Traveling in Our Fabulous World Book Review:
Without One Plea, by Ben Mitchell
By Donald Pile & Ray Williams, Gay Travelers

Besides getting to meet new people, seeing new things and all the other joys that traveling in our fabulous gay world gives us, we also enjoy reading.  Earlier this year we visited a small town 30 miles south of Oxford, Mississippi and also visited Oxford.

Now a new novel has just been released about those two places.  WITHOUT ONE PLEA recently came out and is the first book by Ben Mitchell originally from Mississippi.    The author and his spouse, Leland have been a couple for nine years and lives in Dallas, Texas. 

WITHOUT ONE PLEA is a contemporary novel about a gay couple of 13 years who were living well in New York City and then decides to give up big city life and move back to Chet’s home town about thirty miles south of Oxford, Mississippi, the home of Ole Miss (University of Mississippi).

He had moved away over 17 years ago to go to college and then to work as in New York City. Chet is a very prominent attorney and has decided to take a teaching position at the University.  His spouse, Drew is a financial planner and readily gets a job at the local bank.

The only problem is that here they are in this very small town and a town that is run (or ruined) by the local Baptist minister.  In New York City they were a “very” out gay couple however back home now, they must be very careful to come out slowly to family, friends and the entire town. 

Reading the book, one can tell that the author IS from the south, IS in a loving relationship and IS a marvelous writer!  He introduces his readers to everyone in town and you get to know them real well.  Thirty miles can seem like a thousand miles when you are comparing the distance from the small town where they moved to the city of Oxford where the academic structure is extremely liberal and open to all life styles.

Chet’s elderly Mother lives there and Chet and Drew buy a house there and redecorate it beautifully!  Classmates and friends from long ago all want to see Chet and his house.  At first they only tell everyone that Drew is just a “roommate” from Chet’s college days and that he has continued to be his roommate for the past 13 years!  And of course many in the town really believed that!  But, we are dealing with a small town here.

Most all of Chet’s friends from 17 years ago are still the same people that they actually were 17 years ago while Chet has grown and self-educated himself in the finer things of life and has a very loving and OUT relationship with the same person (Drew) for over 13 years. 

Now, they feel that they must go back into the closet (at least for a while) so that the people in town will get to know them better and then, they can come out to everyone.

This is not the way it works of course but after all it is just a novel.  The meanest person in town is Brother Gene, the sinister Baptist minister.  Aren’t they all?  Except this Baptist minister really is the meanest person in town and does everything in his power to destroy Chet and Drew and drive them out of town.  Meanwhile Drew is having his own personal problems (which he should have) as he doesn’t enjoy living in the closet and he and Chet have problems concerning that issue.  We don’t want to tell too much, but Minister Gene does spying of his own and Chet has to go to court to save himself and his reputation. 

This is a MUST READ book about REAL life!   The author is going to be another Tennessee Williams for sure! only better! When the author writes, he makes the reader think that they are right there in the midst of everything! There are so few contemporary gay novels relating about real gay life. The author, Ben Mitchell is going places quickly.  WITHOUT ONE PLEA is a perfect script for a Hollywood movie. We can’t wait for his next novel to appear.  WITHOUT ONE PLEA can be purchased at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and selected bookstores.

Always remember to have fun when traveling, meet new people and talk to everyone!

TRAVELING IN OUR FABULOUS WORLD is written by Donald Pile and Ray Williams, Award-winning Celebrity travel columnists who write for gay publications from Coast to Coast. You can email them at: gaytravelers@aol.com or visit their webpage at: http://gaytravelersataol.blogspot.com/.