A HIGH COUNTRY TALE

Name: A HIGH COUNTRY TALE
Author: Zachariah Jack
ISBN: 978-0-9980990-1-9

by Zachariah Jack ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 22, 2016

Definitely not for the timid, this Bacchanalian confection conjoins two gay couples, a drenching of explicit sex, and enough...

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A novel chronicles the uninhibited adventures of two interracial gay couples meandering their way through Austin, Texas, and elsewhere.

It all starts out so innocently: the foursome, dreamed up by prolific author Jack (The Mandrakes, 2017, etc.), includes longtime couple Luke Cevennes, an emergency room physician, and “Nubian prince,” university philosophy teacher, and single father Jeremy Kell. Alongside the pair are Jake Marshall, also an ER doctor, and his daring software entrepreneur partner, Cal Broadhearst. All enjoy one another’s company and energetic lifestyles, which contribute to their “ripped” physiques, with the major difference being that Luke and Jeremy prefer the bustle and variety of the city as opposed to Jake’s and Cal’s more placid rural life. The Supreme Court’s landmark same-sex marriage decision paves the way for both couples to plan their nuptials in the Colorado mountains, but a hot air balloon wedding and honeymoon intimacies aren’t the only things on their minds. Chattily narrated by Luke and Jake, the story strays from their marital bliss with the integration of a series of hardcore, graphic sexual situations that veer the book into the gay-erotica arena, complete with oversized genitalia, truck-stop sex, and gritty, provocative language (“Who says the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?”). Their collective escapades move seamlessly from a cabin hideaway in Telluride for Luke and Jeremy to Rome, Georgia, where Jake and Cal vacation, with each man driven by his insatiable libido and easily distracted by the scent of marijuana, the sight of oversized feet, or the smooth seduction of the nearest handsome stranger. Some readers may question how this behavior equates to gay marriage, but Luke seems to speak for the group when declaring, “My ambivalence to the concept of monogamy was well known.” Supporting characters drift in and out of the long-winded narrative periodically, including a pack of voracious bears, but they all take a back seat to the orgies of the fab four. Whether or not readers consider unbridled gay sex palatable or not, Jack remains a consistently engaging storyteller and amply embodies his characters with personality, carnal appeal, and enough opinionated social criticism to make them appealing and realistically drawn.

Definitely not for the timid, this Bacchanalian confection conjoins two gay couples, a drenching of explicit sex, and enough drama and sweat to please fans of the ribald and the raunchy.

Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-9980990-1-9

Page Count: 404

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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LAST ORDERS

by Graham Swift ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1996

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Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.