Mann’s party boys make a sexy first impression but prove surprisingly deep upon further inspection. The same goes for Where...
Against a background of sweaty bodies, fierce divas, and the drug-induced lust of gay circuit parties, former lovers struggle to reconnect.
Picking up where The Men From the Boys (1997) left off, Mann brings thirtysomethings Jeff O’Brien and Lloyd Griffith back together years after their relationship fell apart and their best friend and mentor Javitz died of AIDS. Jeff and Lloyd have traveled divergent paths in the meantime. Jeff, living in Boston, has become obsessed with working out, casual sex, drug use, and circuit parties where he can meet thousands of beautiful, shirtless gym bunnies on the dance floor. Lloyd, living in Provincetown, has found his spiritual side, remained celibate, and eschewed the narcissistic adventures his ex-lover has embraced. Despite these differences, when the two come together, old flames are rekindled and the men start to rebuild what they’ve lost. Complicating matters, though, is a web of secondary characters who keep interfering. Jeff has a circle of friends—including nebbish-turned-stud Henry, who looks up to Jeff the way Jeff once looked up to Javitz—who don’t want to see him settle down in domestic bliss. And Lloyd has an unbalanced business partner who’s jealous of Jeff’s intimate bond. Mann weaves this emotional tale deftly, shifting narrators from Jeff to Lloyd to Henry and giving insight into each one’s motivations. Two mysterious characters—Lloyd’s partner Eva and Jeff’s latest infatuation, Anthony—add interest by having secrets that are only gradually revealed. A breezily conversational tone makes for an easy read even as Mann grapples with complex questions facing many gays today: What does family mean? Why is trust so simple among strangers and so difficult between lovers? How can the patterns be broken that paralyze emotional growth?
Mann’s party boys make a sexy first impression but prove surprisingly deep upon further inspection. The same goes for Where the Boys Are.Pub Date: May 6, 2003
ISBN: 0-7582-0326-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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