John Francis Leonard

Here he is in all his glory. The supposedly perfect gay archetype. Handsome, virile, muscled, and perhaps with his most glaring attribute, his unavailability. Jameson Currier explores many themes in his latest collection of short stories, but the elusive “one that got away” is central to most of them. The results are a wry, witty, often self-deprecating take on desire from the more mature gay man’s point of view. The protagonists of many of these stories are settled, nuanced, experienced, and yet still filled with longing. Their days as a beauty, if they were ever perceived as that, are behind them—and while they may initially come off as insecure, they shine in defeat, the years have served them well emotionally. They have seen some things.

Often the protagonists lust after men they can’t have. There’s the swarthy office handyman who speaks in a working class patois who serves as a hilarious foil to an office drone’s desire in one of the funniest stories in the collection. The drone does locks lips with the man briefly, but ends up leaving a work event enraptured by the man he had always failed to truly see. In another story, an office regular is snowbound with an international client who inspires a lot of lust, but proves to be a chaste, if enjoyable, companion. Currier thrives on setting up his characters in impossible situations and delivering results for his main character, that while not fantastical, deliver an opportunity to see them grow. This collection, while entertaining to any reader, is particularly satisfying for the gay man “of a certain age.” One can see oneself in its protagonists, I know I did. Anyone who’s ever felt awkward or overlooked could.

Another world that Currier gives us an intimate look at, because of his own background in it, is the theater. Not necessarily the Broadway hit, more the second tier, or the flop. This device serves him well and provides much comic relief. There’s a hilarious look at a frustrated publicist’s work on a laborious musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, where the misadventures of the many characters recall Austen’s novel, although in a much more modern context. The show itself is a flop, but it’s what is going on behind the scenes that keeps both its characters and the reader engaged and laughing. In another tale, there’s a singing and dancing version of Hamlet performed with puppets in which a middle-aged office worker gets caught up in the drama, as well as the beautiful man playing the lead. Currier sees the theater world as a perfect microcosm for life in general and revels in it as a haven for the gay male, both in the closet and out of it. He does this with wry and self-deprecating humor to great result.

A major theme in much of Currier’s past work, and one which he is renowned for, is the early AIDS crisis. It’s not the main theme of this collection, but he manages to skillfully pay tribute to both those we have lost and those now living successfully with the virus. Several of his deftly-drawn protagonists have lost close lovers and friends and and those echoes are heard in their present lives and relationships. They were lovers of men now gone, as well as caretakers, often of others for whom their love may have been unrequited, but was still fully given.

This collection is very much a tribute piece to the older gay man, the guy who has not achieved all of his dreams, but his power is in the fact that he hasn’t given up—he’s not down for the count, not yet. Where there’s life, where there’s love—there’s still hope. There’s still a life affirming story to tell.

Why Didn’t Someone Warn You About Prince Charming?
by Jameson Currier
Chelsea Station Editions
Paperback, 9781937627362, 188 pp.
October 2019

So many things make up a successfully written novel—two of the most important being plot and character. Henry Alley masters both in his latest novel, Men Touching, but it’s his characters, both three-dimensional and subtly nuanced, that drive the narrative with their convincing faults and merits. This is the story of a flawed protagonist—one that’s so human and so relatable that you never stop pulling for him, even when he seems to give up on himself and in turn, those he loves.

Robb is a divorced Vietnam veteran living the life of a supposedly liberated gay man in the city of Seattle. As the book opens, he is a man in love with the beauty of men—a near obsession with the surface. He may seem to be that emancipated gay man of the mid-1980s, but he’s fighting some personal demons, such as an Ativan habit he’s ended up with due to anxiety and PTSD stemming from an incident that sent him home soon after joining the war. When he attempts to quit, he discovers he’s more in the grips of addiction than he realized, and the battle is far from over. In Robb, Alley paints a harrowing and authentic picture of substance abuse and the damage it does to an individual and those who love him. This fight with addiction reveals a serious battle for Robb’s mental health and as a reader, you’re often left wondering if he’ll ever emerge whole.

Surrounding Robb and fighting in his corner are his ex-wife, teenage step-daughter, and sister, but their love and commitment are sorely tested by Robb and his actions. Also on his side, but with his loyalty sorely tested, is Robb’s partner Bart, a high school drama teacher dealing with the loss of a dear friend to the early AIDS crisis. As with much of Alley’s work, AIDS isn’t the main theme, but because of the period in which the novel takes place, it is introduced and written about with great thought and sensitivity. It is almost another character, ringing as true as any of the characters in this piece. This is the real genius in Alley’s work—his beautifully drawn characters. You feel you know them; their motives, their attributes, their flaws all touch you deeply. Alley may be at his best when writing of gay men of a certain age, but gay or straight, he understands the human heart and what drives a person to love. He demonstrates this in this work, as well as others, writing of a gay male character’s initial relationships with women. Robb’s relationship with his ex-wife is complex and weaves in and out of his current life and partnership with Bart in ways both subtle and complex, making for a unique dynamic between the two men.

It could be said that Men Touching is a story of redemption, but it’s so much more. It’s a story of a gay man’s struggle with his identity as well as the ghosts of his past. It’s also the story of a veteran and the complex mental health issues that face the men and women returning from war. And, not least, it’s a brilliant look at the disease of addiction, and mental health in general. Alley has a firm grasp on the realities of these conditions. In the end, though, it’s something else—it’s a love story, and an unpredictable and unexpected one. Nothing comes easy for the main character: I was often on the edge of my seat, and found myself cursing his decisions and choices, as well as his fate, but I never stopped rooting for him. This is a book that will pull you into its world and the lives of the people in it. You’ll be sorry to see them go by its end, and if you’re new to this author’s work, you will now be an admirer of it.

Men Touching
By Henry Alley
Chelsea Station Editions
Paperback, 9781937627355, 300 pp.
March 2019

With one foot in historical fact and one foot beautifully in fiction, Christopher Castellini vividly reimagines one of the most fascinating partnerships of the gay literary world. The author has created a compelling narrative about the bonds of love and affection between two men: the playwright Tennessee Williams and his partner, the often overshadowed, Frank Merlo. Merlo, beloved by those closest to the celebrated Williams, still lived mostly in the playwright’s shadow. His own ambitions as an actor and dancer thwarted, Merlo functioned as William’s assistant, always getting the couple where they needed to be when they needed to be there. Leading Men is an accounting of Merlo’s time with Williams, a working-class man from New Jersey thrust onto the international stage of the mid-century’s jet set.

The novel opens in Portofino—one of the small, picturesque Italian resorts where the elite from the world of the arts, leaders of industry, and stars of the international film scene docked their yachts and gathered for pleasure by the seaside. Castellani captures this rarefied world at its louche heights. Everyone has descended on Portofino for a party thrown by Truman Capote, a friend and rival of Williams. Also introduced is  the character Anja, a beautiful Swede of sixteen on the cusp of becoming a great actress. She and her ersatz mother befriend Merlo and Williams. Likewise, the mother and daughter meet another gay American author, John Horne (‘Jack’) Burns, and his lover, Sandro Nencini. All six are the victims of a mob of young vagrants intent on sexually assaulting the young Anja, a tragic incident, that they all carry in secret, until Williams writes of it as a plot device in one of his plays. But it’s Anja and Frank who remain most central to the book’s narrative as the timeline slips back and forth from the contemporary life of an elderly Anja, the early death of Merlo in the 1960s, and the height of William’s and Frank’s fifteen-year relationship in the 1950s.

A major plot point centers on Anja, in the sunset of her years, holding on to a legacy passed to her by Williams shortly before his death; it’s a final play dedicated to Merlo. The play was written in Williams’ decline, and she’s not sure of its artistic value; however, the young son of Jack Burn’s Italian lover, himself gay, finds her. An unlikely friendship blooms between the elderly and reclusive actress and the star-struck young medical student. 

Leading Men is a finely-rendered narrative based upon some of the twentieth century’s most compelling artistic figures. It is broad in scope and lush in detail, without every tipping into sentimentality. It is a love story between two men—two men who existed in a rarefied world that accepted this relationship without judgment,at a time when the world-at-large most certainly did. The novel is also a fascinating examination of the early years of international celebrity culture. From Rome to Portofino, 1950s Italy comes to life again with its evocative landscapes and endless pleasures. Real life characters like Paul Bowles and Anna Magnani breathe again in theses pages, bringing back a time when to be famous was often coupled with great accomplishment. The novel is a compassionate snapshot of a bygone era and a beautiful, if tragic, story of love and remembrance.