Review by Booklist Review
Editor Grubisic says he selected these stories in part to balance the media stereotype of the affluent, professional, urban gay man. Thus they reflect gay life "outside the norm." There is Patrick Evans' "Dominatrix," the wryly humorous portrait of Eric, who just can't live a politically correct erotic life, no matter how hard he tries, and winds up head over heels with supermacho Kevin, who delights in cooking steaks, doing chin-ups, and lighting his farts. R. M. Vaughan's "Bath, Towel" presents, in diary form, the realities of high-risk, anonymous bathhouse sex with multiple partners. Tom Musbach's "Astray" compellingly depicts a young novitiate priest as appalled by his hypocritical, party-line counsel to a man grappling with same-sex desires as he is by the notion of being led astray from the Lord's flock. --Whitney Scott
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
British Columbian editor Grubisic's anxiety over the "growing consumerist ethos"Äthe idea that gay men can purchase acceptability by becoming a desirable target marketÄinspired him to seek out less-chronicled swaths of gay life. The 32 stories he collected convey an edginess and sense of risk often missing in Hollywoodized, homogenized images of "palatable, asexual, market-friendly gay men." The characters in this anthology are widely varied: some are abused and obsessive, like the Spanish-speaking maric¢n in Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco's "Hurt Me, Mi Amor." Others, like the shop owner in George Isley's "The Relative Bargain," are unsympathetic and exploitative, treating younger men as commodities and seeking sale prices. The best of these stories poke fun at our assumptions: in Wes Hartley's "Brucie Bashes Back," vigilantes teach a gay-basher a stern lesson, and William J. Mann's "A Letter to My Friend Maeve I'll Never Send" is an erotic note from a gay man to his lesbian friend. Although weaker stories rehash old stereotypes, others put old icons to new use: David Dakar's aging intellectual queen tells of the joys of coming out in the sexually uninhibited 1970s, and Patrick Evans's bull-dyke fights the good fight against patriarchy. Prose styles range from bad romance paperback to disjointed prose poetry to engaging, credible first-person narratives. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
