January
eatingout
edited by Tracie O ’Keefe and
Katrina Fox; Jossey-Bass,
2003; $17.95 softcover
s the awareness and vis
ibility of those whosq
I gender identity and pre
sentation vary from the
hegemonic system has
increased throughout the
past decade, so has the ten
dency to seek an explana
tion for this variance. Find
ing the Real Me is a collec
tion of essays that speak to
the human experience of
sex and gender queer lives.
Rather than attempting to analyze or
pathologize these personal narratives, editors
Tracie O ’Keefe and Katrina Fox allow the
essays to stand on their own merits as individ
ual truths. By removing frameworks of analysis
and inviting the reader to engage without judg
ment, the rich truth and beauty of each story
shines powerfully through.
It is also refreshing to see a collection on
sex and gender that includes views and cul
tural perspectives outside the Western para
digm. T h e broad representation o f identities
blended with international and intercultural
perspectives contributes to the understand
ing of individual and social factors on iden
tity formation. T h e foreword by Stephen
W h ittle provides an excellent historical
context through which to
understand the ever-
changing social roles of the
sex and gender system.
— Eric Plemons
B lood B r o th er s
by Michael Schiefelbein; Alyson
Publications, 2002; $13.95
softcover
ertain pieces of popular
culture are so lurid, so
over the top, they work
beautifully; more is more in
the sex- and violence-
drenched films of Brian De
Palma or the wonderfully
tasteless music of The
Cramps, for instance.
C
v * '. , .
, .y.
Michael Schiefelbein’s sec
ond novel (the first was
Vampire Vote) should qualify
as just that sort of accom
plished trashiness.
T he overcomplicated,
excessive (what else?) story
is about a sort of homme
fatale— a Spanish man dash
ingly named Juan Ramon,
who has gone to great
lengths to become a priest
for the sole purpose o f get
ting to Bernardo, a young
monk aspiring to the priest
hood. Bernardo is the son of
the man who engineered
the vicious murder of
Ram on’s parents; the priest
has a vague plan to kill or
otherwise ruin the only son of the man who
killed them.
O nce he does track Bernardo down, how
ever, Ramon is distracted from his purely
revenge-calibrated machinations by the fact
that the targeted offspring is hot. T he feeling
is mutual.
They begin, of course, a torrid affair. Will
the crazy, wild sex and their growing emotional
attachment be the downfall of Ramon’s ruth
less scheme and Bernardo’s carefully cultivated
piety?
Unfortunately, this isn’t as fun as it sounds.
Schiefelbein’s eroticism is hilariously over
wrought and fairly sexy, but he fails to embrace
the naughty humor. The tone ranges from
depressive to cranky, with extraneous theology
and architecture lessons as well as fake blasphe
my that fails to be truly, enter
tainingly offensive and that is
more than a little self-serious,
as if readers will be picking up
Blood Brothers (which features
pom star Colton Ford in its
steamy cover photo) based on
educational value.
There are tiny glimmers of
what could have been, but
most is more along the lines
of grim, hiring Cinemax soft
core. The subject matter is
base, the premise simplistic;
this could’ve been a compli
ment had Schiefelbein stayed
true to that spirit. He didn’t,
and the pages don’t turn—
they drag.
— Christopher M cQuain jH
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