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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 2000)
august IS, 2000 » ¡mat M t.37 I READY FOR SOME SEX & FUN? ë Boys will be boys PRODUCTIONS! Smell teen spirits; skateboard on thin ice ^ P eriod by Dennis Cooper. Grove Press, 2000; $24 hardcover. he last of a five-novel cycle by underground queer literary sensation Dennis Cooper— i who once received a death threat from a radical gay activist group for his graphic, dis turbingly violent depictions of gay male sex— Period is, like nearly all of his previous work, the finely wrought expression of an invigorat ing voice unparalleled in either the gay or liter ary communities. The story involves two teen-age boys and their postmodern odyssey through small-town boredom, dime store Satanism, perverse sex, drugs, murder and unresolved longing. The pair, delirious from a combination of ennui and high pubescent levels of (homo)sexual frustra tion, become obsessed with a book called Peri - od; its author, Walker Crane; and a Gothic rix:k band inspired by Crane’s work, much of which deals with the untimely, violent demise of his boyfriend, George. But George mysteriously seems to remain among the living and is, in his various unex plained incarnations, a symbol for that elusive, unattainable, “perfect” love object that can exist only in our fantasies. (Several young men conceivably could be “George,” although it’s impossible for the other characters or the read er to know whether he actually is alive or sim ply is living on in some collective unconscious or parallel universe.) As we turn the pages, identities and narra tive voices shift and morph constantly, bring ing into focus the disorienting, hall-of-mirrors subjectivity of both fiction and “real” life. “Keep watch over absent meaning,” the epi graph admonishes, and sure enough, like sexu ally brazen literary iconoclasts George Bataille, Pauline Reage and Jean Genet before him, Cooper keeps his content disposable and pornographic— the better to carry off the diffi cult and involved formal permutations that clearly give his work its real reason to exist. Period probably will not find a very recep tive audience among those looking for the tra ditional g(xxl story or even traditional pornog raphy, but it’s sure to engage readers interested in fiction that functions as both diversion and criticism. — Christopher M cQuain Instantly and effortlessly, we are compelled to listen to this young man’s wild, jagged, electric tale, and we are not allowed to leave until he tells us to. War Boy is the story of Rad hoy, a young deaf skateboarder who is flying fast between youth and manhood. With his older “kweer” friend Johnnyboy, he flees a horror-story home life and finds himself in San Francisco, relying on the kindness of strangers, skaters, “kweers” and “tweekers” (drug users). There, he faces the fall of heroes; the lonely, joyful passion of being young (remember?); and the feelings of anger and desire that rise up within him. This is a stunning novel about identity— who we are and why we are who we are. The most amazing aspect of War Boy is that it is Kief Hillsbery’s first novel. A magazine writer and an outspoken environmentalist, the author takes over the fiction genre with jacked, no-holds-barred energy. This novel bangs; it is buffed, frenzied and utterly colloquial. The story is passionate and relentless, and the people in it are addictive and beautiful. Employing the slang and style of the deaf and skateboard cultures, the tone of War Boy will make you feel like you’re listening in on those distant, cute, buzz-cut skateboard ers coming out of Cal’s. This language makes you shudder from its sheer intensity: fm lO ? AN EVENING WITH MIßHELLE THURSDAY AUGUST 2 4 JOAN ThinqsYO U shouldn’t Say Past Midnight TUESDAY SEPTEM BER 5 GOING SOON: 9 /1 6 RIGKIE LEE JONES • 9 /2 2 GRIS WILLIAMSON-1 0 /5 PATTY LARKIN -11/12 HOLLY NEAR MT! IT TIE UN III CHE HOT I M I ! Ul TI0ETM1STEI IM ! 1 IH II n il I2IHN by Peter Ackerman The hit off-Broadway show comes to Portland...finally. “An American style sex farce, ala...Sex & the City ” $12 Previews Aug 30,31 Opens Sept 1 thru Sept 30 Theater! Theatre! 3430 s e Belmont FASTIXX 224-8499 or 239-5919 www.tripro.org We lean toward each other at the same time same slo-mo speed and somehow I knew already. How perfectly our lips. How soft his are. How melting the warmth how sweet the taste the touch the time together lasts forever. Even when we leave him all I can think about is. This. l s. l t. War Boy is one of the most provocative, sexy and utterly dramatic novels of recent memory. I swear, if you can read this novel and not come away believing Hillsbery is one of the freshest, most promising voices around, I’ll eat your sk8bqard. — Glenn Williams ■ CHRISTOPHER M c Q ua in is a Portland free lance uniter and a tireless observer of pop culture. G lenn W illia m s unites poetry, ¡rrose, plays, periodica and pom in Portland. Now booking reservations online. Enjoy Sunday brunch, daily lunch or dinner cruise on the Portland Spirit. Perfect for entertaining out W ar B oy of town guests. Break free with our by Kief Hillsbery. William Morrow, 2000; $24 hardcover. Friday Early Escape entertainment cruises — August & September. I his novel slams. It rocks. It will grab you from the start and shake you by the balls until « you’re spent. War Boy starts with one of the most effective first paragraphs of recent times: I’m Rad I’m deaf I don’t talk I’m fourteen I'm telling the story. And storytellers lie so why bother you ask. Portland R e se r v a tio n s an d in fo r m a tio n a v a ila b le a t w w w .p o r tla n d s p ir it.c o m . o r call ( 8 0 0 ) 2 2 4 - 3 9 0 1 o r ( 5 0 3 ) 2 2 4 - 3 9 0 0 . % (L)ommitmen/ c e r e m o n ie s a o a ila d fe . War Boy Kief Hillsbery cJrou p a n d p r / u a / e rjac/it r e n ia i. - -■ *
