Book Reviews: Paul Rudnick, Christopher Bram, and Gay Teens at Boarding School!

I confess: I love boarding school novels, especially now that they’re allowed to have openly gay content, and I don’t have to “read into” them like I did with A Separate Peace.

But I had another mixed reaction to The Hour Between (Alyson Books, $14.95), Sebastian Stuart’s novel about the goings-on at Spooner School, a dilapidated Connecticut boarding school in the late 1960s.

Teenaged Arthur McDougal has been kicked out of his tony Manhattan school and shipped off to Spooner Academy, where he is soon fast friends with the eccentric Katrina Felt, the daughter of a movie star who immediately pegs him for gay. Think Liza in Cabaret except without the green fingernails.

Like Sally Bowles, Katrina is a tragedy waiting to happen.

The book is well-written; Stuart (who is novelist Stephen McCauley’s partner) has the atmosphere down pat.

The problem is, the book is almost completely atmosphere; it has almost no plot – or, rather, a seemingly random plot. When Stuart is arrested and put in prison for smoking pot, it lasts for all of half a chapter – and never comes up again. Katrina’s “secrets,” when they’re finally revealed, are decidedly underwhelming.

Her stories about being a movie star’s daughter and getting to star in, yes, a new Kander and Ebb musical were so ridiculous that I simply assumed they were lies – but it turns out they aren’t, and we're never supposed to think they are.

Most of all, however, I was annoyed by the character of Arthur, who seemed like an adult in the body of a teenager. We’re told again and again how nervous and diffident he is, but we never see it, not when he’s arrested, not when he has sex for the first time. Frankly, I had a hard time imagining a gay teen being this self-assured in 2009, much less 1969.

Still, if you think of this book as sort of a high-brow literary fantasy – or, better still, a campy parody of the boarding school novel – you might see it as a fast, fun read.

When Michael and I decided to have our commitment ceremony in 1997 – it’s funny to think how alien the world “marriage” was only ten years ago! – we didn’t think we’d be as lost in planning it as we soon were. Once you make the leap, there’s a lot to do and not that much time to do it.

It turns out there’s a reason for all those heterosexual traditions: basically, to give the couple some guidance and keep them from being overwhelmed.

The New Essential Guide to Gay and Lesbian Wedding by Tess Ayers and Paul Brown (Alyson Books, $18.95), an updating of an earlier edition, takes the perfect approach: from every aspect of marriage, the book says, “First, here’s the tradition, and here’s the reason for it. But hey, you’re gay, you can do anything you want! Here are some clever things that other gay couples have done!")

Had I bought this book back in 1997, it would have been unimaginably helpful. Seriously! And did I mention how comprehensive this thing is? If it has anything to do with weddings, you’ll find something about it here.

Highly recommended if you or anyone you know is marrying any time soon!