Covering Eddy

       

 

The covers for The End of Eddy  (reading left to right, top to bottom): French, English, and (gasp) American (is this the promised end!?). The very end, lower right, is Eddy or Édouard himself. Publishers would have to be crazy (and don't we know already they are) not to use this somewhere on the cover (back, inside or outside flap). M. Louis, at 24, has already accomplished enough to have his own (and quite respectable) Wikipedia page. (No, I'm not going to provide a link. You all know how to wiki-pedia, non? )

"The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness"

This interesting essay by Michael Hobbes has just been published online in the HuffPo's new Highline series. It argues, with stories and studies, that gay men have never been more isolated! Partly that's the bedrock matter of spending time in the Closet and having to Come Out of It (or to Stay In It). Partly, however, it's about the increased fetishization of the male body and its widespread imprinting in us from our easy access to pornography. Plus, the depersonalizingly efficient hook-up apps like Grindr.

Puzzlingly absent from his discussion are his friends, his buddies, the guys you hang with when you go to the bar or wherever. Even Millenials who watched Queer As Folk know about that, at least "about" that. The public space has become vacant. Friends need to be made there, even if they can be kept in private.

Gay Travels in the Muslim World

I told Sir Edmund (my GBE) my concerns about Tangier sounding jaded in Joe Ambrose's story "Tenth Story Love Song."  His response: "Tangier is divine!  Straight teens will slow dance with you."

"The End of Eddy" by Édouard Louis …

— will be released on May 2!

"Before I had a chance to rebel against the world of my childhood, that world rebelled against me. In truth, confronting my parents, my social class, its poverty, racism and brutality came second. From early on I provoked shame and even disgust from my family and others around me. The only option I had was to get away somehow. This book is an effort to understand all that.”

The End of Eddy  has been enthusiastically received in the UK and that nearby continent. Amazon is offering a pre-order price guarantee of $23. New (cheaper!) copies of the British paperback are available through third-parties. I'm very eager to read this. Should I wait or should I buy!

Yet another Bookmen DC title in the news!

Writing in today's Washington Post, Book World Editor Ron Charles reports that Garth Greenwell is one of the finalists for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for What Belongs to You, which we discussed back in January.  Are we astute judges of literary talent or what?!