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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2000)
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The Complete Guide to Gay M ens Sexual, Physical and Emotional Well-Being empowers men to take charge of their body, mind and soul. 1 liked reading this book. It’s smart and informative and provides just enough useful information without becoming cumbersome. This guide will be especially helpful for guys who just are coming out or want more detailed information on health issues specific to gay men. Author Daniel Wolfe covers so much infor mation— from anal pleasure to skin care basics. One area that jumped out at me reveals how to have male multiple orgasms. (I always have been jealous of my female friends who are pros at this.) A fun section covers cruising and commu nication. It gives both bad and good examples of how to respond while hooking up with a person you met online. Bad No. 1: You walk in, decline to sit down and say: “Swimmer’s body? I don’t think so.” Bad No. 2: You walk by the coffee shop, see your man waiting, as agreed, and keep on walking. Good: Spend a minute in conversation. If it’s not happening, explain politely that you’re sorry it’s not going to work, and excuse yourself. If you’re going to meet in person, the truth— or something very close— is vital. Describing yourself unrealistically, or leaving out a major detail of your physical appearance, is a setup for both of you. This hook is a wonderful contribution to the growing body of knowledge and insights in the field of gay men’s health. — Dean Siduiell A Wicker that's guaranteed outdoors I A natomies : A N ovella and S to ries by Anndee Hochman. Picador, 2000; $18 hardcover. A The Cripple of Imshmaan by Martin McDonagh O c t o b e r 31 - N o v e m b e r 26 GALA Night November 7 A Christmas Carol \ Antigone D e c e m b e r 3 - D e c e m b e r 24 F e b r u a r y 20 - M a r c h 18 adapted by David McCann adapted by Nancy Keystone *GALA Night December 5 ♦ GALA Night February 27 Closer A New Brain J a n u a r y 1 6 - F e b r u a r y 11 M a r c h 27 - A p r i l 22 by Patrick Marber GALA Night January 23 music & lyrics by William Finn ♦ GALA Night March 3 And, our premiere Second Stage production The Gimmick by Dael Orlandersmith A p r i l 25 - M ay 19 ju s im I ¿/A b^«K f production sponsor»: | F f t d M < y iT g ala is the 6ay & lesbian Audwnto S*rto* .............. ............. P lc T fU S t ) 4 . » J W 4 6 * AmencanAjrlines natomies, Anndee Hochman’s sparkling fic tion debut, is divided into four sections: Flesh, Blood, Heart and Nerve. After finishing each story, the reader feels her own flesh, blood, heart and nerve stirred by the author’s beautifully constructed language and vivid imagination. Hochman proves her self as promising a fiction writer as she did a nonfiction writer with her first book, Everyday Acts & Small Subversions: Women Reinventing Family, Community and Home. In most of the stories, the central characters are girls and women (lesbian, bisexual and straight) negotiating the complex terrain of adolescence or womanhood. Although “Liabili ty” is not the strongest story in the collection, readers will enjoy the novella for its local con tent and universal theme of the search for love, family and community. But more satisfying are the short stories, which display Hochman’s often haltingly beau tiful language and occasional borderline magical realist style. In “Aggiomamento," she deploys this style— and her wonderful imagination— in the story of a girl who can’t stop crying. So pronounced and constant is Claudia Mi- celi’s weeping, she is hired as a professional crier by a funeral home. Claudia’s crying works as a metaphor for centuries of women’s grief and sacri fice, particularly within the Catholic Church. A wonderful twist at the end of the story builds cleverly on Hochman’s metaphor and offers a message of women’s resistance and hope. If any critique is to be made of this collec tion, it’s that some of her stories suffer from too much hope. It’s as if Hochman is uncomfort able with the dark side of her imagination when she too quickly rescues her characters from their islands of pain and loss. But therein lies her strength, too. She paints her characters in their rich complexity, showing their large capacities for experiencing devastating loss, redemptive hope and the will to simply carry on. Only days after In Other Words Women’s Books and Resources opened its doors Oct. 29, 1993, Hochman read from her first book. More than 100 people packed the store, eager to hear from a writer who had touched their lives, imaginations and hearts. W ith Anatomies, Hochman treats old fans to her growing talent and inevitably will culti vate many, many new fans across the country. This old fan wishes her continued success. — Catherine Sameh V illage E lders by Penny C olem an. University o f Illinois Press, 2000; $24.95 hardcover. ou’ve got to love the 85-year-old man who calls himself a “broken-down bitch" or the 9 2 -year-old lesbian whose first encounter with a gay person was the 20-year-old James Baldwin and who remarks that "the only differ ence between me now and me 30 years ago is I ain’t getting laid. G o find me another 92-year- old lesbian who wants to go to bed with me!" These tales about regular people open a peephole into the larger gay history of the 20th century and resound with displays of resistance Y
