James Gregor Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

James Gregor is a popular Canadian author romance, contemporary, LGBT, and fiction stories. He made his debut in 2019 with a successful novel called Going Dutch. In this novel, he has described an incisive portrait of human relationships in the age of romantic abundance on the digital platform. The story of this book is a humorous and heartfelt exploration of romance, sexuality, and love. It is also a poignant meditation based on the things that emotionally ravenous individuals do to and seek from each other. Numerous critics have praised author Gregor by saying that he has announced himself with an exciting and fresh voice in his first novel. Before stepping into the world of novel writing, Gregor obtained his graduation from Columbia University and obtained an MFA in Fiction. He was born and brought up in Canada. Gregor has served as a writer in residence at Tuscany based Villa Lena Foundation. He has also worked at the Shakespeare & Company bookshop located in Paris as a bookseller.

To write his first novel, Gregor used a particular financial awkwardness in the form of a metaphor to depict the emotional inequalities between the characters of his book. In his debut novel, Gregor has mentioned the lead characters in the form of Richard Turner, Blake, Anne, Patrick, and a few others. Richard is described as a man in his late twenties. He is gay and pursuing a Ph.D. in medieval Italian literature from the prestigious Columbia University. When the novel begins, Richard Turner is shown as not having written anything for very long. It becomes an issue for him as he is required to present his works regularly to his advisor to get letters of progress from him and continue to keep his privately funded fellowship. He doesn’t have any job to look after his expenses and so, he is completely dependent on the fellowship. Richard fears that if he ends up losing the fellowship, he will be left with no money and might have to head back to his hometown in Maine, which will be a nightmare for him.

Though this fear has become a regular part of Richard’s life, it is not the priority in his mind as he is more concerned about his unsuccessful attempts at dating. He has an account on almost all the dating apps, but has found any luck in the dating department. After a few meaningless and untrustworthy encounters, Richard Turner comes across a wealthy, passionately intellectual, and intense fellow Ph.D. pursuer named Anne and forms an unlikely friendship with her. Richard experiences a change in luck as Anne begins to help him with his submissions to the advisor. Later, Anne and Richard go on to develop an odd, impossible, and an unrealistic relationship as Anne is a straight woman and Richard Turner is gay. They begin to have a clash of personalities which has been described by Gregor beautifully.

Gregor has mentioned a deeply engaging plot, intriguing characters, and complex relationships in the book that kept the readers interested till the last page. Author Gregor received a lot of praise for describing the story in brief sentences and giving occasionally self-aware and precisely rendered observations of human nature. Overall, Gregor’s work in his first novel is fun to read and enjoy. Many critics applauded his efforts with rave reviews and hoped that he comes up with many more interesting novels in the future.

The debut book written by author James Gregor is known as ‘Going Dutch’. It was released by the Simon Schuster publication in 2019. Gregor has set the story in New York City. Initially, it is seen that Richard Turner is a gay man, who is exhausted by finding dead-ends in his repeated attempts at finding a suitable partner on various gay dating websites. He finds himself completely alone in spite of being surrounded by many friends all the time in New York City. Richard also finds himself drifting away from his academics. A graduate student in his twenties, Richard appears to be going through a lot that tends to give him anxiety. But, the most important one that requires his special attention is his writer’s block that seems to have made him crippled.

Richard faces the threat of losing his graduate funding if he does not come up with something exciting soon to show to his supervisor. Once his graduate funding is lost, he will be left poor, desperately single, and directionless and will be forced to head back home, where he will have to bear the shame of not being able to make a good use of the opportunity provided to him in a big city. Then comes the surprising entry of a girl named Anne in Richard’s life. She is a brilliant student and offers to help Richard in writing his papers. In exchange, she demands his company even though she knows about his sexual orientation. Richard agrees to Anne’s condition as he gets the feeling that she could get him out of his terrible situation. As the two begin to spend more time together, they start understanding each other well. Richard seems to be enjoying Anne’s company and her abundant lifestyle.

The relationship between Anne and Richard began at a transactional level and gradually turns into something complicated. Then, Richard finds a new sexual partner in the form of Blake, a smart, successful, and attractive lawyer. As his relationship with Blake turns serious, he finds it difficult to detach himself from Anne. He feels as if he is entangled in Anne’s web of brilliance, privilege, and her unabashed and odd acceptance of his flaws. When the two relationships of Richard reach their respective points of serious commitment, he discovers that he is treading an existential and romantic collision course. And this course has already started to bring about surprising revelations, making Richard wonder what more lies ahead to find out. This novel raises interesting questions and also provides excellent social commentary on the topic of gay dating. Author Gregor’s way of describing the storyline, characters, and the overall plot make this book much more interesting to read. Overall, this novel portrays a no-nonsense romantic comedy and drama that entertained the readers with a unique set up. Gregor’s depiction appears to be honest, direct, dark, and enjoyable.