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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JANUARY 24, 1997
BOOKS
Small-town gay life is setting for murder mystery thriller
The Bread of Wickedness
by Gary Pool
Brownwell & Carroll, $12.95
Reviewed by Nels P. Highberg
Not many novels with gay and lesbian characters take place in the Midwest, and not many gay and lesbian characters are over fifty. Gary Pool, who lives in Bloomington, Indiana, has created such a work in The Bread of Wickedness. With this, his first novel, Pool explores smalltown life and the ways gays and lesbians must
Gary Pool
act if they want to survive.
The novel
focuses on Sam Dalton, a 59year-old man who's lived in Sycamore Bluffs his entire life, except for a short stint in the Navy. Sam is remembered and admired for his football prowess in high school more than
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forty years earlier, though several townspeople consider him to be a little strange since he rarely ventures into town, and has never married. Still, most people in Sycamore Bluffs admire Sam for his football success and hardworking nature. As one character puts it early in the novel, “Nobody can say a word against Sam Dalton, that's certain."
But that changes when a five-year-old boy is found brutally murdered. This is the crux of the story, though it takes a while to get to this point. After the murder, people's actions progress towards greater violence, despite concrete evidence that might vindicate Sam.
The novel focuses intently on its characters, and these characters are not as developed as they could be. At times, Sam seems a little too good. He's handsome, well-built, thrifty, hardworking, caring. He appears somewhat as an aging Boy Scout, and this is especially true when he is compared to different gay characters. Other gay men in the novel are downright mean. It's understandable how fear has driven these men into hiding, but they often come across a little too neatly as Sam's opposite, as selfish, uncaring gay men. The novel's heterosexual characters also tend to fall into binaries and can
EVENINGS OUT
easily be categorized as good or bad.
However, the violence in the novel remains gripping. Reading what happens on this witch-hunt for the boy's killer brings out feelings of terror. What happens to Sam should not happen to anyone, and Pool makes that point well.
Being gay or lesbian in a small town is not easy. Living in that small town in the 1940s and 50s makes life more difficult. These are stories that must be told. Pool's novel moves the focus away from urban centers like New York City, and points in a direction that literature needs to find. V
Chip Walker is new Mr. Ohio Valley Leather
by Dawn Leach
Columbus-Boytoy Productions named Chip Walker, of Louisville, Kentucky, the new Mr. Ohio Valley Leather on January 18.
Seven men spent the weekend of January 17 and 18 working to earn the right to represent Boytoy and the Ohio Valley in the annual International Mr. Leather contest in Chicago this year. Judges struggled to choose between the candidates, who were by all accounts the best group out of the three years that Boytoy Productions has held the Ohio Valley contest.
Walker emerged victorious by a slim margin, proudly wearing his leather sash that proclaims "Mr. Ohio Valley Leather '97." He walked away with a trophy, a medal, a round
trip ticket to Chicago and five nights of free accommodations to compete in the International Mr. Leather contest
"Obviously, winning something like this is fairly good for the ego," said Walker, "but the most important thing, the thing that makes it feel most good is the fact that a group of people that I respect very much put enough faith in me that they feel that I would be a good representative of the community.”
The judges for the contest were a heavily decorated group: International Mr. Leather 1996 Joe Gallagher, Mr. Leatherman Toronto '96 Duncan MacLachlan, Mr. Ohio Valley Leather '96 Jim Bowling, Mr. Indiana Leather '96 Jim Ellison, Mr. Ohio Valley Leather '95 Ron Ankney, Ms. All Ohio Leather '94 Athena
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Lyons, and former Mr. Ohio Leather Steve Boger.
Judges said that they were impressed with all of the contestants this year and had a difficult time choosing a winner. Jerry Leigh of Columbus was first runner-up, followed by Paul Froehlich, also of Columbus.
"I do believe that the people that were in this contest knew what it would take to represent the community, and that it goes beyond the title," said Lyons.
Each year's contest winner is expected to participate in three charitable fundraisers during the year, and to act as a representative of the leather community to the outside world.
"It will be his responsibility to spread the word about safe, sane and consensual SM, help with the political wheel, to try to change the exclusion of leather," said Lyons. "Chip seemed to do that, and all the other contestants as well."
Froehlich's spouse Mark Campbell said that the contest is also a celebration of the leather community and an opportunity to provide visibility.
"There's always been this mystique about the leather community that people are afraid of. The contest takes away some of the mystery and fears that people have," Campbell said. “In our regular everyday lives, we're like everybody else. We're doctors, we're lawyers, nurses and teachers, professionals, but then at night or in our free time, leather is a part of what we do." Campbell said that while most of the more than 400 people who came to see the contest were leather people, a number of people came as supportive friends and curious onlookers. Walker said the contest gave him an opportunity to share a part of his life with friends who do not have a leather lifestyle.
"A lot of friends of ours came up to the contest from Louisville and said, 'I didn't know what this is all about.' They found it intriguing, interesting,” said Walker. “So at least now they're thinking: This is okay."
Walker said that he is looking forward to exposing Louisville to a sense of what he means by "leather community."
"We are a brotherhood, sisterhood: a family," he said. "That's what the leather community is to me. It offers me a sense of identity. belonging, brotherhood."
Walker also expressed enthusiasm for his new responsibilities as Mr. Ohio Valley Leather '97. "I feel like I lead a fantasy life: a wonderful carcer, I have a wonderful man in my life who loves me very much,” he said. “We lead the American dream. I feel like I'm needing to give a whole lot more back."
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