Page 14 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December, 1989

REVIEW

Somewhere in the Night by Jeffery McMahan Alyson Publications

by Eric Garber

Like many readers, I relish a good horror story. Raised on spooky ghost stories told 'round the campfires, I savor the modern chillers of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice. Horror fiction provides me with inexpensive and safe thrills and an escape from mundane day-to-day life. It can also, as Anne Rice's devoted readers have learned, provide deliciously erotic entertainment.

But for lesbian and gay readers, the homophobia in most contemporary horror stories can be as frightening as the demons, vampires and ghosts who populate them. When gay people appear in horror fiction, we are usually stereotypical victims, waiting to be gruesomely slaughtered by despicable monsters, or even worse, we are the incarnations of satanic evil itself, deserving of our ultimate destruction.

Finally, there's something new. Jeffery N. McMahan's riveting new collection of hair-raising horror tales, Somewhere in the Night, is guaranteed to provide the thrills and chills usually associated with horror and the supernatural, but not the unpleasant aftertaste that repels many gay readers. He builds bone-chilling suspense in his tales which is mixed with just the right amount of the unknown and unexpected. His nightmares are terrifying, horrible, yet believable. Humor is present throughout his collection. But best of all, in each of the eight tales in Somewhere in the Night, the primary character is uncompromisingly gay.

McMahan's gay characters are not the stereotyped cartoons normally encountered. Instead, they are complex and well developed. For example, in

"This Apartment Possessed," an intelligent young gay man moves into a new apartment. He finds his lifestyle and his relationship slowly changing and gradually realizes that his apartment is haunted.

In "Two-Faced Johnny," Johnny and Robert, two young gay men out for a good time, discover more than they bargained for when they crash a macabre Halloween party.

Ethan is an established gay suburbanite who finds a strange, ominous

SOME WHERE

IN THE

NIGHT

STORIES OF SUSPENSE BY

Jeffrey N. McMahan

weed in his carefully tended lawn in "Who Could Ask for Anything More?" Each of these characters is depicted with depth and skill.

However, in addition to portraying gay characters, McMahan evokes the terror of the first-rate horror writer. In "The Dark Red Day" one of the collection's most frightening storiesRichard, a successful gay man, returns to the small town of his youth to visit his family and a former male lover. The bigotry and homophobia of the town ultimately destroy him, but Richard rises from the grave to seek revenge. This is the delightfully creepy stuff that Stephen King novels are made of not the usual run-of-the-mill gay novel.

Continued on Page 19

With Orchestra

iiiiiii

NORTH COAST MEN'S CHORUS

Jestival

Carols

Sunday, December 17th Lakewood Civic Auditorium

Cleveland Public Theatre

C

Presents

AN EPIC BATTLE BETWEEN THE LAST RENEGADE ARTIST AND THE SLUDGE MONSTERS WHO SEEK TO CONTROL US

$7.00 ADVANCE $9.00 AT DOOR

STAR WARES

The Next Generation

A ROCK COMEDY BY: JAMES LEVIN AND LINDA EISENSTEIN DIRECTED BY: ALAN TRETHEWEY DECEMBER 15-31 1989

8 pm THURSDAY thru SATURDAY

S9 FRIDAY and SATURDAY. $8 THURSDAY and SUNDAY 12 MIDNIGHT DEC. 23 & 30 PREVIEWS: DECEMBER 8. 9 & 14 S5

6415 DETROIT AVENUE

AT W. 65th STREET

631-2727

FOR INFORMATION & RESERVATIONS

Funded Through

Ohio Arts Council

727 East Main Street Columbus, Ohio 43205-1796 (614) 466-2613