October 2023 MBR The LGBTQ Fiction Shelf

The LGBTQ Fiction Shelf

Disorderly Men
Edward Cahill
Empire State Editions
c/o Fordham University Press
www.fordhampress.com
9781531504441, $28.95, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Disorderly-Men-Edward-Cahill/dp/1531504442

Synopsis: Roger Moorhouse is a Wall Street banker and Westchester family man with a preciously guarded secret. As the shouting begins and flashlights blaze in his face, the life he's carefully curated over the years (a fancy new office overlooking lower Broadway, a house in Beechmont Woods, his wife and children) is about to come crashing down around him.

Columbia literature professor Julian Prince lives a comparatively uncloseted life when he finds his first committed relationship tested to its limits. How could he explain to Gus, a fearless young artist, that he couldn't stay with him that weekend because the woman who was still technically Julian's fiancee would be visiting? But when Gus is struck unconscious by a police baton, Julian comes out of hiding to protect him, even if exposure means losing everything.

For Danny Duffy, an Irish kid from the Bronx with a sassy mouth and a diverse group of friends, the raid is a galvanizing, Spartacus moment. Danny doesn't have too much left to lose; his family has just disowned him. But once his name appears in the newspaper, he'll be fired from his job at Sloan's Supermarket, where he's risen to assistant manager of produce, and begin a journey that veers between political enlightenment and violent revenge.

The three men find themselves in a police wagon together, their hidden lives threatened to be revealed to the world. Blackmail, a private investigator, Gus's disappearance, and Danny's quest for retribution propel "Disorderly Men" to its piercing conclusion, as each man meets the boundaries of his own fear, love, and shame. The stakes for each are different, but all of them confront a fundamental question: How much happiness is he allowed to have -- and what share of it will he lay claim to?

Critique: The story of three gay men in pre-Stonewall New York City who find their fates thrown together in the police raid of a Village bar, "Disorderly Men" by novelist Edward Cahill will be of special and particular interest to readers in the LGBTQ community. Although a work of fiction, the author has so accurately portrayed the times and events that were to overcome centuries of abuse towards gay men in America and create changes that would go on to cultural and political reforms that would ultimately result in a Supreme Court decision that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry in the eyes of the law. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $27.50), "Disorderly Men" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library LGBTQ literary fiction collections and supplemental LGBTQ demographic & gay history curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Edward Cahill (www.edwardcahill.net) is Professor of English at Fordham University. He is the author of Liberty of the Imagination: Aesthetic Theory, Literary Form, and Politics in the Early United States. Disorderly Men is his first novel.

Aclaracion
Michael Chavez
Flashpoint Publications
https://flashpointpublications.com
9781619294851, $28.95, HC, 270pp

https://www.amazon.com/Aclaracion-Michael-Chavez/dp/1619294850

Synopsis: Since when does a kiss awaken the senses to an explosive human experience? Since when does a kiss reveal a truth so unmistakably?

It's 1972 and twenty year old Neho, an aimless college student who has been abused by his stepfather, attempts to redress the crime but finds himself cast as the perpetrator. The backlash becomes almost unbearable and threatens to put him in jail and destroy his relationship with Martin, the man he deeply loves.

An old creencia (belief) revealed to him by Martin takes hold and slowly changes his life. As he begins his new journey, it becomes clear what he must do. But is it enough?

Critique: Featuring deftly crafted characters and a narrative driven storytelling style, "Aclaracion" by novelist Michael Chavez is a bittersweet LGBTQ coming-of-age story that is ultimately about love, courage, faith, and the human condition. While an especially recommended pick for community library literary and LGBTQ fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Aclarcion" is also available in a paperback edition (9781619294837, $19.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).

Editorial Note: Michael Chavez (https://mchavezauthor.com) was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael retired from public service and now volunteers as Ombudsman advocating for the rights of vulnerable seniors. Aside from writing, he likes to read, travel, play golf and occasionally visit the neighborhood coffee shop and rub elbows with locals whose juicy yarns provide fodder for colorful fiction storylines. He lives in Albuquerque with Bart, his terrier companion.

Trippy Hippy
Sebastian
Atmosphere Press
www.atmospherepress.com
9781639888580, $16.99

https://www.amazon.com/Trippy-Hippy-Sebastian/dp/1639888586

Trippy Hippy blends a rollicking, ribald 1960s Summer of Love romp with a foray into counterculture homosexuality and relationships that evolve against the backdrop of drugs and the feverish certainty that a new social order is being created in the moment. Sebastian excels at capturing the heady feel of those times and this atmosphere with a "you are here" approach from the very start of the story: "That year began as strangely as it ended. It seemed as if everyone had contracted a fever, and the real world was blown away. Everyone lived their fantasy. Normal people you saw at the office or the market left their occupations - a few at first, then suddenly many trucking - yes, trucking - down the streets toward the parks and beaches. Before you could say "free love," little groups were popping up like mushrooms all over Golden Gate Park after a rain."

First-person narrator Arnie Epstein is still working downtown San Francisco in an office, but he's beginning to let his hair grow (not a common front for a CPA firm) and he knows that "The times were a-changing before my very eyes, and I wanted somehow to be a part of it." The creation and growth of Adler's Ashram is chronicled in all of its volatility and hope. As Arnie moves from a closed-door world to one with an open-door policy, he is endowed with the new name of Gator and begins building a new identity that fully embraces the hippy lifestyle. Any modern reader wanting to know more about the emotions, perceptions, and experiences of those days will find the heady hallucinations, attractions, and misadventures capture the evolving 'anything goes' atmosphere of those times, adding in the maturing sexuality of a young man who delves into relationships that involve trips both psychic and physical.

These journeys root the protagonist in a shifting world which supplements the San Francisco Bay Area culture with a personal observational style that is evocative and provocative: "At that hour of the morning, when you're standing exposed to the stiff wind off the bay, the streetcar is named Imaginary, and an hour is an eternity." The possibilities are endless and the relationships evolving and often transitory, but Arnie remains in an active embrace of a hippy lifestyle that feels much more realistic than most novels that attempt to describe these times in San Francisco. Perhaps this is because Sebastian himself is well-rooted in San Francisco counterculture and experiences, and holds the ability to translate these encounters and their logic into the 1960s milieu for a more realistic, candid romp than most novels can represent. Libraries and readers seeking powerful additions to their LGBTQ+ literature that also embrace the flavor and times of hippy San Francisco will welcome the strength of Trippy Hippy's road trips and personal map of evolution and exploration.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

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James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review