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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2001)
apri 20.2001 - ingenious look at the whole top/bottom, slave/master thing I’ve ever read. And if you know acting, it’ll double your pleasure. By far, the funniest story in the group is “Hunters and Gatherers,” in which a Mormon couple invite all the gay men and women they know to a party at their home, so the husband may satisfy certain new curiosities. Two stories, “Bit-o-Honey” and “Old Birds,” are superb, no-holds-barred visions of the complex relationship between a gay man and his aging father. Cooper’s writing style is easy and colloquial, and his plots have little problem pulling you into them. Guess Again should be on your bookshelf. Even if I weren’t queer, I’d say so. — Glenn Williams B e s t B is e x u a l E r o t ic a edited by Bill Brent arid Carol Queen. Black Books and Circlet Press, 2000; $16 softcover. * hose of us who find sex- uality more interesting when it’s multigendered will be thrilled with the new compilation Best Bisexual Erotica. And it’s about bloody time! This hook contains stories of bisexual and polyamorous passion in all its glorious, compli cated forms. Here you will read of gay men having sex with straight women, lesbians with straight men, lesbians with gay men, transgen- dered people with straight and gay men and women— twosomes, threesomes and oh-so- many-moresomes. One of the best aspects of this collection is a complete lack of guilt or trauma about being attracted to more than one gender. O f course, there are moments of awakening to fresh desires and moments of closed minds opening up to new possibilities, hut this is not the book for a discussion about the social and political ramifications of fluid sexuality. This is a hook for getting an erection, getting moist and get ting it on. Readers with dreams of Fleet Week will enjoy Robert Vickery’s “Hunting for Sailors,” in which a couple seduce a sailor who dries things he never knew he would. Many stories deal with fetish, particular ly domination. Two in par ticular— “Boy Bashing” by Raven Gildea and “Cruis ing the Conference” by Dominic Santi— are twist ed enough to keep you dreaming for months. There are sweet romantic tales as well; check out the warmhearted and erotic “First, Hello” by Madeleine Schulman. Raven Kaldera’s “Triple Dance” explores the pas sions between a man and two transgendered people. Here categories of sexuality become as meaningless and sex becomes the enjoyment of bodies regardless of their specific parts: “Ian sat up, grinning at me. ‘You want to pitch or catch?” he asked. I thought about it, visions of Shelly bent over her desk at work while 1 rammed her from behind dancing in my head. I wondered if she’d had a vagioplas- ty, or still had a cock. 1 wondered what she’d Q O r e g o n d r iv e s G IP ITO L SUBARU. think about my ball-less, almost dickless crotch; wondered if she’d been a gay man before and was still in love with dick on her lovers. ‘Catch, I guess,’ I said. ‘Then I’ll pitch afterwards, if you’re still up to it.’“ Diverse, perverse, delicious and extraordinari ly ballsy, this collection is for all of us who think sex is a wonderful, blessed act and particularly for those who think sex doesn’t need to be defined, just acted upon. — GW The Beauty of All-Wheel Drive ALL 2001 OUTBACK Limited, LL Bean & VDC Models In Stock! R o u g h M u s ic by Patrick Gale. Ballantine Books, 2001; $25 hardcover. atrick G ale’s Rough Music is a reminder that our families often wreak more havoc on us than the rest of the world in total. T h e novel easily proves the adage that the sins of the father— or, in this case, both parents— often are visited upon their children. Rough Music gives an unsettling glimpse o f the Pagett family as it revisits the English resort town of Cornwall. Our semisingle hero, Julian, invites both parents along on holiday to Blue House for a well- deserved break. His father, John, has his hands full caring for his increasingly unfo cused wife, Frances, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. T his is the very rental house where the Pagetts had something of a meltdown 30 years before. This is not immediately appar ent to the family, which stretches credulity, hut the tragedy that unfolds, both in the past and in the present, is engulfing regardless. Expertly shifting between what occurred in those fateful weeks 30 years ago and the present, G ale weaves the story of Frances’ past affair with her recently widowed brother- in-law with the unfolding drama of the cur rent holiday. Julian also is carrying on a clan destine relationship with his brother-in-law Sandy, who loves his wife and kids hut enjoys their obligation-free sex. In what seem like parallel universes, we watch, winc ing, as Frances is caught with Bill and Julian is caught, by Frances, having a hit too much of a holiday with Sandy. This all might sound like tiresome soap opera, hut Gale pulls off the onionskin layers of family secrets with acute observation. Never trite, Rough Music is an expertly writ- ten, occasionally heart- * • breaking story of one fami- ly’s walk-in closet, where there is more than enough rtxim for everyone. And he reminds us that no matter what size that closet might he, room always should he made for forgiveness. — Rich Bray jH — $3.077EP Example Stock #S23662 M SR P _____________________________ $ 2 6 , 7 9 0 D ISCO U N T________________________ $ 3 , 0 7 7 YOUR PRICE_____ $23,713 H ours M on- Fri 8 -9 Sat 9 -7 Sun 1 0 -5 25th & Mission, SALEM 503*585*4141 ©GflPdOL SUBARU Subject to prior sale. In-stock units only. Prices do not include license, title or doc. fees. Art is for illustration only-. Prices expire Apiil 20, 2001. All financing on approved credit I w w w .c a p ito ls u b a ru .c o m W W Ê Now on and her sidekick Gabrielle battle warlords, Titans and any other men silly enough to rentes poetry, prose, plays, periodica and pom in Portland. illiam s Portland free-lance writer. (oxygen Totally fearless. Incredibly confident Xena In Other Words. R ich B ray is a former bookstore owner and a lili I TUI III O f t » « Weeknights at Gpm. E ls D e bb a u t is a free-lance reviewer on staff at G lenn W tmmt o * t4 1 stand in their way. See for yourself. Available on AT&T Broadband & DIRECTV 251. AOL Keyword: Oxygen oxyqen.com I
