Winter Birds / Comfort and Joy - Jim Grimsley

Winter Birds is the first novel by an amazingly talent author I have long admired and respected. I ordered this book only a few weeks after finishing Dreamboy, I had read numerous book before it but was unable to stop thinking about how Grimsley's words had changed my life. (my gay movement was well under way).
Winterbirds is not a gay story in tale but tells a very inspiring story of growing up alone in a vastly growing family in the deep south. Written exclusively in second person you are injected into the very real and disturbed Crell family, narrated directly to you by an a beloved sibling you quickly learn the adversity of your own life, your younger years, the discovery of your hemophilia, your abusive father's rages and chronically pregnant mothers love. With chapters raging from a few pages to over 100 in length Grimsley infuses how life is divided by the experiences we live. A bumpy ride is brought to a seriously disturbing end in one of the most powerful final scene i have ever read.

We find ourselves infused again in the life of Danny Crell in the unrelated sequel to Winter Birds, Comfort and Joy. Dan a hemophiliac with HIV and Ford a doctor from Savannah (who isn't "gay") are happy for the most part and want to make a life together, the only thing left is to meet the family, in this unique take on the holidays. I purchased this book years after reading Winter Birds and immediately fell in love with this love story with problems.

First Person Plural- Andrew W.M. Beierle

When I took a short visit to Vancouver over the last weekend my intension was not to purchase any more books however as my intriuge always wins I turned a sort visit to 'Little Sisters' (a vancouver bookstore and gay rights landmark) into a day of treasure hunting. what I left with was a book i will not soon forget.
First Person Plural is the fictional narrative of a set of dicephalus conjoined twins Owen and Porter, the two are born with two spines fused at the pelvis (similar to the Hensel twins in Minnesota, USA) they have lived since birth with two heads brains and minds, and one body containing two very differing hearts, you see Porter (controlling the left side of the body) is Straight and our narrator Owen (the right hand) is Gay.
The second I opened this book I was immediately thrown into a world of intrigue, questions and answers, as we watch the twins growing up and coming to terms with their very individual perspectives, we too are pulled in two directions asking what is too much to forsake for the happiness of others. Beierle creates the immaculately set dialogue of self required to deliver a metaphorical insight to the coming out process.

At 304 pages I finished this book in little over a week, and would start right back at the beginning if it were my style but I have to keep the reviews coming and will post my new selection soon.

Dream Boy- Jim Grimsley

Dream Boy was a turning point in my life, in the years between fifteen and seventeen I went through what I like to call my Gay movement. I had always known i was gay but in these years (i think we all have them) I wanted to absorb as much culture and knowledge about being gay as possible. What I found let me feeling unfulfilled, until I stumbled upon the saddest and most romantically charged gay centered novel I had ever read.
Dream Boy is the romantic coming of age story of Nathan, an emotionally unavailable high-school student, and his love interest and next door neighbor Roy. In only 208 pages Grimsley navigates the reader through the emotional wasteland of growing up abused and gay in the American south.

I dreamt of this romance and it came to me through the art of Jim Grimsley.

Presidents Son- Krandall Kraus

Presidents Son has it all power, sex, leading characters and a real story-line to pull everything together. I read this novel directly after finishing Bardo I ran down to the local "large-metro-corporate-book chain" and ordered the only other book I could find by my new favorite author. Three weeks later in the mail comes my book, how surprised and appalled was I a sixteen year old newly outed gay boy in rural Canada to be walking around my hometown carrying a book that looked like a mix between an erotic pocketbook and a steamy gay romance novel, neither of which describe this novel to any truth. What I found shocked, thrilled and even changed my life in ways i am still grasping to understand; A serious story of the means to which power can push even the best of us to do the unthinkable. We all have tiny secret we keep from those we love but in this novel (Kraus' first) we are pulled into the powerful lives and seedy underground of the re-election of the President of the United States. Kraus spent a number of years as a secret consultant to the white house and knows alot more than he lets on. The story revolves around the upcoming re-election of President of the United States Donald Marshall, we quickly discover that D.J (Don Jr.) the Presidents Son, and Male Hollywood actor, is gay and in scenes spanning from Washington D.C to Lyon France and back to Fire Island we track the lengths people will go to gain or retain power.

I read this novel in a week and a half, finished it half way to Edmonton AB on a plane and couldn't wait to pass it on. Defiantly one of my all time Gay Faves, and worth a read should the desire to carry a 320 page gay harlequin romance looking novel around strike you. (I got this one back) :)

Bardo- Krandall Kraus

Bardo was one of the very first novel which introduced me to the notion that our lives may not be determined by our sexuality or our defenses but by the experiences which bring us to the moment we stand in. It was amazing to see a gay male character portrayed simply a backdrop to a life he makes no appoligies and allows conscience to be our own judge... Krandall Kraus draw much of the inspiration and a large portion of the book from principles layed forth in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Bardo is literally the moment between all things the pause of movement, the moment you are neither breathing in nor out you are not alive nor dead. in 332 pages Kraus takes us on a journey through the last few seconds of a mans life. Everything EG could be, has been, could have been or become lives as his memory and in the bardo are recalled in more of a dream like state.
In the opening chapter we learn our main character is dying, Kraus continues on to explain Bardo and the White room existence our story is set in. with characters named the Boy, EG and AD we are transported on one of the greatest and most spiritual journeys ever captured in a novel. Many criticize Kraus for his daring and some times erotic and disturbing imagery however to me these moments in which the most cruel of all humanistic consequences occur are presented as questions upon humanity and conscience of the reader, they to play a more hypothetical role in the life's story, and may too they represent the evil we all possess. Scenes of rape or incest are difficult subjects to read however when used correctly Kraus is a master of the intended dissociation in order to allow the reader to process it's own action.

This novel will always hold a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf, and if i ever get it back, it's place is still waiting empty. (come back to me)

its true we do

Its an amazing thing to hold in your hands a piece of history which can change a life. Through out the years I have read some of the greatest books. here are my recommendations and reviews.