I felt a strange flutter of excitement as I read the first few pages of Greg Scorzo's book, making me feel that I was reading something profound and exciting. For those who want to read frothy romance novels, or escape from the human condition, this is not the book for them. But for those who prefer realism and want to explore what it means to be human, with all of our defects and weaknesses, then this is a fine read. This is not a conventional book but a philosophical discussion on human nature, sex and politics. It's a fictional book, reading like a collection of short stories. There are no villains or heroes in this story, only an assortment of messy, damaged, narcissistic, selfish, cruel, loving, kind, supportive, intelligent, thoughtful beings.
'Love Before Covid' challenges readers, making them question their own perceptions and ideologies. It's an intense book, not one which relaxes but stimulates. Divided into five parts, and mainly consisting of dialogues between character pairs, the book is a hefty tome which reads surprisingly quickly. The dialogues, somewhat script-like, makes it completely accessible to anyone. It's a work of fiction but some aspects of the dialogues scream with bitter realism.
Scorzo doesn't shy away from the brutalities of living a flawed life together with flawed humans in flawed relationships. This is a book which intrigues, revolts, repulses, stimulates, in parts a stream of consciousness, in others, a metaphysical treatise on contemporary discourse in our media, universities and homes.
To read this book is to experience being a silent ghost, haunting bedrooms, living rooms and coffee shops, watching and listening to the most intimate details of conversations spoken by others. It's especially for people like me who are always curious about other humans, and the dynamics of their relationships.
But be warned, this is a sexuality explicit book with some sections reading like a graphic sex novel. There are various frank discussions by characters on all aspects of sex, including porn. The perversions of not just sex but of the human mind and soul are unsparingly examined.
Scorzo deftly offers a range of political constructs and ideas in his book. He shies away from using his characters as vehicles to promote only one particular ideology, and instead offers a spectrum of concepts dominating Western media and academia discourse. Only those looking to be offended will take issue with the ideological stances of some of the characters. Those who don't will find it refreshing to know that Scorzo doesn't judge their own belief systems and neither does he tell the reader what to think. Rather he teaches them how to think. All ideologies are pilloried in this book, from socialism to conservatism. He masterfully handles the issue of transgenderism, showing how adherence to ideology can lead damaged people to mutilate themselves, without condemning those who make these choices.
The first part, called 'Romance' lures the reader in with philosophical examinations on the nature of soul mates. Is this a temporary, intangible quality which can be changed when the relationship is severed and love dies? Or do two people remain soul mates despite never seeing each other ever again? The latter concept has certainly informed romance novels and poetry for centuries. The ghost of Catherine in 'Wuthering Heights', weeping for her soul mate Heathcliff, shows that the bond of soul mates is always unbroken, even if one member of the soul mate partnership is abusive to another.
The central theme is the concept of love. I could relate to the muddy expectations of love and what it means to love another human unconditionally. Is love dependent on unchanging circumstances? Is brutal honesty in a relationship a form of abuse or love? Scorzo shows how love can be distorted and manipulated.
What happens when one partner in a happy, loving couple is given a life changing diagnosis which alters the entire perception of that person, and the trajectory of the relationship? Who is the real monster, the psychopath Janet or her partner, Joe, the book's protagonist? His vicious response to Janet's diagnosis reveals him as profoundly damaged as Janet, only in a different way. Janet loves in the best way she knows how, no matter how inauthentic that is, yet that enrages Joe.
Scorzo leads the reader to muse on whether we take on aspects of our previous partners that we once hated and resented, internalising these aspects in a better way to understand and heal these. In this process do we transform into a hated part of those we once loved, or still love? Psychologists might say that is a similar process of copying damaged behaviour from our own flawed parents. Given that every human is flawed, and therefore every relationship flawed too, love can easily become grotesquely abusive.
The argument between the lesbian couple, Alice and Eve, on whether to have children together or not is revealing in its manipulation of one partner by another. More than anything it shows what happens when woke politics become a defense for this form of abuse. How many more conversations like this are taking place in bedrooms and living rooms, where lives are scarred by sacrificing compassion and replacing it with ideology? Are the choices we make from internalising societal norms? Do we have any individual agency when it comes to making decisions? How many of our feelings and ideas and desires to live the life that we want comes from our own thoughts and experiences? How many of them comes from internalising the norms of society? This is the nature/nurture debate updated for the 21st century.
Is Alice's desire to have a child driven by biology or her woke desire to stick it to 'the patriarchy'? The concept of feminism is inverted through positioning women who chose not be mothers as having fallen victim to internalised misogyny. This is one of the many examples in the book where the reader is forced to question perceived wisdom.
Surely Alice, in her searing criticism of Eve's lack of a biological drive to be mother, severs the link with feminism and regresses back to the 1950's definition of a woman. But all is not what it seems, with Scorzo gaslighting the reader, which may make some readers scream with frustration, others laugh at the shock, and some shake their heads in sorrow at the damage and abuse which two people are capable of inflicting on each other, and the excuses they make.
There are some parts which can be unpleasant to read, with the darkness of the human soul ferociously exposed and the lies people tell themselves and others. Incest, addiction, revenge, abuse and mental illness are spoken about by the characters mercilessly, with no softening of the depravity and pain inflicted by or endured by some humans.
The philosophy of porn, and indeed a critique of it, is a recurring theme in the book. The warped and twisted relationship between porn star Davis and her son Max is repulsive to read yet it's also an examination of the Oedipal complex so skilful and complex that it would have intrigued Sigmund Freud. Scorzo prompts the reader to think what defines a good mother – either giving a child boundaries to feel safe and nurtured or letting them be free to be their authentic self, no matter how damaging this is to them?
The question of sexual attraction to another person is also given a workover. Are we attracted to the body only, or is the mind and soul a powerful draw too? Do we have the right to withdraw our sexual attraction from our loved ones if they gain weight, even if that weight is gained via an eating disorder, hormonal changes or an illness? Should we withdraw our love when a person's mind and soul are revealed to be darker than we first thought? Can we govern our sexual impulses and our ability to love to that extent? Or is part of love accepting our partner no matter what he or she looks like or changes into?
The book is so captivating that I didn't want to stop reading, no matter how disgusted I felt with some of the characters and how depressed I felt watching them abuse one another. I navigated that inner challenge to overcome this, to carry on reading about the entire spectrum of damaged humans and their superficiality, desires, snobberies, misogyny, misandry, insecurities, neuroses and sexuality. There are a few funny parts, which lightens the intense dialogues between the characters.
Scorzo's profound writing invokes more questions than answers, compelling the reader to locate and then hopefully make peace with their own darkness, We are encouraged to integrate this Jungian shadow self, which involves aspects of others, and ourselves, which we want to abuse or even kill, or have sex with. Despite the extremely painful process in doing so.
I enjoyed the various shocks that Scorzo, toying with the reader, throws into the plot. Some might find this infuriating but I found it stimulating. I thought that one of the characters was decent and kind, only to find out later that they turned out to be the most manipulative, devious and selfish of all.
The ambiguous use of Covid-19 as a narrative vehicle, irritated me. Given the global destructive and hysterical response to a virus with a low mortality rate, I am dismayed that it's now immortalised like this. Yet this didn't distract from how much the story intrigued me. After yet another twist at the end that I did not see coming I wanted to re-read it, to obtain a new perspective. That I did, despite my misgivings over the treatment Scorzo gives Covid-19, shows what skilled writer and great storyteller he is.
In my time spent away from reading 'Love Before Covid', I found myself mulling over the characters and what they had said or done, trying to decide which ones I like the most and which ones I disliked. They took up space in my mind long after I finished reading for the day.
This is a challenging book, one not easy to forget. Dazzling in its originality and depth, it's like nothing you have ever read before or will read again. Unless it is written by Greg Scorzo.
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'Love Before Covid' is available to buy on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LOVE-BEFORE-COVID-GREG-SCORZO-ebook/dp/B09KNVPSQW/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1WCZQ0J5G4X9G&keywords=love%20before%20covid&qid=1642439170&sprefix=love%20before%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-1&fbclid=IwAR2-tkLtwbWoPZ57Cld3PeT4p5gJE6HVgkHQhLMyWiqktnfwJzyZZFCjt8c