A sudsy melodrama, to be sure, but one that offers a rare glimpse into the world of gay black men and the challenges they...
A posthumous novel from Harris (Mama Dearest, 2009, etc.), about gay black men seeking acceptance.
At the beginning, Bentley Dean III, scion to a wealthy black Detroit family, breaks off his engagement with the very suitable Kim in order to live an authentic life. And for Bentley that means out of the closet and in a public relationship with his lover Warren. Five years later Bentley is in Miami, disinherited by his homophobic father, dumped by Warren, who refuses to identify as gay, but nonetheless happy to be himself. He and his business partner Alex own an Afro-centric modeling agency (she handles the women, Bentley happily handles the men’s side, which offers the occasional midday treat). But the agency has seen better times; the economy is in free-fall just as the Obama election is coming up. Financial worries force Bentley to book a suspicious modeling assignment—a request for gay-friendly eye candy for a private party. Bentley is assured he won’t be inadvertently pimping out his models, but when he arrives at the all-male event, he suspects that he’ll regret the night. He brings along Jah, an 18 year old that Bentley found in foster care and has mentored over the years. Jah, now in college with noble plans, catches the eye of the host, Seth Sinclair. Married with kids, Seth is a Hollywood megastar with a secret penchant for boys and control. Jah soon gets caught in Seth’s dangerous web, and Bentley is wracked with guilt. Meanwhile, Warren and Bentley reconnect, though Bentley, still in love with Warren, suspects the man hasn’t changed and will always live the double life. All these men can’t compete with the one man Bentley wants back in his life—his father. The best of friends until he came out, Bentley misses his old man and is afraid one day it may be too late for a reconciliation.
A sudsy melodrama, to be sure, but one that offers a rare glimpse into the world of gay black men and the challenges they face.Pub Date: June 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-54191-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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