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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2002)
36 J W —* íinf* 'i. ü i l i l i# C: SS S i S i 1% 21 ▼ 90.7 PORTLAND NEWS, PUBLIC A FFA IRS AND MUSIC THAT YOU WON'T HEAR ANYW HERE E L S E . LISTEN It's not easy being gay... (not to mention being a gay icon) FOR TH IS WAY OUT AT 6 PM EVERY TUESDAY. EVERY BOOK OF GAY EROTICA ALWAYS IN STOCK! ( @ ) Hollywood Voyeur. Eye-popping photos of LA men, incl. some mighty weird dudes. $80. ( new ) Assuming the Position. Hustler’s mem oir: explicit sex and psychological truths. $13. ( new ) S exy Japanese comix. Very graphic s/m adventures of big, bearish men. $30-$35. DOWNTOWN @ 927 SW OAK - 226-8141 Northwest Women's Music Celebration April 26-28 • Music, Motherlode and Good Friends! Guitar, harm onica, m arim ba, drum m ing, singing, line dancing, m andolin, ukulele an d more YMCA Camp Collins, 40 minutes east of Portland- • $150/person includes all workshops, meals and lodging Reg. Forms at It's My Pleasure. In Other Words and Artichoke Music, or online at www.motherlodemusic.com Nos ponemos el som brero siem pre que... ... encontramos al de nuestra IT S T H A T TIM E A G A IN ! C ptstal ' s Our < j LfSNflM C lub Dona SATURDAY, APR. 1 3. 2 0 0 2 9PM2AM AT THE PORTLAND METRO CLUB (formerly PPAA) 618 SE ALDER STREET DAHCE T O Y O U R EAVORITE HITS fR O M THE PAST <3 PRESENT $5 C O V ER Conversaciones Los lunes de 6 a 8 pm Abril 8, 15, 22, 29 Lugar: Cascade A ID S Project Llame a Rafael 503-223 -5907 fun S e r v ic e & a r non-snoKiriG DflncE A rea ( s m o k i n g a r e a a v a il a b l e ) -S P O N S O R E D IN PART B Y - TERRI PO PEJO Y 8 CEUA LYON O F THE RE/M A X E Q U ITY (¡R O U P T he B ig B ook M isunderstanding by Jim Gladstone. Harrington Park Press, 2002; $17.95 softcover. of H j T h e B i g B o o k of E Misunderstanding praise, damning condemnation and the vacuous lingo of PR-speak. Rcxli exploits this technique to create mul tiple perspectives, extracting much humorous irony and providing greater insight into not only Viola hut also the cast of nutty characters who never fail to want something from her. W ith this and his previous novels, Rodi probes deeply into the psycholo gy of gay archetypes— always incisive, always funny and always touching. He reveals human frailty and depth at the core of the outwardly tough and superficial. — Kevin Moore tis first novel by journalist Jim Glad stone begins with its 22-year-old gay narrator, Josh, standing over a . noval sink debating whether to swallow a Kittle of pills and asking, “Do 1 have to end my life to end my childhood?” GLADSTONE It’s a tantalizing start, R ainbow B oys one that keeps the reader anxious to discover by Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2001; $17 what led him to this point of desperation. The softcover. answer, however, is ultimately dissatisfying, if not bewildering. ainbotv Boys, a refreshing new novel by The Big Book of Mis understanding is set in sub Alex Sanchez, tackles the subject of gay urban Philadelphia, where the middle-class Roy- male teen altons unsuccessfully try to figure out how to agers in a typical love one another despite their differences. The public high school. father, Harris, is a successful lawyer so desperate W hat could he an to give each family member (wife Becca and utterly depressing sons Josh and Lewis) the kind of experience he series of pitiful craved growing up that he ends up stifling them. sketches or simply Eventually they each leave him (for career, for a too-sweet school, for freedom), and he is left to face his romantic fable is cnimbled life by himself. instead sim ultane It’s a hit of a stretch to believe a well- ously painful and intentioned hut smothering father is sufficient optimistic. cause for suicide, and Gladstone doesn’t precisely Sanchez’s plot articulate what drives Josh to such despair. What moves swiftly with sustains the hook, however, is the tender writing increasing energy and the evocation of incidents Kith real and and tension. The refreshing. (One particularly sweet moment style is clear and simple, using a series of rotat involves the father refereeing a nightly game he ing third-person vignettes reflecting viewpoints calls the Royalton Varsity Bcllyfights in which of each of the main characters. Although the Josh and his brother Kiunce on their bed and novel falls into the young adult genre, the story hump bellies until one of them loses his balance.) will appeal to people of all ages, especially any There is no shortage of Kxiks on family dys one trying to understand what it means to he function, and Gladstone tries to break new young, gay and male in the United States. ground by exposing the dark undercurrent Jason is a handsome jock who has a girl beneath a loving family. But it’s hard to muster friend hut is wrestling with secret gay feelings. a lot of sympathy for someone who suffers from Kyle is a swimmer who passes for straight, hut having been loved too much. — Floyd Sklaver he’s a hit of a loner and feels like an outsider. Kyle is secretly in love with Jason and believes Jason is straight. B itch G oddess Finally, there’s Nelson, the out queer Kiy in by Robert Rodi. school— “Nelly” to his peers. W ith his “weird” Plume, 2002; $13 hair, stylish dress and effeminate characteris softcover. tics, he’s the schools whipping hoy. Nelson pines for Kyle and feels jealous every time Kyle hat makes a gets around Jason. gay man’s A Lambda Literary Award nominee in the W Wl female icon Children/Young Adult-category, the Kxik raises a most? Robert Rodi lot of interesting questions appealing to young breaks it down in people. Will Kyle make a connection with Jason? Bitch Goddess, a bit Will Nelson find tme love? W hat is the future of ing yet ultimately the proposed gay-straight alliance in the scKxil? redeeming satire of How will Kyle come out to his parents? pop culture’s idols Drawing on his own life experiences and his and the gay men knowledge of youth, Sanchez captures the who love them. emotional pain— loneliness, shame and long Failed novelist E. Manfred Harry is hired to ing— of being a gay Kiy in surroundings where ghost the biography of B-movie actress turned a casually homophobic attitude reigns. scandalous celebrity Viola Chute (think Joan W hile th e story moves to its satisfying Collins with the soul of Tonya Harding), conclusion, the characters become so recently rescued from obscurity by her role as endearing one would like to know what will the ironically sweet-natured ingenue of a prime happen to them next; the good news is time soap opera (think Dynasty). Sanchez is writing a sequel. Rainbow Boys is Her story told threxigh varitxjs snippets of modem media— e-mails, faxes, interviews, let a superb first novel, one th at m ight well ters, transcripts, etc.— Viola appears inextricably becom e a classic. —Jack Turteltaub hound to a swirl of gossip, innuendo, gushing jn
