Intimate Review of LGBTQ Novel by Well-Known Poet

Title: Two Natures
Author: Jendi Reiter
Author website: http://www.jendireiter.com
Genre: Literary fiction
ISBN: 0996907424
Published by: Saddle Road Press
Where to buy it as paperback or e-book.
Special Offer: 99 cents for the e-book from Sept. 1-28, 2016!
Name of reviewer: Kittredge Cherry
Original review publication: Jesus in Love Blog

REVIEWED BY KITTREDGE CHERRY ORIGINALLY FOR JESUS IN LOVE BLOG

A gay fashion photographer who was raised Southern Baptist moves to New York City for a sexual and spiritual odyssey during the AIDS crisis of the early 1990s in “Two Natures” by Jendi Reiter.

This stylish debut novel from a gifted poet is a rare combination of erotic gay romance and intelligent reflection on Christian faith. Narrator Julian Selkirk seeks glamor and often-fleeting affairs to replace the religion that rejected him. He learns by experience to look beyond shame, surface attractions and short-term desires.

In the five-year period covered chronologically by the novel, he has relationships with three men who embody different archetypes: immature personal trainer Phil Shanahan, cosmopolitan editor Richard Molineux, and earnest activist Peter Edelman. The dense and varied literary coming-of-age novel ranges from comic scenes that could easily become a hit movie to the explicitly sexual and the touchingly tragic. Reiter brings alive LGBTQ touchstones of the era: the visit from out-of-town and out-of-it parents to their closeted son, the AIDS death and awkward funeral, and so on.

Jendi Reiter is a first-class poet and essayist, and her Reiter’s Block is one of my all-time favorite blogs. While reading "Two Natures," I sometimes wished for more of her incisive interpretations rather than her narrator’s witty voice leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Female characters and experiences such as abortion are also portrayed well in “Two Natures.” Perhaps this is not surprising for an author who recently came out as a “genderqueer femme” on her blog.

Raised by two mothers on the Lower East Side of New York City, Reiter is able to portray New York with the casual realism of a native. Now living in western Massachusetts, she is a member of the Episcopal church and experienced first-hand how LGBTQ issues tore apart church groups, including the writing group where she was working on the earliest drafts of “Two Natures.”

Religious references in her novel are subtle… as are the allusions to AIDS in most of the first half of the 374-page novel. Julian finds no easy answers as he wrestles with his faith.The title is based upon the

two natures of Christ, who is fully human and fully divine in the eyes of believers. Julian observes:If what the preachers said

about Christ's two natures was true, I didn't know how he could stand his life anyhow, being split down the middle between the part of him that remembered heaven and the human part that would have touched me back.

I did find myself wondering sometimes whether gay men actually thought like her narrator Julian. I dared to explore this same challenging territory myself, writing as a lesbian author from the viewpoint of a queer male Christ in my “Jesus in Love” novels.

I can only say that “Two Natures” got rave reviews from gay male reviewers whom I respect. Toby Johnson called it “a pleasure to read” and Amos Lassen declared, “We all know someone like Julian and many of us see ourselves in him… You owe it to yourselves to read this wonderful novel.”

As art historian, I especially enjoyed the way that some of Julian’s spiritual reflections were provoked by art. For instance, Julian’s inner spiritual conflict is portrayed at first through his responses to “Piss Christ,” a controversial photograph by Andres Serrano.

The novel is also significant as an example of how a new generation tries to make sense of an AIDS crisis that they were too young to experience firsthand. I happened to read “Two Natures” at the same time that I was rereading my own journals for an oral history interview about doing AIDS ministry at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco in the late 1980s. Perhaps no novel can capture the agony, ecstasy and desperate intensity of those times.

Julian never found the kind of LGBTQ-affirming church home that we provided at MCC-SF. Sadly that may be true for many young gay men in the early 1990s, and even now. But there’s good news: Reiter is already working on a sequel. 

Julian will have another chance to find long-term love and a gay-positive spiritual community, with readers invited along for the ride.
###

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jendi Reiter is the author of the newly released novel Two Natures (Saddle Road Press)

See the book trailer at http://bit.ly/twonaturestrailer.Midwest Book Review says,  "Intense revelations about what it means to be both Christian and gay...a powerful saga" --

Jendi is editor of WinningWriters.com, a Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers"

"Things are not what they appear to be: nor are they otherwise."
Surangama Sutra

-----
 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Gay Fiction Given Applause By Reluctant Reviewer

Title: BenedictionA Novel
Genre: Gay Fiction
Author: Jim Arnold
Publisher: BookSurge
301 pp. $13.99
Kindle, $7.99
ISBN 9781439248577
Genre: Gay Fiction
Benediction Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb_QYDHPKeg



Reviewed by Victor J. Banis for Examiner.com



If I were to describe this novel in one word, it would be "earnest." And if I were to name its chief fault, it is that it wears its earnestness on its sleeve.

In all honesty, I am really not the best reader to review Benediction because it is exactly the kind of read I try to avoid. This has nothing at all to do with the merits or failings of the book, and everything to do with my own personal biases. I don't care for stories of catastrophic and/or terminal illness. For instance, I avoid AIDS novels, for reasons too complicated to get into here; and, really, this is an AIDS novel in which AIDS has been switched to prostate cancer.

Thus, in established AIDS novel fashion, we follow the fortunes of Ben Schmidt from early detection through the various stages of the illness and its treatment, with each step described in earnest, often clinical, detail. Men tend to not talk about prostate problems. It's probably a good thing for some to experience this with Ben. There's scarcely anything left unsaid.

So, why, you're wondering, am I writing about a book I didn't like—except, that I did, putting my personal preferences aside, and for what it is. And what it is, for the most part, is very well written.

The author is at his best in describing his settings, and the armchair traveler gets a lot for his ticket: an often lyrical San Francisco; raunchy New York club scenes; tacky giddy West Hollywood; Sydney, from sex dens to sand dunes; even Turin.

The plot—well, the illness mostly dominates that, though there is an off again on again relationship with the hunk next door; ditto with an internet trick; ditto the sexy doctor, and…hmm, might as well say it, Ben Schmidt is a slut. Also, once he falls off the AA wagon, a heavy duty lush and druggie.

Which brings up characterization. The people in the book are mostly well drawn, if mostly not very sympathetic. There just isn't anyone to root for. Certainly not poor Ben, who seems to have no fun at all, not even when he's having—often—sex. But I did come to admire him, and he has the good sense eventually to figure out where he needs to be; and that, too, is a tribute to the author, because I found myself thinking of Ben as I would of someone I know. Okay, someone who aggravates me no end, but still, my point is, the character does come alive.

The prose is literary. I'm surprised Kensington didn't jump all over this. As I was reading, I kept checking the cover, convinced I was reading a Kensington release. It should have been a shoo-in for a Lammie. It's the kind of thing they love. If I'd gotten it in time I'd have nominated it for a Publishing Triangle Award—there's one for debut novels, and this would have been worth their consideration.

All of which is to say, this is a really a fine book, and Jim Arnold is obviously a writer of considerable talent and a welcome addition to the glbt genre. Highly recommended, but with this caveat: it's a grueling journey, not only for Ben, but for the reader as well.













-----
The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
And while you're at it, as a courtesy to the author, please retweet this post:

Reviewer Notes Gay Literature As Suitable for Heterosexuals

Conquering Venus:
A Novel
By Collin KelleyVanilla Heart Publishing. 255 pages. $14.95.
ISBN-13: 978-1935407294



Review by Helen Losse
First published in Blogcritics

Let’s be upfront: The category on the back of Collin Kelley’s debut novel, Conquering Venus, says “Gay Literary Fiction.” As a heterosexual woman—had I not known Collin, read his insightful political poetry, I might never have picked it up. But I do know Collin, did read the book, and I’m glad I did, for in doing so, I realized something more important than anything else I will say: “Gay Literary Fiction”—or at least Kelley’s Conquering Venus, which constitutes the sum total of books from this category which I have read—concerns itself less with overt sexual acts and more about what it means to be at home in one’s own body. I know why Kelley’s publisher wanted the book labeled “gay,” but I also know that this book has much to interest the heterosexual reader.

Kelley’s characters are multi-dimensional, his plot mature, and while the book is “gay” in detail, the theme and intent are universal: claiming and letting go—accepting responsibility for one’s own actions and refusing to blame one’s self for the actions of others—are psychological tasks or developmental stages that concern us all. Also of interest is the fact that those who speak most openly are no less troubled than those whose fear is evident. Kelley carefully and masterfully creates characters who must deal with the difficult situations in their various pasts—broken marriages, betrayal, sexual confusion and dishonesty, death, suicide, and family acceptance or denial of these—and a plot that draws them together on a trip to Paris.



Shortly after Irene and Martin meet, they “sit on the balcony for hours … discussing art and poetry, dancing around their true selves, the strange desire to confess deep secrets.” (p. 45) But why? Away from the confines of home and with alcohol flowing to remove inhibition, the characters become free to ignore convention. Or are they now free to explore it? Each effect has its cause; then effects become sorely entangled. Dreams play a large roll in the plot of this novel as does the seeming coincidence. Kelley uses italics to help the reader differentiate between live action and dreams. The dead play a roll, too, as a diary of a Parisian professor, hidden in the house Irene that never leaves, gives purpose as to why Martin and the older woman, an agoraphobic who watches through binoculars the goings on at the hotel where the group are staying, come together at all.



The situation in which Peter died leads, at least in part, to Martin’s present attraction to eighteen-year-old David, with the complicated attraction/repulsion David feels in response, and his resulting, problematic drinking. Not all gays are created equal? Well, not everyone’s family is the same. Situations do not lead to pat answers. The truth about Diane leaving her ex-husband comes out, equally confusing. The characters weave their way through the violence of bombings, a hospital’s mental ward, the landmarks in Paris—The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame—and finally home before book’s culmination. The book is a page turner and kept me up ’til 5:00 am, before the story came to a quitting point, where Diane, the burned-out teacher, and her younger friend, Martin—chaperones on a school trip—end up moving separately to Europe, leaving their problematic lives in America.



But Kelley does not end Conquering Venus by wrapping things up in that proverbial neat, little package nor does he leave us in a world we do not believe possible with everyone riding into the sunset. What Kelley does is offer hope as surely as Martin conquers Venus, exchanging the Venus de Milo for the Winged Victory.

-----
The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Rick Reed's Novel So Deadly Its Great

Title: Deadly Vision
Author: Rick R. Reed
Genre: Thriller/GLBT
ISBN: 1932300961
Quest Books / January 2008

Reviewed by Vince Liaguno for Dark Scribe Magazine Reviewer
Originally published in: Dark Scribe Magazine

Hot on the heels of his enjoyable gay serial killer novel – last year's IM – Rick Reed returns with another gripping thriller, Deadly Vision. Reed is quickly developing his own unique formula that blends suspense, fast-moving narratives, fully-realized gay characters, and a touch of the occult. His seeming bid to become a gay hybrid of James Patterson and Dean Koontz will not be lost on readers with this latest offering.

Cass D'Angelo, single mother to seven-year-old Max, is toiling away as a waitress in a small, depressed river town in Ohio. When Cass goes off after Max when he wanders off one afternoon during a thunderstorm, she runs afoul of a lightning strike and a falling tree limb. She awakens days later in the hospital – relieved to find Max safe – and discovers that the resulting concussion has left her with a newfound psychic ability. Before you can say Psychic Friends Network, Cass receives disturbing images of several local girls gone missing – their grisly fates playing out behind her mind's eye. Fearing more deaths, the reluctant psychic reaches out to the police and to one of the missing girl's parents – all of whom are skeptical. But when the father of a second missing girl begs Cass' help in finding his daughter and her decomposing body is found along the Ohio River banks, Cass finds herself the center of unwanted attention from a pair of devil-worshipping killers desperate to find out how she found their carefully hidden grave. It's here that the story kicks into even higher gear with a kidnapping, a manhunt, and – to a lesser extent - hints of a budding romance with a sympathetic female journalist.

As in IM, Reed again opts to tell his story through multiple points-of-view. And, again, it works surprisingly well even when minor characters like Cass' mother get their chance at the storytelling bat. Laying out the actions and motives of your villains for readers is a tricky proposition - give too much and risk predictability at the expense of the suspense. But Reed expertly walks the tightrope between disclosure and omission, crafting passages told from the killers' perspective that are appropriately chilling and give just enough away to readers so that their acquired insight translates into dread when the action switches back to Cass and company. It's foreboding at it s finest with readers left muttering, "If you only knew what I know" at the book itself.

Reed also imbues Deadly Vision with a strong sense of setting, creating in Summitville a bleak tableau of working class hardship. One gets a strong sense of inevitability for the fictional denizens of the town, like they surrendered master status of their own destinies somewhere between unplanned pregnancies and factory closings. He nails the idea of familiarity and disconnection as analogous functions of small-town life:

When Sheryl McKenna's mother opened the door, Cass felt as though she had already seen her. And maybe she had. Summitville was, after all, a small town. She could have passed the tired-looking woman on the street downtown, or served her in the diner. The woman stared at her with bright gray eyes, looking her over as if Cass were something she had discarded in the yard that had managed to make its way back to the porch. Mrs. McKenna was small, with no fat on her bones; she looked almost skeletal. Her skin was weathered, the result of too much sun, too much smoke. Her skin, combined with straw-like bleached blonde hair and hard eyes made her, Cass was sure, look older than her years. She held a cigarette in her hand, and the smell of tobacco smoke came out of the house in a wave when she opened the door.

Unlike IM, the lesbian romance is relegated to the background here, never even a glimmer of possibility until the third act - and even then it's only alluded to in a near future. This is the novel's only misstep – and a slight one at that – and an area where Reed missed an opportunity for deeper emotional investment in the reporter character of Dani Westwood. The lack of romantic connection to Cass keeps her at arm's length for much of the action, consigning her to stock character status.

The novel's supernatural elements are handled quite well, with Cass' understanding of her precognitive abilities evolving gradually over the course of the book and never coming off as forced or over-the-top. Only toward the end when Cass encounters the spectral vision of one of the victims does one get the sense that they're smack dab in the middle of an episode of Cold Case or The Ghost Whisperer – and that's either criticism or commendation depending upon your level of tolerance for either of those shows.

The literary equivalent of a hybrid vehicle, Deadly Vision powers forward on a combustion of supernatural suspense, murder mystery, and breakneck thriller. With psychics and serial killers rendered with the same deft hand in a propulsive narrative likely to increase respirations, it takes no psychic ability to see that Rick Reed is headed for the top of the suspense class.


--
Check out my most recent releases on Amazon:
High Risk: http://tinyurl.com/39dror
Deadly Vision: http://tinyurl.com/3eygd4
In the Blood: http://tinyurl.com/3dbb7k
IM: http://tinyurl.com/32rsy4

Find me at:
http://www.rickrreed.com and http://www.myspace.com/rickrreed

Coming in 2008
Orientation
Dead End Street
More information and excerpts at http://www.rickrreed.com

-----
The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coaliition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love--and that includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews and reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page.