GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE APRIL 8, 1994

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BOOKS

Queer plot twists make this gothic quite readable

The Living One

by Lewis Gannett

Plume trade paperback, $10.95

Reviewed by Timothy Robson

This first novel by Lewis Gannett will inevitably be compared to the works of Anne Rice and Stephen King. Comparisons to those well-established authors do not do justice to the strikingly original premise of this book. Although the broad outline of the story bears resemblance to a standard gothic-ESP, a old house with many secrets, body-snatching, a family curse dating back to the Crusades-what sets this book apart is its development of the central character upon whom the action hinges.

Torrance Spoor, a California teen, receives a letter from his estranged father, Baron Malcolm Spoor, in which the Baron describes a 700-year-old curse on the family. Each male forebear is doomed to die by his own hand before the age of fifty. Over the objections of his mother, Torrance is returned to his fabulously wealthy father's New England mansion to spend the last few months of his father's life and ultimately to receive his inheritance. Things are not what they should be in this massively dysfunctional family. The Baron rants in his private rooms; a pack of huge red-eyed dogs kills trespassers; and an odd odor of roses per-

meates the estate. Torrance soon discovers that his every move is watched and recorded by secret cameras connected to his father's video room. Baron Spoor repeatedly tells Torrance that not only will he inherit the wealth, but he will also inherit the curse, to be passed on in due time to Torrance's own son. The only problem, which Torrance discovers during the course of the story, is that Torrance is gay. Torrance turns to his creative writing teacher Sheila Massif for help, who is in turn manipulated by her ex-lover Duane, as the object of psychic research.

The story is told not in straightforward narrative, but through a series of diary entries, cassette tape transcriptions, letters, and notes, all "edited" to create a compelling story told intimately from a variety of points of view. This is not a "gay book," but Torrance's homosexuality is the catalyst for the story. There is nothing odd or repellent about his gayness; he revels in his teenage sexual encounters. It is his mother's disgust when she discovers that he is gay which is repugnant.

The Living One is engrossing, a pageturner in a classic genre with several original and queer (pun intended) plot twists. Anne Rice may not have to give up her place in the Gothic pantheon, but let's hear more from Lewis Gannett.

Story of screwed-up people is a hell of a novel

Try

by Dennis Cooper

Reviewed by Brent Wilder

Dennis Cooper's Try is a vile tale of sexual confusion and perversion, calculated to offend the most seasoned reader of Generation X fiction.

It's also a hell of a novel. Rather than writing in the whiny twenty-something vein, Cooper goes a few years younger with a story that examines how modern socialization can twist young culture into a tangled, dysfunctional mess.

The point Cooper seems to be making throughout Try is that screwed-up people create screwed-up people. Ziggy, the adopted son of two gay men, has been abused by one and propositioned by the other. He is in love with his best friend Calhoun, a heroin addict, and puts out a 'zine on sexual abuse.

An over-psychoanalyzed teen who worships Hüsker Du, Ziggy isn't the only character in Try with problems. Cooper has assembled a cast with enough idiosyncra-

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sies to fill several talk shows, if they could just make it past the censors.

First, there's the dads from hell category. Ziggy's dads are the kings of sleaze. In the course of the novel, Brice beats the crap out of Ziggy and Roger rims him. Parenting is not a priority for these guys: Roger split soon after Ziggy was adopted and, well, who knows where Brice is when Ziggy is smoking pot and skipping school.

Then there's the problem of Ziggy's "Uncle" Ken, a porn producer who used a (much) younger Ziggy in his videos. Ken, it seems, has a fetish for jailbait and manages to drug Robin, a heavy metal kid, into participating in one of his productions. In his description of Robin's eventual overdose death, Cooper creates the equivalent of a written snuff film that is not for the tender-hearted.

Ziggy's friends aren't exactly heartwarming either. Aside from Calhoun the addict, his immediate circle is rounded out by Annie the drug dealer, Cricket the transvestite and Nichole the uh, normal one. Annie sells him heroin, Cricket joins a threeway with Ziggy and Roger, and Nicole seems to be a tiny piece of normality thrown in for reference. Oh, and Ziggy sleeps with her too.

Ziggy is confused, among other areas, with his feelings for Calhoun. Calhoun is redemption is Ziggy's eyes; Ziggy knows he loves him but doesn't know whether he wants to sleep with him. He's also not sure of Calhoun's sexuality (which is almost nil thanks to the drugs) or how Calhoun feels about the relationship. These are complicated problems for a boy not old enough to

vote.

On a positive note... sorry, Try contains no redeeming factors or happy endings. It's pretty hard to even find a plot.

But Try has hard-hitting impact as slacker fiction with appeal to anyone who can read it without putting it down in disgust. Cooper is rude, sure, but he hits hot-button emotions that raise consciousness every time.