New Year, New Member

I did make it to that Gay and Lesbian book club last night. I started to float around there about twenty minutes ahead hoping to spot the group first rather than go up to people and ask if they were the gays and lesbians I wanted to meet.

It wasn't what I expected. I had envisioned two possibilities: smart college kids or smart old people. Over the past few weeks, I had put so much attention onto that book just in case the conversation was going to be highly intellectual. It turned out to be more relaxed than I feared.

There were three regulars. If I remember right, they were Dave, Tom, and Earl. Then there appeared to be two known-to-the-group participants and bringing up the rear were three new comers including me. The three regulars were older gentlemen and the rest of us were rather young.

The discussion I thought was quite short but apparently it was a good one according to Tom. This is because more then a couple people actually read the book. I think that Tom and I took over the discussion and to be honest, I think I stepped on his toes because I would always take a an observation of his and give my own twist. I don't know if he liked that or not but it was kinda fun to have something to add.

The book that we will be discussing looks like "fluff" as they call it. I'm not particularly looking forward to reading it but I'll suffer through it. Earl let me borrow two books so I'll be giving those a crack as well. They took my suggestion of "The Year of Ice" so we'll be reading that for either March or April. Also assigned: gay gossip. *sigh* Still looking forward to it.

Gay Tragedy

Why are gay stories always so damn tragic?! Since early fall, I have been checking out Barnes & Noble. The a Gay and Lesbian Book Group that meets once a month. Since I’m not too keen about the bars, I thought that this might be a great way to meet some of the locals. Every time I went in there, the book selected for the month did not interest me. Or worse, I was mildly repelled by it. Sorry, but I’m not really interested in a book that chronicles hook ups during the Christmas holiday.

For January, though it appeared that a decent book had been selected. It deals with bullying. Ah, an excellent topic to exercise my limited grey matter over. The book selected was A Push and a Shove by Christopher Kelly. The back reads as follows:

Tortured by memories of being bullied all through school, Ben Reilly sets out to finally put his demons to rest. Terrence O'Connor, the beautiful boy who tormented him, is now a successful writer in Manhattan, but he is also a man searching out his own identity. As Ben and Terrence form an unlikely friendship, hidden motives and long-kept secrets bubble to the surface. Darkly disturbing, brilliantly written, A Push and a Shove is a chilling depiction of the once-victim who unwittingly becomes the bully.

Sounds pretty interesting, right? Well…right. I thought it was pretty good. I completed it in about 8 hours and I plan to go over it again before the meeting on the 23rd. But I’m not writing about the story. What I am asking is why are all the gay stories that I’ve come across so dark? Okay, granted, I’ve only read three gay novels: Brian Malloy’s The Year of Ice and Brendan Wolf and now this one. But each and every one of them left me a bit unsatisfied because I’m such a romantic nut that I want the happily ever after! But I recognize that reality is not so rosy. Still, can I get a little happiness without having to go to the online, porno, amature writer section?

Has anyone participated in a Book Club meeting before? I’d like to know what I should expect or how deep the analysis is going to be. Because if they start throwing around literary theory or bringing up other books and authors that I’ve never even heard about, I may have to slink out the door never to return again.

Well, I will return, just not when that club is meeting.