Book Buzz

MEG WOLITZER

The Position is about family relationships and dysfunction. The parents write a Joy of Sex type book, Pleasuring: One Couples Journey to Fulfillment which included explicit drawings of them ”engaged in sexual practices both common and obscure, Western and Eastern, ancient and modern, freehand and apparatus-aided.” The book was an instant best seller. The parents were hot on talk show,  interviews and book signings. The children were horrified and felt that this would scar them for life. ”Once we’ve seen it,” Holly, the oldest, cautions, ”then we can never unsee it. It will stay in our minds.”

Most of the book takes place thirty years later. The publishing house wants to rerelease a celebratory anniversary edition. The children have matured into variously maladjusted adults. Michael, a brilliant and worry-prone do-gooder dot-commer, is on antidepressants that have made him anorgasmic, he can no longer climax during sex. His sister Holly is ”a strange hologram” of a person, out in California with her doctor husband, opting for an isolation from her parents and siblings that’s ”almost religious.” The doctor and their son have finally given her a reason to clean up and become drug free. Claudia, a film student who lives alone in the East Village, thinks her body looks ”like a garbage bag full of leaves.” Dashiell, a political speechwriter, suffers from a liberal family’s most severe pathology: gay Republicanism. Clearly, each son and daughter has a burden, and they’re certainly all victims of the once-sexy excesses of the 70’s.

A must read! I think I will seek out some of her other books.

RUPERT EVERETT

Everett’s autobiography is surprisingly well written for a Hollywood gossip rag. Having previously publish two or three novels he most certainly does have a way with words. His start was in an upper middle class English family which of course led to the brutality of boarding school. It was there Rupert got his first acting experience and made plans to attend acting school. He ended up being kicked out of acting school for being unruly. But that certainly has not hurt his career at all. Rupert is a shameless name dropper. It seems that he knows everyone in Hollywood. Light fare. I actually listened to an audio version that was abridged to 4.5 hours. At the time I was quite sick so listening was the best way to appreciate this book.

ANDRE ACIMAN

An impressive novel, this love story of Elio and Oliver. Elio is a seventeen year old boy at his parents villa in Italy. Every year his father, a respected literature professor, takes an intern for the summer to help with his papers, work on his own writing, to enliven the discussion in the house and to enjoy the Mediterranean  in the summer. This summer the intern was Oliver with impressive literary credential, American movie star looks and charming. The story is narrated by Elio as an adult. Though on the surface a gay novel, both young men have relationships with women. Too much of the story is Elio’s adolescent angst whining about Oliver’s coming and going. Which to me really emphasized the inherent power and age difference between the two. But the the ending of the book is strong which pulls it all together.

“Are ‘being’ and ‘having’ thoroughly inaccurate verbs in the twisted skein of desire, where having someone’s body to touch and being that someone we’re longing to touch are one and the same, just opposite banks on a river that passes from us to them, back to us and over to them again this perpetual circulation where the chambers of the heart, like the trapdoors of desire, and the wormholes of time, and the false-bottomed drawer we call identity share a beguiling logic according to which the shortest distance between real life and the life unlived, between who we are and what we want, is a twisted staircase designed with the impish cruelty of M.C. Escher . . . He was my secret conduit to myself — like a catalyst that allows us to become who we are, the foreign body, the pacer, the graft, the patch that sends all the right impulses, the steel pin that keeps a soldier’s bone together, the other man’s heart that makes us more us than we were before the transplant.”

ANTHONY BIDULKA

On his way home from his engagement and trip to Hawaii, Saskatoon PI Russell Quant stumbles upon a treasure map and a murder. Intrigued by both he can’t let them go until he solves them. Beach book for the summer by gay Saskatoon author.

MARC ACITO

Marc Acito is funny. College is a comic novel about a talented irresponsible teenager who schemes to steal his college tuition money when his wealthy father refuses to pay for acting school. Dad says business school at step mom’s urging.  Realistic no but side splitting yes. The sexual openess of the bisexual characters and the jock that is into drama does not ring true for the 1980’s but is still good for a laugh. Great for when you are in the mood for a light some what trashy read – pick this one up.

A NOVEL OF LOVE, MARY POPPINS & FENWAY PARK

STEVE KLUGER

A sweet, positive, feel good book about teens and for teens but worth reading by adults. But it is a world to good to be true. The two main characters TC and Augie decided that they were brothers at an early age and for years have had beds and dressers in each others bedrooms. TC is into baseball big time. Augie is into Broadway musicals big time. Throw into the mix a beautiful girl, a hot guy and a high school musical. It’s a fun uplifting read. Interestingly it is written as letters, texting, e-mails etc.

MARK RICHARD ZUBRO

I couldn’t resist the title, the book isn’t that good. The mystery begins when the first of the singers of Boys4U the hot new boy band for teenyboppers is murdered. Who would want to kill one of these sweet, rich, straight, young men? Could it be the recorded executive who only allows men into the band who perform on the casting couch. But it turns out he is an equal rights abuser. He treats his female singers with the same scorn and humiliation. Could it be the well build security man whose job it is to protect the band. Or any of the many others in the band’s entourage.  It becomes more serious when another band member is killed.

Silly light mystery.

MY LIFE IN HOT PURSUIT OF THE WORLD’S MOST COVETED HANDBAG

MICHAEL TONELLO

Light, fluffy memoir about a man who makes his living buying Hermes brand name products from their stores at their outrages prices and selling them for more on e-bay and the internet. He had moved to Barcelona to work for a friend but when that fell through he had to find an other way to support himself. Fun.

BRIAN FRANCIS

2009 Canada Reads Nominee on CBC

I am not sure who I would recommend this book to. It is narrated by a 13 year old boy who is in grade 8 whose “nipples popped out” last week. There are not many kids in grade 8 that I would suggest that should read this book. Saskatoon Public Library did have it in their young adult section. Here is how the author Jen Sookfong Lee (The End Of The East) explains why she choose Fruit as her choice for Canada reads:

Here’s my defence of Fruit in a nutshell: 

Fruit by Brian Francis should win Canada Reads because every single one of us has felt like a stranger in our own bodies, confounded by our growths and seemingly nonsensical urges. Peter, the novel’s 13-year-old narrator, is appalled when his nipples begin talking to him. Don’t kid yourself; we’ve all had moments like this, when hormones and parents and high school all come together in a conspiratorial way to make us feel like aliens who will never, ever fit into the human race. And that’s why Fruit should be read by every Canadian, because somewhere, deep inside, we are all awkward adolescents who will never understand what our lives have become.   - The Fruit Is Out Of The Bag

Interestingly it seems obvious that the boy is gay but he doesn’t seem to realize it yet. Some of his fantasies start with girls and them drift to boys.

Definately an unusual read. It will be interesting to hear the discussion on CBC.

WILLIAM SUTCLIFFE

This comic novel would make a great movie. Three mothers of thirty something bachelors desire to be grandmothers. Their plan is to descend upon their son’s unannounced for a week’s stay to observe and manipulate. One son is the editor of “Balls” magazine with a corresponding party lifestyle. Hiding from a failed relationship in Edinborough is another son. The last son has not come out to his mother. He lives in what she calls a “gay commune.” Funny and touching. A light read.

AMY TAN
SAVING is narrated by a ghost, Bibi which is not atypical for Amy Tan, thought this is not by far her best work. Bibi had organized an art expedition down the Burma Road for herself and a group of West Coast tourists, but died in a ‘freak accident’. The tourists end up in the the jungle in Burma where they are kidnapped by tribesmen and end up in No Name Place. The Karen tribe believe the teenage boy in the group is a reincarnation of the teacher that converted them to Christianity. Both humourous and touching, this novel spoke to me because of my connection to Burma and the political terrorism that is still taking place. A pious man explained to his followers: “It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hundred lives. I drop my net in the lake and scoop out a hundred fishes. I place the fishes on the bank, where they flop and twirl. ‘Don’t be scared,’ I tell those fishes. ‘I am saving you from drowning.’ Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to market and I sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes.”

A Novel of the After Life

HARRY FREUND

Was it chance or was it ordained that these five souls, quite the motley crew, would end up at the pearly gates at the same time? As they compare stories they are amazed at the many intersecting lines that intersect their lives. How could this be? One character is an angry survivor of Nazi concentration camps as a boy. A young gay man who couldn’t make it as interior decorator earned an excellent living husseling his body. A rich philanderer actually believed that his wife didn’t know about all his dalliances. A woman had a lot of fun and earned money as a professional shopper. The last was a poor born again Christian who sacrificed her own children to take care of the wealth woman’s child. They all have their secrets that must be brought out into the open.

At times touching, other times hillarious. They nearly drove the care taking angels crazy! After the child soldier book I was in the mood for something light. Worth the read.

CHRISTOPHER RICE

A psychological thriller Blind Fall tells a military-themed story of redemption and revenge with the Iraq war as a backdrop. The protagonist John has many ghosts in his past: his brother who committed suicide, his estrangement from the sister who raised him, the mistake he made in Iraq that resulted in the near death of his captain, Mike. Knowledge that Mike is gay had complicated John’s feeling’s for Mike who he once adored. But the long over due visit does not turn out well. It is a compelling read.

A M HOMES

The protagonist is a wealthy man who considers himself dead. He hasn’t left his LA hills house in over a month. The only people he sees is his full time housekeeper, his trainer and his nutritionalist.The story is how he comes to life again NO how he chooses LIFE.

An uplifting book.

STEPHENS GERARD MALONE

Young Canadian man goes to Berlin pre-WWII to visit his aging grandmother. He embraces his German heritage and enjoys the energy and excitement of the rise of National Socialism. He eventually marries and working for his father-in-law earns money auctioning off the property of the jews and others fleeing the oppression of the new Germany and all it stands for. Michael learns a lot about himself: his strengths, his weaknesses and his loves.

The novel starts slow and the themes are slowly revealed but it develops into a powerful story.

SAM METCALFE

A zookeeper learning about love and life as well as taking care of the animals that he is studying. As so many books come down to a major theme is family. Its worth a read.

 Nairne Holtz 

Sam is trying to solve the mystery of her sister’s death. To accomplish this she needs to explore the underworld of Montreal, discern  the truth about a conspiracy theory and unearth family secrets. It is a lot packed into one small book.

Brian 

  Saskatoon’s gay PI is off traveling the world solving mysteries again. This Russel Quant Mystery Series is light and easy to read. I think its fun to read about places that I know in Saskatoon, my home town. Tho’ Bidulka say that his US readers find Saskatoon, Saskatchewan an exotic local! The series does quiet well in internet sales. I also enjoy the foreign aspect that the last books of the series has incorporated. Parts of Sundowner take place in South Africa.  “Sundowner” is cocktails and snack served before the evening meal as the sun sets. Ubuntu is the philosophy similar to “it takes a village to raise a child” that everyone looks out for everyone else. “We are all the same.” A beautiful mysticism.  If you are looking for a light mystery with a difference, these are fun.

  Toibin writes about the lives and times of gay and lesbian artists from Oscar Wilde to filmmaker Pedro Almodovar. I thought that the essays would be about writers exclusively but they include Almodovar and painters as well. It was interesting to read about the artists in whom I know but I found myself skimming and skipping large sections of other essays.It comes with a recommend but I doubt many would be interested.