As the years go by, the story becomes more boring partly because of the subject matter, partly because so many years are just glossed over. After we get to Donatello, I was just as bored with reading about his desire for a 16-year-old boy when he is in his 40s. This book gets a low rating from me because, first, it begins with so much repetition of the same subject it is just plain boring. But L'Heureux's concentration is on Donatello's homosexualty and his love and desire for a boy who is nothing but trouble. Is any of this, other than the competion between two families in Florence at that time, the fifteenth century, true? I need to look it up.

John L'Heureux, the author, came up with this story after he saw Donatello's statue of David. And then the Medici boy causes trouble and pain for many years. Although the narrator begins with how he came to be an apprentice of the artist Donatello, that is, with what preceded his apprenticeship, the Medici boy doesn't enter the story until after. The title character in this book, the Medici boy, is not the narrator, as I thought when I began reading it. It struck me that had the Koch Brothers lived then, they would have just bought the whole city government instead of politicians. I found myself engrossed from the beginning of this moving and fascinating view of 15th century Florence. But he worries about Donatello, worried about the unscrupulous but beautiful male model who is like a drug for the homosexual artist.

Luca marries a prostitute whom he loves and bears him sons.

Luca, once tried the monastery, but was deemed unfit. Florence had a reputation of sodomy and the punishment could be severe, up to being dragged through the streets and providing the masses with great entertainment as the sodomite was burned at the stake. Luca, a long-time assistant to the great sculptor, Donatello, will risk anything to save his beloved master from the religious and civic forces. I was drawn to the 1400s in Florence as the Medicis fought to gain control of that city state. From all the mid-century historical novels, as a history major I became rather disgusted with the lack of authentic research. I read very few novels set in the Middle Ages and Renaissance because I have to keep fact checking.

The Medici Boy by John L'Heureux