THE BODY POLITIC
HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES
by Saeed Jones How does it feel to be racially eroticised? How does it feel to come out to your mother while sensing that the word “gay” is not always enough to capture what you’ve been through? How does it feel to be addicted to the damage that we share with our sex partners? How does it feel when people accept you as a gay man but not as a gay who likes to have sex?
These questions are part of the universe of How We Fight For Our Lives, a memoir of an American black gay man, which won the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Memoir/ Biography. A talented poet, Jones knows how to invite readers to grasp our most profound and unspeakable feelings through beautiful yet accessible prose.
From a Playboy magazine, to a public library toilet, to a series of casual sex encounters, he chronicles his sexual and self-discovery journey, particularly when language is not enough to capture what he feels and when society continually demands his erasure.
Of course, being queer is not only about sex. It’s also about how we form a relationship with our family members when they don’t always understand the complexity behind our identities. This is also the central aspect of the book: Jones’ relationship with his single mother, grandmother, and uncle. When acceptance and love cannot always be fully verbalised, there are a variety of ways to express understanding, and also misunderstanding, from which we learn how to love genuinely. (Reviewed by Hendri Yulius)
ENTER THE AARDVARK
by Jessica Anthony
This very funny novel narrates two different storylines separated by almost 150 years, unfolds two gay love affairs, and links them with, of all things, a taxidermied aardvark!
The contemporary story features Representative Alexander Paine Wilson of Virginia, who is reminiscent of real-life American politician, Aaron Schlock who had a negative LGBTIQ+ voting record but dazzled some with his good looks and gym-built body.
This year, Schlock came out officially as gay, confirming what had been suspected for years.
Wilson is similarly blessed with good looks and physique, and is utterly obsessed with Ronald Reagan. He has decorated his home and also himself with furniture and clothing from a photography book Images Of Greatness, an intimate look at Reagan’s Presidency. He will happily spend $1,900 on a canary-yellow Victorian sofa to emulate his hero.
But Wilson has a problem that quickly cascades into a series of problems. He’s up for re-election and his aides have been telling him to find a wife to improve his Favourability Rating. This leads him to break off the clandestine sexual affair he has been enjoying with charity fundraiser, Greg Tampico. Not that Wilson is actually gay – he just became entangled in the pleasures Tampico offers. Tampico responds by sending Wilson the taxidermied aardvark that was displayed in his bedroom and oversaw their sexual shenanigans.
This aardvark has a long and complicated history and is integral to another gay love affair between zoological naturalist Sir Richard Ostlet and the taxidermist who created this object, Titus Downing.
This short novel is an absolute delight. The only problem is that the contemporary narrative, which unfolds Wilson’s escalating travails, is so entertaining and amusing it tends to swamp the other story concerning Ostlet and Downing. Nevertheless, this is only likely to make the reader turn the pages all the faster!
BAIT AND SWITCH AND OTHER STORIES
by Ashley Sievwright
Many readers will remember Sievwright’s debut novel The Shallow End, which was nominated for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Novel Award. Bait And Switch, an immensely readable collection that leaves you wishing the stories were longer, confirms his talent.
The opening story, My Cousin Mark introduces a 14-year-old boy who is suddenly orphaned when both parents die in a car accident. To avoid further disruption, and so he can continue to attend his usual school, the boy is sent to live with Mark, his unconventional cousin, for three months.
Mark is gender non-conforming, wears a dress, but has sex with men and woman, has a mysterious job in “promotions” and lives in “a Kings Cross terrace house which is constantly having a party!”
In Stay And Defend, a bushfire threatens the Kinglake Ranges property of long-term gay couple, Paul and Ricky. In recent years, Paul has found himself at this second home more and more often without Ricky and, when the fire threatens, once again, he finds himself alone.
In Elephant, a wealthy gay doctor brings along JD, the young Brazilian man he is entangled with, to scatter his deceased sister’s ashes along with his siblings. JD is an Instagram entrepreneur who makes his living by photographing his enormous penis, described as “uncanny and beautiful and gob-smacking”. Only My Cousin Mark feels complete and resolved; the other two are so strong in characterisation and the interesting and unusual plotlines, that they cry out to be developed further.
Ben Platt.
This is a US adaption of the UK’s Penny Dreadful, which ran to three series and much success. You don’t need to know that one to enjoy the transposed version. (10 episodes)