Delightful and fast-paced, a fascinating narrative of queer activism during the AIDS epidemic.
A gay Black man's personal transformation and political awakening in mid-1980s New York City.
In his engrossing debut, Newson, television writer and producer of Narcos and Bel-Air, introduces readers to Earl “Trey” Singleton III, a young Black man born into an affluent family of political speechwriters in Indianapolis. Stifled by his parents’ lofty expectations and the narrow-mindedness of his community, Trey flees to New York City at 17 with $2,327 that doesn’t last long. The year is 1985, and New York is rife with tension: Jobs are few, racism and homophobia rampant, and corruption unbridled. Struggling to find work and housing, Trey meets Gregory, who makes ends meet by catering to the needs of a host of older White (usually closeted) men (or daddies, as Trey calls them). Together, Trey and Gregory rent a derelict studio apartment and wander through Mt. Morris in Harlem, one of the few remaining gay bathhouses, where Trey finally finds some form of queer community. “Mt. Morris wasn’t only about sex,” says Trey, as he develops a close friendship with activist and social justice advocate Bayard Rustin, who attempts to politicize the young man. Rustin’s mentorship becomes critical to Trey as he organizes a strike against his negligent landlord, Fred Trump, and becomes increasingly involved in AIDS activism, volunteering at an AIDS home hospice and becoming an active member of ACT UP. A fictional memoir, the novel is divided into chapters titled after a lesson Trey learns within (“Lesson #6: Romantic Notions Are Delusions"). The chapters often conclude with an explanation of their thematic content, which, while an interesting device, is frequently too on-the-nose. Nevertheless, footnotes provide context and compelling detail for readers who are not familiar with queer history.
Delightful and fast-paced, a fascinating narrative of queer activism during the AIDS epidemic.Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-83352-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.
Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South.
It’s not necessary to have read Dickens’ famous novel to appreciate Kingsolver’s absorbing tale, but those who have will savor the tough-minded changes she rings on his Victorian sentimentality while affirming his stinging critique of a heartless society. Our soon-to-be orphaned narrator’s mother is a substance-abusing teenage single mom who checks out via OD on his 11th birthday, and Demon’s cynical, wised-up voice is light-years removed from David Copperfield’s earnest tone. Yet readers also see the yearning for love and wells of compassion hidden beneath his self-protective exterior. Like pretty much everyone else in Lee County, Virginia, hollowed out economically by the coal and tobacco industries, he sees himself as someone with no prospects and little worth. One of Kingsolver’s major themes, hit a little too insistently, is the contempt felt by participants in the modern capitalist economy for those rooted in older ways of life. More nuanced and emotionally engaging is Demon’s fierce attachment to his home ground, a place where he is known and supported, tested to the breaking point as the opiate epidemic engulfs it. Kingsolver’s ferocious indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, angrily stated by a local girl who has become a nurse, is in the best Dickensian tradition, and Demon gives a harrowing account of his descent into addiction with his beloved Dori (as naïve as Dickens’ Dora in her own screwed-up way). Does knowledge offer a way out of this sinkhole? A committed teacher tries to enlighten Demon’s seventh grade class about how the resource-rich countryside was pillaged and abandoned, but Kingsolver doesn’t air-brush his students’ dismissal of this history or the prejudice encountered by this African American outsider and his White wife. She is an art teacher who guides Demon toward self-expression, just as his friend Tommy provokes his dawning understanding of how their world has been shaped by outside forces and what he might be able to do about it.
An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-325-1922
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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