CLUBBED THREE

A couple tries out a new romantic paradigm in Karl’s gay romance novel, the third in a series.

Joey and Henry have been together since 1976, when Joey, a White guy from suburban Pennsylvania, inherited an empty factory in Philadelphia’s “Gayborhood.” With the help of Henry, a Black Philadelphia native, Joey managed to turn it into Club Sanctuary, a pillar of the local gay scene. By 1992, the two have been married for over a decade, and though they don’t mind bringing others into the bedroom, they have agreed to only do so when they are both present. Joey recently violated this rule, and, even worse, he didn’t use protection—a major risk as AIDS ravages the gay community. The only way Henry will stay in the relationship is if Joey agrees to fully commit to their previously lax dom-sub relationship: “I want you to decide, dog,” Henry tells Joey. “Do you want to be choked with my discipline, or let go? You can have freedom or you can give in to me totally. It’s one way or the other. What’s it gonna be?” It’s the start of a new era, with new rules and new obstacles. Joey appreciates the structure, but what will happen if that structure is suddenly—violently—ripped away? The book shifts the point-of-view character every chapter, with Joey and Henry alternating narrative duties with club regulars like Mr. GQ, the gossip columnist for the Philadelphia Gay News. From sex scenes to comic dialogues, the author’s prose is reliably sharp and insightful, as when Henry explains the fine art of tying knots: “We’re practicing how to make bondage knots properly. There’s an art to it, you know. The wrong kind of knot could end up hurting a sub, I mean, not in a good way.” This is the concluding book in a trilogy, and Karl takes admirably big swings to wrap up the story. Though romance forms the heart of the novel, the book has the weight and scope of socially minded literary fiction.

An ambitious, satisfying conclusion to a trilogy of novels set in Philadelphia’s gay club scene.