Wow. just finished reading Dream Boy, and I'm speechless. It was beautiful and it's heartbreaking, violent and tender. It certainly didn't turn out how I expected it to. I guess I should have realized by now that books like this don't have a happy ending. I don't know what else to say. I don't know how I'm going to get to sleep tonight.
Has anyone else read this, or any of Grimsley's other books?
Submitted by
Matty (
678 points) (
127 posts)
on Thu, 2007-07-05 23:09.
Dream Boy, by Jim Grimsley
Matty,
I haven't read 'Dream Boy,' but I did read Grimsley's 'Boulevard,' which I loved. I had just moved to New Orleans myself when I read it, so in some ways I could relate to the young protagonist's baptism into the excesses of French Quarter life. Not as heartbreaking a read as 'Dream Boy' seems to have been for you, but definitely a worthwhile trip. I had the pleasure of meeting the author in - of all places - New Orleans, and he couldn't have been more gracious.
-Sal Sapienza
www.70x7book.com
Cool I'll have to try to
Dream Boy is an amazing book!
I was so shocked by the
Thanks for the tips...
I'm an avid reader but am kind of new to things gay. I will look for these books. That way it will give my other favorite authors to write more books I haven't read. :)
Any other suggestions?
My favourite is At Swim, Two
Checking It Out This Weekend
Finished Dream Boy
on my vacation and it really was top-notch. One of the better books I have read this year (and I have read nearly 50!).
Cheers
JBE
I'm glad you liked it. I
Just Finished
"Leave Myself Behind" by Bart Yates, it was recommended by Brett Hartinger. Very good, especially the main character, Noah.
Cheers
JBE
Oh I just read that one too.
The Year of Ice
by Brian Malloy is next on my list, hopefully by Sunday I will have finished it and let you know what I thought.
Cheers
JBE
Oh The Year of Ice is on my
Oh The Year of Ice is on my list too, I haven't managed to find it yet though. Sounds really good though. Aren't they making it a movie?
The last one I read was The World of Normal Boys, by K.M. Soehnlein. I thought it started off slow but by the end I loved it. It was a good journey for the main character, he really came full circle.
Finished "The Year of Ice"
last night, it was good but I think I preferred "Leaving Myself Behind". I found Noah a more endearing character, and overall "Leaving Myself Behind" had a funnier, more upbeat tone. That being said, I could relate to Kevin's predicament in "The Year of Ice". He turned 18 the same year I did, 1978. Like Kevin, I felt I was the only gay person in the world, back then you really did feel isolated and alone (no internet, sigh)!
Cheers
JBE
I'd like to get The Year Of
I'd like to get The Year Of Ice sometime soon. They're making it a movie, right?
The last one I read was Sea of Tranquility by Paul Russell. I really loved it. It's one of my favourites. The characters were great, and I liked how it was told from the perspective of four characters instead of just one. (I think I would have liked Leave Myself Behind better if it was told like that instead of just from Noah's perspective... although I did love Noah but a lot of the other characters I didn't understand as well.) You should check out Sea of Tranquility if you haven't already. :)
Thanks for the tip
I will look for Sea of Tranquility. I just finished "Commons Sons" by Ronald Donaghe. Quite good, I especially like the fact that it took place in a small community in the 60's, not the mainstream gay community (New York, SF, P-Town). It was also unabashedly romantic which I also like, being a monogamous kind of guy of myself. I am now part way through "A Secret Edge" by Robin Reardon which was reviewed in the summer by AfterElton. As good as the review said it was. It is neat in that one of the love interests is South Asian (Indian). I have seen some pretty remarkable looking Indian men, but only recently have they been coming out in the Gay community in Toronto.
I also took out of the library "So Hard to Say" by Alex Sanchez and "The Men From The Boys" by William Mann. I will let you know how they are.
Cheers
JBE
I'll have to try and find
I'll have to try and find Common Sons and A Secret Edge... I think I remember reading about that here on the site before.
How is So Hard To Say? I absolutely love Rainbow Boys by Sanchez, it was the first gay book I read, but I didn't think his other ones sounded as good.
I just read Winter Birds by Jim Grimsley, the same author as Dream Boy. It was good but not what I was expecting. It wasn't about a gay boy at all, for some reason I thought it was. It was also written in like second person, which was kind of weird. It wasn't a bad book, just not what I was expecting. Dream Boy is definitely better though. :)
The boy in Winter Birds
The boy in Winter Birds is one of the main characters of Comfort and Joy, also a very good book. I love Grimsley's books, too. There's a collection of his plays, Mr. Universe and other plays, which I'd recommend to people who like his novels.
A recent book I loved is Neil Bartlett's Skin Lane. A very weird book set in the 60's, about a repressed skin cutter who works for a fun manufacturer. Exquisitely written.
A book from last year I read this summer is You Can Say You Knew Me When by K.M. Soehnlein, where a gay guy comes home after his father's death and discovers some rather surprising things about the father. That doesn't sound very original, but it's well-written and moving.
François
---------------
http://gaycomicslist.free.fr
I haven't picked up Comfort
I haven't picked up Comfort and Joy yet, but it's definitely been on my list for a while. I do have My Drowning by Grimsley that I've yet to read. It sounds good (although probably not gay).
I'm sure I would like You Can Say You Knew Me When. I'll have to look that up. Skin Lane sounds strange... probably worth looking up too though. Thanks. :)
Matty - My Latest Reads
Well I finished "Hard To Say" by Alex Sanchez and "The Men From the Boys" by William Mann this week. I liked "Hard To Say" although not quite as much as the Rainbow trilogy (all 3 are very good, especially the first and third). It was geared more to gays in their early teen years. The main character Xio (a girl) was very endearing. Overall it was worth reading.
"The Men From the Boys" was good but at times irritating due to the main character Jeff. He was a definite candidate for a Dr. Phil appearance, although I suspect Dr. Phil would have tried to strangle him half way through the show! Jeff is selfish, self-absorbed, self-centred, etc.. He does have some endearing qualities but his neurotic self-absorption was getting on my nerves half way through the book. I will read the next two William Mann books, but I am going to take a bit of a break from Jeff!
I just ordered from Amazon.ca the following:
"Seventy times Seven" by Salvatore Sapienza
"Vintage" by Steve Berman
"Strings Attached" by Nick Nolan
"When You Don't See Me" by Timothy Beck
I decided to order online because of the discounts. Also it pisses me off when I walk into a bookstore and the Canadian price is 20% higher than the US price. Hello out there Canadian $ now 1.04 to US $!
I will let you know what I think when I finish them.
Cheers
JBE
I've put off checking out So
I've put off checking out So Hard to Say, but I'll have to try and find it now. :)
I'm surprised you think Rainbow Road is better than Rainbow High. Rainbow Road just seemd sort of random to me... I liked the ending though, and the dude Nelson ended up with.
Yeah I really hope the price of books goes down. I hate paying 18-22$ a book, and that's softcover. The 12$ american price would be pretty hot.
I haven't read any gay themed books for a bit. Gotta find some more. I'm hoping to start the Gossip Girl series soon.
Rainbow High
if I remember correctly had Nelson falling for an HIV+ guy. The mother's reaction I found a bit much (although understandable I guess), and all the young HIV+ guys kind of depressing. Rainbow Road was funny in parts, and I liked the growing bond between Nelson & Jason, and Kyle's indecision regarding his relationship with Jason was very realistic.
I finally finished Edmund White's "The Beautiful Room Is Empty". It was very well written but is a memoir so it is quite a different read then the fiction I have been absorbed in.
I ordered from Biblio.com the two Killian Kendall mystery stories by Josh Aterovis, they should get here by the weekend. I am really looking forward to them, gay mystery stories, what more could I ask for!
Cheers
JBE
hey, haven't posted in a
hey, haven't posted in a while, sorry.
I guess you're right about Rainbow High. I just thought Rainbow Road was kind of cheesy, like they went on a roadtrip and ran into all the different kinds of gay people. Just was kind of random to me.
I've just read The Charioteer by Mary Renault and I loved it. It's definitely one of my favourite books. It reminded me a lot of At Swim, Two Boys, which is my favourite book. I definitely recommend it if you haven't read it yet.
Now I'm reading Equal Affections by David Leavitt. It's really great too. I love the way he writes.
I'm gonna check right now and see if any of the books you've mentioned are at my library. :)
Thanks for the recommendation
I will check out The Charioteer, your taste in books has not let me down yet! I am reading At Swim, Two Boys now and really like it. I read David Leavitt years ago and liked his books. Some people find David Leavitt's politics objectionable, I am not sure what they mean by that.
Cheers
JBE
I finished Equal
I finished Equal Affections, I thought it was great. I didn't notice anything odd about his politics, not sure what they might mean by that either.
I looked for the books you've recommended at the library, they only had Common Sons but it wasn't actually on the shelf so I'm getting them to track it down. Hopefully they'll find it. In the meantime, I checked out The Beauty Queen by Patricia Nell Warren, someone else recommended her other book The Front Runner but that wasn't there so I got this one to give it a try. I also have a bunch of books of my own that I haven't gotten to yet, but I seem to be on a library kick lately.
The Front Runner
is excellent, actually a ground-breaking novel in the genre of gay fiction. Amazingly it was written by a straight woman. My next book to read is "Changing Times" by Paul Russell, could not find "Sea of Tranquility" in the library hopefully soon.
Cheers
JBE
What's Changing Times about?
The Coming Storm
is the title not Changing Times, I was mistaken. It takes place at a boys boarding school and involves a married couple, a young gay teacher, and a troubled 15 year old boy. It is narrated by all four characters. It looks really interesting, I will have to read it quickly though it is due Friday.
Cheers
JBE
That sounds pretty good.
That sounds pretty good. I'll definitely have to look for it.
I'm almost done The Beauty Queen. It's really good. It's offered a lot of insight into how the crazy conservatives think. And there's all this activism going on in it and it makes me appreciate how far we've come and how lucky I am to live now.
I finished The Beauty
I finished The Beauty Queen, I really liked it. The characters were a lot different than what I'm used to - a lesbian couple, a bear couple, an older gay couple, and the Christian conservative politician fighting to get rid of the gay rights bill. I thought it was really well written.
Now I'm reading Common Sons and totally loving it. I don't want it to end!
Yes Common Sons
is great, romantic and very different because it takes place in a small town, not a big city. The Beauty Queen sounds very interesting. Right now I am reading "Seventy Times Seven" by AE reader Sal Sapienza, very good and quite a different plot from other gay novels.
Cheers
JBE
Sounds cool. I haven't read
Reading the follow up
to Common Sons, "The Blind Season". It is just about as good as the first one. Joel and Tom decide to have a child through a surrogate mother. Pretty brave for 1971! The best part of these books is the relationship of Joel and Tom. Very likable and believable characters.
I just finished "Strings Attached" by Nick Nolan. I really liked it. I have not read a bad gay book for awhile. Mind you I do my research first before I open the book up by reading reviews on Amazon.com.
Cheers
JBE
Even though I have a billion
I finished The Blind Season.
Glad you liked it
the next book is a very different kettle of fish! "The Salvation Mongers" is very good but not a feel good book at all. It is about a Christian Fundamentalist camp to "cure" homosexuals of their sinful ways. Very grim in parts. I should finish tonight, then on to the last book. Josh Aterovis's two mystery stories just arrived today from Amazon. I have already read them, but these are the 2nd editions, and the first book "Bleeding Hearts" is quite extensively revised so I will read it after finishing Ronald Donaghe's series.
Cheers
JBE
What are you reading now? I
"Where The Boys Are"
by William J. Mann. I am enjoying it so far, more so than his first book "The Boys From The Men". It is interesting because it takes place on the circuit party scene which I did not get involved with when I was single. Also one of the main characters is a likable guy who starts moonlighting as a male escort to make extra cash (a lot of extra cash).
I finished "The War Against The Animals" by Paul Russell last weekend. I really like his writing, I am going to try and get "The Sea of Tranquility" out of the library but it seems very popular.
Cheers
JBE
I'm sure you'll love Sea of
I'm sure you'll love Sea of Tranquility once you can find it! It's one of my faves. I'd definitely like to read more from Paul Russell.
I'm still reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt. There is a gay character in it but he's not a very good one really. I'm still only about half way through the book though, maybe he'll get better. The book itself is really good.
The Charioteer...
I finished Equal Affections
I haven't read it...
Oh yay. :) I hope you'll
Another good historically-based love story...
Thanks I'll definitely have
At Swim, Two Boys
was great! I was not totally surprised by the ending, I know something about that part of Irish History. The characters were very engrossing to say the least, and that is half the battle for an author to make their characters interesting and human, not two-dimensional.
I am now well into the "The Coming Storm" by Paul Russell. I can understand why you liked "Sea of Tranquility" it is interesting having a book told by four different people. Not something that is easy to do I would think.
Cheers
JBE
Yes I so love the characters
The Coming Storm
Thanks for the thumbs up
review, I am glad it is not too preachy. Relationships between people in their 20's and those in their mid teens is not as rare as people think (although I must admit I have never found 15 year old guys attractive, bad skin, bad attitude, etc.). Tchaikowsky used to pick up 14 and 15 year old male hustlers. He thought 18 was too old!
Cheers
JBE
Comfort and Joy
Comfort and Joy is another Grimsley novel that I would highly recommend.