Saturday, December 04, 2004
THE READING ROOM
Books, Recommended or Otherwise
I should try harder, I think. I want to find gay fiction that I can enjoy, but it’s incredibly difficult to find, that despite the community’s reputation for exceptional creativity. And so I try, not very often I admit, maybe every three or four years, to find novelists I can appreciate, watch grow, and grow with, an effort that is always disappointing.
No, I think. They, authors of gay fiction and their editors, should try harder.
That thought returned to me this week after having picked up four recent or fairly recent novels at the Free Library of Philadelphia, not one of which I would recommend to readers.
I ask, again, how many coming-out novels are we supposed to read? The coming-out genre was tired 20 years ago. Why editors continue to solicit and publish such tiresome, and ultimately stereotypically narcissistic expositions is beyond me. Don’t gay men have lives after coming out? Of course they do, as the authors cited below attempt with varying degrees of success to demonstrate. But the lives constructed in these novels are little more than clichés, with flat characters, banal plotlines, tedious cultural observations, and predictable denouements. Sadly, the four novels listed below, on which I wasted far too much time, are entirely characteristic of the offerings of the past several years.
It's sort of like reading Andrew Sullivan. Actually, it's very much like that. One does it, thinking there might be some there there, only to find the opposite is the case and to wonder, in frustration, why the mainstream media is all too happy to stick with its "reliable" sources, no matter how out of touch with reality they really are.
The Beauty of Men
Andrew Holleran
New York: William Morrow & Co. Inc., June 1, 1996
Rittenhouse Rating: Not Recommended
The Spell
Alan Holinghurst
New York: Viking Penguin/Penguin Putnam Inc., April 1, 1999
Rittenhouse Rating: Not Recommended
Where the Boys Are
William J. Mann
New York: Kensington Books, May 1, 2003
Rittenhouse Rating: Not Recommended
The Year of Ice
Brian Malloy
New York: St. Martin’s Press, July 1, 2002
Rittenhouse Rating: Not Recommended
Speaking of books and book-buying and acquiring all sorts of other material goods, you can help Rittenhouse by doing some of your Christmas shopping at Amazon.com. By clicking here and proceeding with your shopping, Rittenhouse will receive a modest cut of your pretax total. Your participation and support are greatly appreciated.
(Rittenhouse Reading-Room Ratings: Must Reading, Very Highly Recommended, Highly Recommended, Recommended, Not Recommended.)
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JAMES MARTIN CAPOZZOLA
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James Martin (Jim) Capozzola launched The Rittenhouse Review in April 2002, TRR: The Lighter Side of Rittenhouse, HorowitzWatch, and Smarter Andrew Sullivan in July 2002, and Bulldogs for Kerry-Edwards in October 2004. He is also a contributing member of President Boxer.
He received the 2002 Koufax Award for Best Post> for "Al Gore and the Alpha Girls" (published November 25, 2002). Capozzola's record in the Koufax Awards includes two additional nominations for 2002 (Best Blog and Best Writing), three nominations for 2003 (Best Blog, Best Series, and Best Writing), and two finalist nominations in 2004 (Best Blog and Best Writing).
Capozzola’s experience beyond the blogosphere includes a lengthy career in financial journalism, securities analysis, and investment research, and in freelance writing, editing, ghost-writing, and writing instruction.
He earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the University at Albany and a master's in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.
Capozzola lives in Philadelphia with his bulldog, Mildred.
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