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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2007)
MARCH 16. 2007 eatingout books Locally Grown eatingout eatingout lUStlOUt 35 eatingout 4 -------------- \ MK. MOTO RICE BOX Northwest authors address pop culture, teen angst The Everlasting by Jamie S. Rich; Oni Press, 2006; $19.95 softcover A bittersweet story of the inescapable pain of coming, in one’s post-adolescent 20s, to a mature understanding of life, love and romance, The Everlasting, Portland author Jamie S. Rich’s sopho more novel, expands upon and deepens the themes—pop culture and unrequited love—of his debut, 2000’s Cut My Hair. The Everlasting’s protagonist, Portland resident Lance Scott, is a middle child living a pop-saturated life in the shadows of his much more accomplished siblings, a famed musician and an acclaimed novelist. A freelance Web designer, Lance is a Jan Brady among prodigies. Over the novel’s course, he meets three young women who, ar maddeningly unpredictable intervals, bemuse, befuddle and betray him. True to Northwest urban cosmopolitanism, Rich includes a parallel queer subplot: Lance’s roommate, Roger, has his own snarled love issues with a clos eted rock star. The novel’s main focus is on Lance, but Rich is adept at showing both the differences and similarities of the search for love in these young men’s lives. If anything, Roger is the better-adjusted one and is eventually revealed to be better able to learn from romantic defeat, but whether the two characters’ different mindsets are a function of sexual orienta tion is entirely up to the reader’s interpretation; Rich presents his characters warts and all, endear ing one moment and exasperating the next, very much like the people we know (and are) in life. Equal in astuteness to Rich’s observations of Lance’s and Roger’s fraught romances are his snapshots of rhe anxieties, agonies, rivalries and hard-won pleasures—as well as the specter of burned-out misanthropy—of life in Portland’s artist-musician hipster milieu. The risk of overdosing on one’s obsessive, private dreams—fueled as they are by rhe endless flow of pop culture in which we all take part, consciously or not—is a problem addressed head-on by Rich as Lance struggles to reconcile his romanticism with his real-life relationships. The question Rich provokes us into asking ourselves is: Is it brave or crazy to expect our lives to attain the exquisiteness of a love song on the radio or a Bogart/Bacall moment on the silver screen? Is pop culture our best salve? Our most dangerous poison? In The Everlasting, it’s both. —Christopher McQuam Split Screen: Attack of the Soul- Sucking Brain Zombies! and Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies MENTION THIS AD FOR 10% OFF! by Brent Hartinger; HarperTeen, 2007; $16.99 hardcover It’s two books in one! Combining a clever packaging concept and an absurdly challenging title, Split Screen takes big chances right out of the gate. Fortunately, it’s good enough to transcend the gimmickry and provide a refreshingly cheerful bur nuanced take on gay young adult fiction. It’s not a horror novel, or really even a novel about being involved in the making of a movie. Instead, the paired novels depict two teenage characters dealing with the realities of being out and falling in love and the un certainty of their own points of view tn the face of pressure from peers and family, all while acting as extras in the baffling, low-budget zombie flick named in the title. . Rashomon-like, we get to see the story of those tumul tuous few weeks from both viewpoints. Russel, the hero of Attack, finds himself caught between his new, long distance boyfriend and the gixid-looking, popular jock Kevin, who dumped Russel the year before and suddenly expresses new interest in him—and in coming out himself. Meanwhile, Russel’s parents don’t take his coming out well at all. Min, Bride’s narrator and Russel’s best friend, falls for an intriguing girl on rhe set of the horror movie, but this new girl isn’t out to family or friends, and Min wavers between self-righteous indignation and undeniable attraction. Author Brent Hartinger of Tacoma, Wash., does a more skillful job on Russel’s story than on Min’s. He doesn’t seem to know how to get into the head of a teenage, female, bisexual, Chinese hrainbox, and she comes across as much more of a plot device and attitude than a com plete character. Still, there is a much clearer picture of her from Russel's perspec tive, including her typical teenage self-involvement, and Min’s love dilemma is arguably more realistic. No matter who’s speak ing, the characters and dilemmas are genuinely I involving, and there’s no I such thing as an easy I answer. Split Screen is both fun and thought- I provoking, the kind of novel that school libraries I should celebrate, rather than slap onto banned- I book lists. —Jerruah Jefferson © healthy asian food 503-221-3045 SUNDAY BRUNCH 9 am -3 pm DJs 10 am -2 pm HAPPY HOUR grub 3 pm -7 pm ► dine in or out 413 NW 21st Ave. • Portland, OR 97209 (BETWEEN FLANDERS & GLISAN) 3551 SE Division St, 503-236-6890 FEATURING Beer, wine, art, comedy, live music feel good music Meel good people VISIT www. havencoffee for our events calendar every Sunday >>»> 1400 se morrison MONDAY, MARCH 19TH 7^9 PM X J3iótro l^lontaae 4 4 4 4 4 301 S.£. WorrOon ■503.234.1324 monta^aportiand. com W..Í & Sat. 6p m. - 4a m. o/LíÁ 'Mon. JJn. 11:30-2 ^ar now open aroLtnd the corner!
