How We Named the Stars by Andrés N Ordorica review: 'a first novel of quality from a fresh talent'

How things have changed, gay – or as some writers prefer queer – novels are mainstream. This is all to be welcomed because it means that such books stand or fall on their literary, rather than social or political, merits.

There's no need now to praise a gay/queer novel because it is “so brave”. Gore Vidal used to enjoy recounting – several times here in Edinburgh – how the New York Times banned him for years because he had written a novel which told what two young American males – from good families – might get up to in the dorm, outdoors as well. How times – even the New York Times – have changed.

Well, we have two college boys here in their first semester at a high-grade college in California. It’s a bit different from Gore's set-up, the narrator Daniel being a small but very clever and pretty second-generation Mexican immigrant. His room-mate, Sam, is a blond, clean-limbed American boy from central casting.

Daniel is smitten but shy. Sam – well, Sam is what they call a jock, very keen to shine at football (which they call soccer), and there are so many of his type that he is a bit shy and hesitant.

You wonder, will there be an encounter which he then regrets and which has him shy away from anything going further? He is tempted, of course, but he is a kind boy and moreover… well, moreover, we know from page 7 that “Sam's dead”, a motor accident, the American way.

Not dead in Daniel's heart, of course: the novel is written not only about Sam but for him. The heart of the story is Daniel's coming to terms with his loss, and this has him delving first into the past of his family.

It's a loving family, but the long dead uncle after whom he was named was felt disgraceful on account of his active and open homosexuality. To young Daniel he is a hero and is also seen as such by a number of ageing gays he has becomes friendly with.

Daniel, in long conversations with his beloved and living grandfather, must show the old man that the other Daniel was a son of whom he should be proud, not ashamed – proud of his courage as a campaigner for victims of Aids, the cause of his own death.

There are a great many expressions of love in the novel, and I suppose that is how it is now when love has become an easy and therefore often empty word. Maybe we need something to put in its place. It now often seems a word that skims off the place.

Still, it is better to have a novel full of loving sentiments than one that, like many crime novels today, seem to glorify hate and violence.

This is a first novel and a good one. Its Edinburgh publisher, Saraband, have an eye for quality. Ordorica is described as “residing in Edinburgh”, which has quite a nice Morningside ring. There is no acknowledgement of a previous USA publication, but since it comes with admiring quotes from a number of American publications, I suppose there has been one, unless these are merely puffs.

I guess his second novel, always a stiff test, will be interesting, but here one can only welcome a fresh talent.

How We Named The Stars, by Andrés N Ordorica, Saraband, £10.99​