The two main protagonists of Rich and Mad are a seventeen year girl and boy, Richard and Maddie of the book’s title, each on a journey to understand the nature of love, sexuality and sex. Thwarted in their initial forays into relationships with the objects of their fantasies, they embark on a deepening friendship.

Rich and Mad explores the nature of love - love between parents and children, siblings, friends and members of the opposite sex - as well as sexuality, and in one case, asexuality. It explores the relationship between love and sex and the extent to which they can and do co-exist and co-depend. There is, too, a brief exploration of sex with violence.

Thoroughly engaging from the beginning, the main characters are well-drawn and entirely sympathetic, and the reader is drawn into their lives immediately. The sex scenes in the book include a description of a piece of pornography watched by two of the female characters. While explicit, the scenes are not in themselves pornographic or salacious, and they are written with sensitivity and humour. Nicholson captures beautifully teenage yearning for love and understanding and the excitement of first love. His style is direct and fresh, simple and frank. It is a delight not to have to endure yet another attempt at ‘street’ talk and contemporary slang.

Publishing  April 2010

2010-01-19