Something just off the press that merits attention is Red Zone: The Behind The Scenes Story of The San Francisco Dog Mauling by Aphrodite Jones. In this recent Morrow hardcover, Jones gives a full account (with photos) of the tragic story behind the fatal attack of Diane Alexis Whipple by two Presa Canario canines in the hallway of the SF building where she lived with her lover. Jones exposes the homophobia, hatred, and frightening background of the women's neighbors, dog owners Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel. It's an amazing chronicle of a horrible crime. Red Zone author Jones' is best known for her stirring account of the Brandon Teena story, All She Wanted (the same story was made into the award-winning film Boy's Don't Cry).
Avid fans of David Sedaris who are calling/caterwauling for 'More, More, More' will have to wait until the spring of 2004 for a new book by the much in-demand humorist. However, there is some consolation for faithful fans. This fall a CD will be released of Sedaris performing his work entitled Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall.
AND YOU THOUGHT YOUR LIFE WAS STRANGE!
... And lovers of humor—on the off chance you haven't discovered Augusten Burroughs' insane, surreal, and frequently hilarious memoirs, I suggest you RUN (though without scissors) to your nearest bookstore. Running With Scissors and Dry have to be two of the most twisted and perversely entertaining books to come along in ages ... and the strangest thing about them is it is ALL REAL! (Burroughs' first book Sellevision is a novel—about a home shopping network no less—and is highly recommended for light laughs.) His next book Magical Thinking: True Stories is due from St. Martin's Press in July of 2004. Recently I caught up with the man with the amazing past to toss a few questions his way ...
Owen: How does it feel to make people laugh at the lunacy and pain of your past?
Augusten: Not to sound like a supporting actress Oscar winner here, but it's a profound honor that people respond to my writing. You see, I've been writing professionally since I was 19. It's just that with all my other writing (TV commercials) people left the room to pee or masturbate. That's what commercials are for. But now, people spend their own money, and they devote their own hours, to reading the thoughts in my head. So that's a huge priviledge. I like that I can control the muscles surrounding people's mouths with only my brain. It's so Drew Barrymore in Firestarter.
Owen: What do you read that makes you laugh?
Augusten: News stories—a bus of school children, swallowed by a sinkhole in California, with only pigtails sticking up above the earth—this kind of thing always makes me crack a smile.
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While we're on the subject of notable autobiographies, lesbian historian and scholar Lillian Faderman certainly falls into the 'truly amazing lives lived' category. In her recently published memoir from Houghton Mifflin, Naked in the Promised Land, Faderman recounts her life from her illegitimate birth in 1940, through a childhood which includes aspirations of being a child star, through her runaway life in the tough gay underworld of the 1950s, through a stint as a burlesque stripper and pin-up (!!), to her eventual recognition as a noted scholar and academic. It's a hell of a ride throughout—easy to read, insightful, straightforward, and told with a nice dosage of humor. For those unfamilar with her work, Faderman's best-known books include To Believe in Women, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, and Surpassing the Love of Men.
The film adaptation of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours was a big hit (and even managed to put Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway back on many bestseller lists). The adaptation of another Cunningham gem, A Home at The End of the World, has just finished filming with oh-so-good bad boy Colin Farrell (who does a perfect American accent according to Cunningham), Robin Penn Wright, and Sissy Spacek.
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Upcoming ... Save your money or renew your library card because the 2003 fall book season is going to be filled with of a lot of great titles by a number of familiar names. Edmund White has a straight novel coming out entitled Fanny in October; David Leavitt's Collected Stories is due in November; Rainbow High—Alex Sanchez's sequel to the immensely popular gay young adult novel Rainbow Boys; What We Lost by Dale Peck is scheduled for November release; plus two new works by Tony Kushner (including a children's book!) are slated for autumn publication.
Madonna's children's book is due this October from Penguin ... . And while we're on the subject of divas—autobiographies by Diana Ross—Upside Down (delayed from an original May release date—I'm very curious as to why) will finally be released in September, and Donna Summer's Ordinary Girl is due this September as well.
Look for new titles this fall by humorists Ellen DeGeneres (The Funny Thing Is...) and Fran Lebovitz (Progress) too.
In addition the reissues will be coming in abundance—among the titles slated for rerelease are Patrick Dennis' Around the World with Auntie Mame, John Waters' Crackpot (with new material included), Gore Vidal's The City and The Pillar, the late James Kirkwood (he died in 1989 of AIDS) novel P.S. Your Cat is Dead from 1972 is also coming back into print.
One of the most hotly anticipated new novels by a familiar name is Lives of The Circus Animals by Christopher Bram, the extraordinary talent behind Father of Frankenstein, The Notorious Dr. August, Surprising Myself, Hold on Tight, Gossip, and several others. Bram's new novel is set in the catty dog-eat-dog-world of the contemporary New York theatre and has a very multi-charactered and Tales-of-the-Cityesque feel to it with in-book characters reminiscent of Tony Kushner and Ian McKellan. among others. Though the drawing room comedy tone and contemporary setting are departures from much of Bram's previous work, advance word on Lives of the Circus Animals is wonderful and it looks to be another solid winner for the acclaimed Bram.
Speaking of that dog-eat-dog world, this year's Tony Award-winner for Best Play, the very gay Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg, has finally been released in book form by Faber and Faber publishers. Still on stage at The Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, the drama concerns mega-star New York baseball player Darren Lemming's announcement one day to the press that he is gay and the repercussions the announcement brings to his himself, his friends, the team, and even the sport. (For all you often-auditioning gay actors, the play also contains several great gay monologues!) Combined with the Billy Bean memoir Going The Other Way, I guess that pretty much makes baseball the gayest sport of the year. Well, it is in season.
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James Earl Hardy (B-Boy Blues, The Day Eazy-E Died, Love The One You're With, etc.) is another author whose new work is always hotly anticipated by his faithful readers. So I recently caught up with JE and asked him what we can next expect to see from him:
'I'm currently working on the sixth and final title in the B-Boy Blues series. It jumps ahead eight years (to 2003) and we find out what has—and has not—happened to Pooquie, Little Bit, and Li'l Brotha Man. Many of the questions folks have had over the years—will Raheim ever come out to Sunshine and Junior, will Mitchell ever go back to journalism, will Raheim and Mitchell get married or break up—will finally be answered. There will also be some old and new characters stirring things up. It will be out next summer, a few months before B-Boy Blues' 10th anniversary.'
And when I asked what was his favorite thing to do when he wasn't writing, he responded. 'I love to spend time with my godson, Bamm Bamm, who is 9.'
Lastly I asked Mr. Hardy for some gay and lesbian reading recommendations. These were the titles he chose...
— the bull jean stories, Sharon Bridgforth
— Ten Tongues, Reginald Harris
— Red Dirt Revival, Tim'm T. West
— The Brothers of New Essex: Afro-Erotic Adventures by Belasco
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Readers seeking some revelations regarding those long-standing lesbian rumors about Katharine Hepburn will be disappointed by Kate Remembered, the posthumous biography of the screen legend and feminist icon, by Scott Berg. Though filled with some wonderful insights and more than a bit of dish (Meryl Streep was her least favorite actress!!)—in the love department Hepburn declares emphatically that Spencer Tracy was the love of her life (a very rocky pairing due to his being married and an alcoholic), all the sapphic 'women in question' are grouped more into the chaste category of companions. Berg's book was written in cooperation with Hepburn and was the result of talks and exchanges from primarily between 1999-2001 and was scheduled to be released upon her death. It hit bookstore shelves 12 days after she died (on Chicago's gay pride day) at 96.
Thanks for reading.
