A hip, hilarious and intelligent novel that examines the gray areas of sexuality.
Brogan’s (A Time To Live, 1997, etc.) bi-friendly novel explores the postmodern world of sexual ambiguity through the eyes of a young, yet jaded, gay sportswriter.
Nico Gonzalez has an unbridled attraction to straight men—or rather, outwardly straight men. He believes that every male possesses some form of yearning for other men; however, he also acknowledges that “he might have picked these particular guys knowing they could take closeness only so far.” At the start of the novel, his best friend and lover Bobby Sangthong breaks up with him, admitting that his hyper-religious parents have been pressuring him to marry a woman and have children. Nico holds a grudge against Bobby for not being true to his gay self, but tries to forgive him. Luckily, and conveniently, Nico’s best friend, Brianna, introduces him to Shane, a handsome, career-oriented programmer at Microsoft. He’s clean, organized and wealthy, yet modest, and Nico feels almost unworthy in his presence, as he lives in a dirty apartment (nicknamed “Plato’s Cave”) and actively plans on quitting his day job as a sportswriter. Their blooming relationship is tested when Nico unexpectedly befriends Grady Jackson: a sports-loving, girlfriend-having, sarong-wearing hunk whose sexuality is cloudy and undefinable. Nico is sick of falling for men who ultimately leave him for women, yet he can’t help but detect their mutual attraction. Meanwhile, Brianna argues with Nico that the nature of intimacy is malleable and fluid. Throughout the novel, Brogan examines the intriguing, often confusing human tendency to confine others with labels. Nico gives the story the unique perspective of a gay man who doesn’t accept the idea of bisexuality, and the author develops his character exquisitely. Despite Nico’s desire for clear categories, he contradicts himself with his own lust for experimentation: “Tonight simply became a question of drawing on their already extensive repertoire of previously established possibilities, extensive enough so that there was also the uncertainty, which Nico loved, of what would come next.” Brogan also effectively uses the city of Seattle, giving his forward-thinking, pleasure-seeking characters an expansive environment in which to grow. Overall, this novel is highly recommended for readers interested in conversational commentary on contemporary sexuality, with an added twist of dark humor.
A hip, hilarious and intelligent novel that examines the gray areas of sexuality.Pub Date: April 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0991147007
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Equanimity Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.
In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice.
Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she's become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that's why she won't eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks further into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family—her husband, brother-in-law, and sister—forcing them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on a reader’s attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is.
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-44818-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© 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.
