10
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE January 12, 2001
eveningsout
Platonic or erotic, these books fit the bill
Bridge Across the Ocean
by Randy Boyd
West Beach Books,
$12.95/Trade paper
Chasing Danny Boy: powerful stories of celtic eros
Edited by Mark Hemry
Palm Drive Publishing $14.95 trade paper
Reviewed by Anthony Glassman
Two interesting books aimed at gay men approach matters from opposite angles. The first is completely chaste, dealing with the platonic friendship between a black gay man and two white teens. The other is a collection of erotic stories with a Celtic spin.
Randy Boyd wrote an incredibly wellreceived first novel, Uprising. It was a political thriller nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards. Bridge Across the Ocean is no Uprising.
It is, however, a nice story.
A black, gay, HIV+ man in his mid-twenties goes to Cancun to get away from it all and prepare for his new life as a professional artist. There, he meets two white teenagers, brothers, with whom he becomes friends. There is a certain tension between Derek, the man, and Rob, the 16-year old and elder of the brothers. Rob is gorgeous, and sweet. His little brother Skeeter, turning 14, is also an attractive and kind kid, but the sparks are flying with the older boy. Through their friendship, all three learn about life.
Heard it before.
Randy Boyd
After the Mexican vacation, which takes up the majority of the book, despite the best efforts and intentions of most of those involved, they almost, but not quite, lose touch.
Heard that before, too. Lived that, in fact. Eventually, they all get back together and everyone is basically happy with who they are.
How sweet.
Once again, the adage "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" springs al-
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most unbidden to mind. Boyd tries with this book. He really does. One of the problems is that the whole thing reads almost like a psychotic version of one of those Scholastic books you could order in school when you were young. It seems as though Boyd is, well, dumbing down the book, as if he wanted to take it in one direction, and then decided not to.
Another problem is the creepy quasipedophile vibe in this novel. Almost everyone develops a crush on someone who is too young at one point or another; having an entire novel dedicated to it is just a little too much. It's like the weird feelings spawned by the relationship between Sean Patrick Flanery and Jeff Goldblum in Powder, the movie about the albino kid with weird powers. There isn't really anything going on, but it still makes you feel strange, like maybe there is, but nobody is talking about it. It's hard to pinpoint, but you get the feeling that Derek might be a little more pitiful than he should be for the book to work properly.
Perhaps this is all a bit harsh. It's not a bad book. The biggest problem is that, for a follow-up to a multiple-award-nominated book, it's not quite up to snuff. Perhaps the blame can be laid on the sophomore jinx. Maybe Boyd is better with suspense than with melodrama. Maybe the reviewer just didn't quite see the appeal in the relationship between an adult and two emotionally needy children. Blame it on spending too much time babysitting.
To be fair, perhaps the book should be rated. How about a letter grade, in honor of the teens in the book? C+. It's not nearly as whiny or self-absorbed as a lot of gay fiction, nor is it as angry as, say, Larry Kramer's work.
Perhaps this book would best be served by labeling it a "must-read for gay adolescents." If it seemed a little young to someone in their mid-twenties who bypassed teen fiction totally, perhaps it would be good fiction for teens. In fact, that sounds like a remarkably good idea. Put the book into the hands of those who would most benefit from its lessons: gay or straight, everyone needs acceptance; acceptance best comes from within; and openness and honesty usually win out in the end.
And hey, it's got a really cool cover. As for the second book, there is nothing quite like reading an anthology. A slew of stories, a bevy of writers, no two exactly the same, it's hard to get bored when every ten pages or so there's something completely new to read.
Of course, that's not always a good thing. Sometimes you're reading a really great story, and then it ends and the next tale leaves you wishing the last hadn't stopped.
Chasing Danny Boy: powerful stories of celtic eros exemplifies both views of the modern anthology. One the one hand, every story is different from the last. There's something new lurking every few pages, a surprise to be discovered. Sometimes, however, the surprise that you discover is that the next story is not as good as the last. This was rarely the case with this book; only a couple of the 17 stories were less than amusing. P-P Hartnett's Dublin Sunday was actually rather disturbing, definitely not for those with extremely visual imaginations. The highlights of the collection are much easier to pick out than the disappointments.
chasing
Nell Jordan.
powerful stories of celtic eros
Over Wine, The Crying Game Jack Fritscher, Wine, fast Fiction
Lawrence W. Cloake's Bike Boy:Transporting made fascinating use of changes in firstand third-person narrative, changing voice shortly after the beginning. of the story. The tale itself is bizarre, almost reminiscent of a cross between the movies The Lost Boys and The Wild One.
The crown jewel of the collection, though, is Last Rites, written by Neil Jordan, best known as the Oscar-winning writer and director of The Crying Game. Unlike the majority of the other stories in this volume, which emphasize the "eros" in the subtitle, Jordan's Rites is almost completely chaste, despite the fact that it takes place in a public bathing facility. Jordan has made a name for himself directing movies with strong themes of sexual confusion and angst; he also writes most of the stories for his movies. Reading this piece, it's not difficult to recognize the mind that produced The Crying Game and Mona Lisa, who brought Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire to the screen. There is no happiness, no joy in this story, but it is, either because of this or in spite of this, which makes this story the most real.
That is also one of the problems with this book. A number of the stories repeat a similar theme of yearning young gay man gets to bed his secret desire. Not to sound unromantic, but YAWN. It's a tale that gets more play than a regulation basketball during the WNBA finals. Sick of it.
Another complaint with the book regards the history of the Irish people. Mel Gibson gave us a three-hour epic based on five years of Scottish history, but this book only has one story that takes place before the turn of the century. The Celts have been raising heck since the Roman Empire was running rampant, and this is all we get? One story about a horny, post-adolescent chieftain getting his jollies hacking and slashing his way through the enemy? Give us a break.
All in all, this is a fairly minor complaint given the number of stories in here. Even the stories that weren't great certainly weren't bad; a little trite, perhaps, but nothing legitimately bad. If you have any interest in contemporary Irish culture, grab this book. If you like Neil Jordan, grab this book. If you want an in-depth study of the history of gay and lesbian aesthetics, wrong book. But Chasing Danny Boy is fun, and occasionally quite arousing. Buy it.
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