas de Stael series of paintings The Football Players from the 1950s which he painted after being mesmerized by the cheering crowds at a stadium. I admire how he painted the movements of the players bodies in this still image, I can almost hear the crowds cheering and clapping in this silent painting. Painting can really do everything.