The author of several gay-themed stories and novels (Everybody Loves You, 1988, etc.), Mordden collects work by 14 writers, ranging from the highly acclaimed Michael Cunningham (``White Angel'') to the previously unpublished Richard Davis (``Marty''). The editor sets the stage with an excellent overview of gay fiction, from ``the first wave of Stonewall lit''—daring, albeit slightly precious—in the 1970s through the second wave that arrived in the mid-1980s and emphasized ``exploring the family- and-friends background.'' Most stories here are ``third wave'' in nature: ``political, archetypal, experimental.'' These writers, Mordden contends, are more activist and more stylistically inventive. This is certainly true of Jim Provenzano's ``Forty Wild Crushes,'' which takes the form of an elementary school memoir—with hilarious footnotes. But most of the other experiments fail. G. Winston James's ``John,'' a story about a black man in a 42nd Street sex shop, has potential, but it's impossible to follow the narrative as it intertwines past with present. Brad Gooch's ``Satan'' is a deplorably crafted mishmash of sexually explicit S&M imagery, exhibitionism at its worst. If these stories are any indication of where the third wave is headed, there are reasons to prefer its predecessors. The finest pieces here may not harp as insistently as second-wave fiction on the family/friends background, but neither do they present characters popping up out of nowhere. In ``Cruise Control,'' John Edgar Harris sensitively depicts changes in gay sex since the discovery of AIDS, presenting a conversation between the first- person narrator and a man 20 years his senior as they stroll through various Manhattan neighborhoods. Abraham Verghese's ``Lilacs'' tells of a man who's suffered from AIDS for nine years, longer than anyone expected; superbly crafted, this gentle tale suddenly turns into a nightmare. Some good moments, but many of these writers are so self- absorbed that they leave their audience little to relate to.
Pub Date: July 21, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-74477-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1994
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
