10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE July 13, 20011
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Celebrating a gay man's quest for fatherhood
Endangered Species by Louis Bayard
Alyson Publications, $13.95
Reviewed by Kaizaad Kotwal
Louis Bayard's sophomore outing as a novelist is as endearing, funny and great to read as his debut novel Fool's Errand. In Endangered Species, Bayard takes the reader on a voyage through the world of gay parenting, gay adoptions and gay families.
Studies indicate that the traditional, twoparent (heterosexual) nuclear family, is now
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in the minority across America. Brave new models of parenting-some successful, others disastrous--are forged every day, and gay men and lesbians are laying a stake to that claim as well. In a further drive toward greater equality, gays and lesbians are using marriage, adoption and families as a way of negotiating that elusive utopia.
Bayard's book is fresh, insightful and a funny romp through the world of finding one variation on that crazy notion called "family." But like Bayard's previous outing as an author, Endangered Species provides many a moving and poignant situation.
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This time around, Bayard's protagonist is Nick Broome, a 34-year-old gay male obsessed with the notion that his family is on the verge of extinction. Bayard writes superbly about the minutiae of human obsessions, and here he is in top form.
Nick is the youngest of the Broome brood, and in order to save his family from extinction, he vows to bring a child into the world by any means necessary. Of course, for a gay man there are unique challenges.
Bayard, a native of Washington, D.C., writes about a world that is not Chelsea, Fire Island, San Francisco or the cir-
cuit party milieu.
His gay geography is Middle America, a world
in which gay people blend
into the surroundings and fit into an urban landscape that is diverse, yet not terribly balkanized.
Nick Broome starts his quest by trying to be a sperm donor and having a child who is biologically connected to him by DNA. But his quest to pass on his genes is futile, funny and ferociously fraught with obstacles. His route to find a surrogate mother is equally dismal. In the end, Broome settles for adoption.
Bayard's world, spun around Broome's quirky quest, is littered with colorful and crazy characters from schizophrenics, Hispanics and body-pierced teenagers to female escorts, a God-fearing phlebotomist, an itinerant matchmaker and other characters.
Like a game governed by the unruliness of chaos theory, somehow all these disparate characters and incongruous events lead
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Broome toward parental and partnered bliss. Accidental meetings and chance happenings find fruition in Broome's world, but not before leading to a series of oddball situations and a myriad of pesky plot twists. Broome, as portrayed by Bayard, is an extremely likable character, obsessive as he may be. Bayard writes his characters with a lot of love and understanding, never allowing us to laugh at them, crazy as they sometimes get. Endangered Species does have its darker moments, but they never overwhelm the fast-paced, ironic and funny shenanigans of the story.
Bayard has obviously done a lot of research, and his details ring true on every page. While Nick Broome is on his quest for his offspring he also, albeit serendipitously, runs into the love of his life. The love story embedded in this tale of genetic gamesmanship is tender and terrific, making one root for the love to work out and last.
(Bayard and his long-time partner recently adopted a baby from Vietnam, a boy named Seth.)
Endangered Species promises to thrill as much as it vows to touch something primal within us all the urge not to become extinct.
As gay men and lesbians find different ways to foster pride via the families they create, Endangered Species is a great reminder that the road to that place is not easy, but the rewards are plentiful and the journey is ultimately fruitful. No one said that the stork that brings the baby doesn't leave droppings along the way.
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