The French Connection Press' literary journal series Van Gogh's Ear has reached its culmination with #7, "one for every day of the week," said founding editor Eric Ellena last night at 192 Books. This final issue, guest edited by Felice Picano, explores what they loosely call the supernatural, and features work from 41 writers including Andrew Holleran, Edmund White, Perry Brass, and Trebor Healy. Full list and order info here.
Andrew Holleran read two parts of an instantly compelling story called "Second Breakfast" about a gay man's obsessive dislike of his overweight neighbor ("That's what you have to do to keep 400 pounds on your frame, eat a whole pound cake in the afternoon." "..something totemic about her...[like] the queen of a tribe that equates weight with wealth.") In the end her realizes he's more similar to her than he realizes, absurdly "closeted" though everyone in their town knows he's gay.
Edmund White read most of the first chapter of his new novel Jack Holmes and His Friend, coming in January 2012. White says, except for Michael Chabon, it's first time a novel has examined the common occurrence of friendship between a gay man and a straight man. Set at a boys boarding school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in the 1950s, the opening scenes show the Midwestern, blond Jack who "didn't like complexity" to have a "stomach as hard as turtle shell" and use "Breck shampoo, even though he knew it was for girls." Girls, whom he never tries to get very far with. Girls, who might spend a fruitless semester living with a family in France in hopes of perfecting their French, only to quiz each other on the boat home, "How's your r?" Teaming with perfect details and White's signature word play (rich Detroit boys are "sons of the automobility," his Jewish best friend mocks his "waspanality,") the first chapter suggests another hit, following White's great short novel Hotel de Dream.
Felice Picano read the opening chapter of his next novel, Ravenglass, set in London in the 1840s-80s. The crowd was spellbound by a girl's visit to a rich neighbor in hopes of securing patronage for her smart but poor brother. She gets two surprises: petting a tarantula and the promise of patronage for her own education. A winning crowd-pleaser.
Hey, that's funny -- my forthcoming novel THE METROPOLIS CASE also features a friendship between a gay man and a straight man who meet at a boarding school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Posted by: Matthew Gallaway | November 03, 2010 at 06:42 PM