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 .
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(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.
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