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Book Marks

By Richard Labonte

"The Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father," by Augusten Burroughs. St. Martin's Press, 256 pages, $24.95 hardcover.
Once again, Burroughs is mining his life for another memoir. How many lives has he lived, anyway? This time, however, he's not playing his past for laughs. "Running with Scissors" wryly (and with apparent exaggeration) recounted his hilariously improbable childhood; with self-deprecating wit, "Dry" told of his days as an alcoholic advertising prodigy. The story here is more somber: it's about a troubled child's problematic relationship with his aloof, abusive father, a demanding man whose affection young Augusten sought with a desperate sycophancy, but never received. Some scenes overlap with "Running," particularly when the author's pill-popping mother makes a cameo. But this volume focuses emphatically on the brutality of a brooding, often drunk dad who meted out harsh spankings and harsher verbal put-downs with – at least in this retelling – sadistic enthusiasm. It wasn't until he suspected his father killed a beloved guinea pig, Burroughs writes, that he stopped trying to be a son his father might love. This stark memoir suggests that the boy's – and now the man's – yearning for a father's affection never really went away.

"Thinking Straight," by Robin Reardon. Kensington Books, 304 pages, $15 paper.
Taylor's parents aren't at all happy their teenage son is glad to be gay – and already has a lover. They consign him to Straight to God, a born-again-Christian camp that deprograms kids who have succumbed to "sins" – drug use, promiscuity, theft, being queer. The regime is harsh, verging on abusive, with hours of enforced prayer, mandatory "moral inventories," a suffocating lack of privacy, and severe punishment for speaking during imposed silences. It's a cliche these days that those who claim to cure sinners are often sinners themselves; Reardon's novel about un-Christian Christians fits that mold, as enterprising Taylor uncovers a pedophile priest who is way less than straight – a revelation that shakes the nightmarish institution's moralistic foundation. Long stretches where the kids dissect Bible passages slow the pace, but Reardon's vivid depiction of evangelical self-righteousness is adequate compensation. And in a direct challenge to fundamentalist homophobes, it's a nice touch that Taylor reconciles his religious beliefs with his love for another teen. The sweet moral: it's okay to be Christian and queer.

"My Miserable, Lonely, Lesbian Pregnancy," by Andrea Askowitz. Cleis Press, 248 pages, $14.95 paper.
Lesbian? No doubt (though there is that one evening with a sexy man and an after-dinner massage). Lonely and miserable? Think hyperbole – exaggeration not intended to deceive. In this memoir about "40 weeks and five days in hell," Askowitz milks self-professed misery over her pregnancy for captivating comic effect. The ordeals of becoming a single mother – finding the sperm, inserting the stuff, morning (and afternoon and night) sickness, mommy yoga classes, week after dateless week, and finally painful, joyous labor – are chronicled in a diary that's by turns whiny, bitchy, cranky, self-pitying, and hilariously honest. Despite self-doubt that threatens to overwhelm, recounted with unsparing candor, Askowitz turns out to have a real affinity for motherhood – no surprise, since until well into her pregnancy she ran Bike Out, a program to instill self-esteem in queer inner-city kids. Though pregnancy is the main focus, Askowitz weaves another misery through her story: the ex-lover she can't get out of her mind and wants back in her bed, to no avail. But baby makes for a happy twosome.

"Me2," by M. Christian. Alyson Books, 248 pages, $14.95 paper.
For readers familiar only with Christian's rousing erotic short fiction, this horror-tinged fable about the foibles of queer identity may come as a welcome literary surprise. There's no sex, and there's really only one gay character, the narrator. Actually, there are multiple gay characters, but they're all the same fellow, which is where the one-of-a-kind craft of this delicious novel comes into play. When first met, he's a quintessentially stylish queer "boy of summer" – blond hair, clear skin, good looks, just the right amount of muscle, endowed within reason, with a honed fashion sense, an Ikea-furnished apartment, and a sensibly sporty car. He revels in a self-satisfied life of conspicuously consumptive consumerism, fueled by a day job as a Starbucks barista slacker. All is good. Until other boys of summer start to take over the narrator's world, befriending his friends, rearranging his apartment, living his life. Being him. Evil twins? Doppelgangers? Creepy figments of the imagination? Christian never explains, which is why this horrific, terrific novel manifests quirky dread so well.

Featured Excerpt:

I wanted Will so badly! I wanted to hold him, to have him touch my face and smile his magical smile, and laugh gently and tell me that almost nothing is ever as bad as it seems. I wanted to hear his voice, to fill my hands with his hair and my mouth with his dick. I wanted all of him, no separation. I wanted his touch, his voice, his scent, his taste, and most of all I wanted his love. It was a real love. A love for me, Ty – his special name for me – the real me. Not a love for some kid named Tyler who had to be trained to leave this huge part of who he is in the gutter someplace.

-from "Thinking Straight," by Robin Reardon

Footnotes:

Alyson Books, which published about 50 queer titles in the past year, has been sold for the fourth time since being founded in 1980 by eponymous publisher Sasha Alyson. Here! – a gay and lesbian TV network whose programming includes the sexy soap opera "Dante's Cove," "John Waters Presents," and original movies based on Richard Stevenson's gay mystery novels – signed a letter of intent in April with PlanetOut (which has posted large losses in recent months) for the sale, which includes two magazines, "The Advocate" and "Out." PlanetOut acquired Alyson and the magazines in 2005, when it bought LPI (once known as Liberation Publications) to establish itself as the country's prime queer-media conglomerate; LPI bought Alyson from its founder a decade earlier, in 1995. Here! is paying $6 million for the print business and associated websites, but will recoup the investment in the next year in the form of prepaid advertising on PlanetOut and Gay.com for its programs. In a sign of troubled financial times, Alyson Books laid off its senior editor, Joseph Pittman, earlier this year.

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