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Out on the Shelf | Queer Book Reviews
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Out on the Shelf | Queer Book Reviews 2007
Stain of the Berry - A Russell Quant Mystery By Anthony Bidulka.
(Insomniac Press 2006) Reviewed By Don Quixote. Everyone has their Boogeyman.
But who — or what — is scaring Saskatoon locals to death?
Private gay detective Russell Quant is roused from sleep only to fall
into a nightmare case when the family of a suicide victim hires him
to uncover the real cause of death. But what is real and what is imaginary?
Quant works to narrow his list of suspects only to find the number of victims growing. Russell is mystified as the trail of fear connects him to a vast landscape of people, including an elegant potash miner, dubious trailer park denizens, reticent farm folk, the Pink Gopher choir, and a gaseous psychiatrist.
Compounding Quant's bewilderment is the complete and perfect disappearance of his once very real friend, Sereena, who has become a ghost he simply can't find. With the Boogeyman always a few paces ahead, Russell struggles to keep the hounds of failure from baying. Travelling from Saskatchewan's summer storms to the menacing Lotus Land of Vancouver, he finally touches down in the Canadian Arctic, where tragic hope resides. Russell returns home to bully attacks, a desperate chase through midnight woods, and a sadistic abduction. As Quant penetrates the truth of the Boogeyman, he finds himself on a perilous suspension bridge between idyllic childhood and grown-up violence.
It would be better if the reader buys the first book in this series. In Stain of the Berry, Quant meets his long lost Father, which carried on for several chapters, which completely through me off the trail of Quant's adventure hunting, for the Boogeyman. Bidulka is no Joseph Hanson, when it comes to writing gay detective novels. Bidulka is all over map, with side bar chapters. I would take Hanson over Bidulka any day. But Hanson died in 2004. Hansen wrote nearly 40 books in a variety of genres, but was best known for his Dave Brandstetter mystery novels (starting with Fadeout in 1970).
Stain of the Berry 2006, published by: www.insomniacpress.com Contact Mike O'Connor 416-504-6270 mike@insomniacpress.com Canada $21.95 and US $16.95. Bidulka's Website: www.anthonybidulka.com
A Haunting Read - Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman (The
Haworth Press, 2007). Reviewed by Jean Roberta. A good novel
about teenagers is hard to find. The ones written by precocious teenage
authors are likely to seem raw around the edges, and the ones written
by adults are likely to sound patronizing or formula-driven. Vintage
is that rare thing, an interesting novel about teenagers as complex
human beings with emotional depth and an awareness of their place in
history. These kids are all right, Goth style and all.
The seventeen-year-old male narrator knows that his parents would never accept his sexual orientation (gay), which is why he lives with his Aunt Jan, who is generous and accepting but a terrible cook. His best friend, a girl named Trace, lives with her distracted father and younger brother, Second Mike, in a house that seems to be haunted by an older son, the first Mike, who disappeared years before, sending the mother of the family into a downward spiral that led her to the mental hospital where she has lived for years. Liz, a lesbian friend, has rich parents who are rarely home; they work long hours and travel without their daughter. These kids are virtual orphans, but they are refreshingly free of self-pity. The understated narrative style brings the reader into their lives without drama.
The novel is organized like a diary, in which each chapter is named for a day of the week. The reader follows the narrator, learning that his time with friends (especially with Trace, whom he admires for her grace and style) is the high point of an average day.
The narrator has temporarily dropped out of high school and found an undemanding job as assistant to an eccentric man who runs a vintage clothing store. In some sense, the narrator has dropped out of time after a failed suicide attempt. He agrees with Aunt Jan's opinion that he needs a GED, but he has no desire to return to the conformist torture of high school. For the meanwhile, he is drawn to the funerals of people he never knew and to the clothing styles of forty years before (the late 1950s), which he can always borrow from the shop where he works.
The narrator's personal brush with death, his attraction to other boys and his interest in the past seem to open the veil between the worlds which normally seems to prevent contact between the dead and the living. A high school athlete in vintage clothes, with poster-quality good looks, appears on a lonely stretch of highway and speaks to the narrator. Will this brief meeting lead to a too-good-to-be-true relationship between a popular guy and a geek?
The narrator asks Trace what she knows, and he learns the history of the handsome boy, Josh, who seems to be stuck in an eternal purgatory of walking home, night after night, without ever reaching his destination. With appealing modesty, the narrator wonders why Josh would be attracted to him. He only asks later whether it is fatal for a live mortal to be sexually attracted to a ghost.
For better and worse, other people and events demand the narrator's attention. His increasing knowledge of the circumstances that led Josh to walk down the highway night after night makes him aware of how the past has influenced the present. His ability to communicate with the dead leads to a terrifying but enlightening evening in the local cemetery, and to a determination to help First Mike and the rest of his family learn what happened to him and come to terms with it.
The narrator is amazed to realize that he is not only wanted by a ghost but by a live boy as well. After a cuddly but chaste night with a guest in his bed, the narrator creeps down the hall to find out if his aunt is home. He returns to a surprise:
I found him already dressed and smoothing the folded covers. I stood in the doorway, blinking at the sight. He had made my bed. He had made my bed! I think that was the first time that had ever been done--I mean, no matter where I lived, the bed simply stayed perpetually slept in.
The narrator is becoming aware of what it would be like to live--in every sense of the word--with someone who cares for him. This awareness helps him decide what to do. By the time the conflict between life (change) and death (stagnation) reaches its highest point, the reader is cheering for the narrator and his developing relationships with other live people.
By the conclusion, the narrator seems to be headed toward a relatively happy future, but he can never forget the presence of something beyond the visible present. His boyfriend tells him:
"I love your costume." He took a sip of his hot chocolate. I looked down at myself. I wore my normal basic black. I gave him a quizzical look."Just you, silly." I smiled and leaned in real close, so close that my lips brushed against his ear. "I love you back," I said softly. I hoped he was the only one who heard me.
The world of this novel has the charm and unpredictability of real life. Be warned: this story will haunt you for much longer than it takes to read. ( About Book Reviewer Jean Roberta)
(Press
Release: rennacommunications.com, 55 Washington St Suite 656, Brooklyn,
NY 11201) American Psychiatry and Homosexuality: An Oral History
(The Haworth Press, 2007) Edited by Jack Drescher, MD Training and Supervising
Analyst, William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Institute, New York, New
York, Joseph P. Merlino, MD, MPA Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Number of Pages: 19 chapters. Xxiv + 302
pp. With Index. Publish 2007
Interviews and first-hand accounts of an historic decision that affected the mental health profession—and American society and culture
Through the personal accounts of those who were there, American Psychiatry and Homosexuality: An Oral History examines the 1973 decision by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from its diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM). This unique book includes candid, one-on-one interviews with key mental health professionals who played a role in the APA’s decision, those who helped organize gay, lesbian, and bisexual psychiatrists after the decision, and others who have made significant contributions in this area within the mental health field.
American Psychiatry and Homosexuality presents an insider’s view of how homosexuality was removed from the DSM, the gradual organization of gay and lesbian psychiatrists within the APA, and the eventual formation of the APA-allied Association of Gay & Lesbian Psychiatrists (AGLP). The book profiles 17 individuals, both straight and gay, who made important contributions to organized psychiatry and the mental health needs of lesbian and gay patients, and illustrates the role that gay and lesbian psychiatrists would later play in the mental health field when they no longer had to hide their identities.
American Psychiatry and Homosexuality presents the personal, behind-the-scenes accounts of a major historical event in psychiatry and medicine and of a decision that has affected society and culture ever since. This is an essential resource for mental health educators, supervisors, and professionals; historians; and LGBT readers in general. 7 Book Available at Glad Day Bookshop 598A Yonge St., Toronto, Ont., M4Y 1Z3 phone: 416.961.4161; fax: 416.961.1624 Hours: M-W 10-6:30, Th-Fr 10-9, Sa 10-7, Su 12-6 www.gladdaybookshop.com
