As Meet Loves Salt

[Rod Hagen]

This book looks compelling. Anything that's sold in a Gay Bookstore, and yet manages to receive plaudits from The Economist, gets my attention. Anybody read it? Thoughts?

[duke37]

I got turned onto the book by Will. It was discussed here briefly at the first of the year. To put it simply the book rocked!

 

From what I gather the historical setting is spot on and the depiction of homosexuals in the time period reflects the best research available. All I know was I read it and felt like I was in a different world.

 

And the author, like a lot of woman erotic writers, can really write a hot scene.

 

Jeff

[larbord]

This book is extremely well written. I found it interesting that for the first half of the book, the hero really pissed me off, but, by the end, I found myself misting up over what was happening to him. I would be curious to know if others felt the same.;-)

[Samai139]

Yes, I agree with you. I was antagonized and annoyed and yet fascinated at the same time. I kept looking at the author's name to make sure it was a woman writing this. Very believable exchanges, dialogue, etc. A very worthwhile read for anyone---gay, straight, bi, confused, whatever.

[phage]

A very good read. I also picked it up when Will mentioned it. It’s full of the kind of detail that appeals to people who are fond of historical fiction. It’s more than a mere period piece and may seem a bit tedious if you’re expecting lots of action or romance and don’t enjoy the minutia of historical fiction.

 

Unlike most of the other posters, I never grew to like the protagonist. I thought Jacob was stupid and violent until the bitter end. However, that certainly didn’t ruin the book for me. It says a lot about the book that I got teary eyed even though I couldn’t stand him.

[Rod Hagen]

Thanks everyone, and uhm....MEAT, oops.

[Guest ortrud45]

It's Will's merit as well that I bought this book.

 

I liked the meticulously portrayed historical background ... but a fiction-novel of this kind is in need of strong charismatic heroes to fully display it's beauty and to keep the interest of the reader ...

the author did not let me down! Yet I would not say that it is an

absolute page-turner.

The two main characters have a lot of facets: Jacob is a very complex character (he is not the usual congenial hero). From time to time I really got pissed off at him, but yet he is the richer portrayed character, more fascinating than his friend. Strangely enough I just

realize that I don't remember the firstname of the latter! Coincidence or not?

 

All in all this book provides hours of more than good reading, I re-

commend it.

 

Have a pleasant day, ortrud 45

[Will]

It's certainly gratifying to know that people followed my suggestion that they read AS MEAT LOVES SALT. It's even more gratifying that they actually liked it. After all, to borrow a phrase, one man's meat is another man's poison.

 

With that caveat in mind, I also recommend Jamie O'Neill's AT SWIM, TWO BOYS. It's been mentioned already in another thread, but I didn't comment because I hadn't begun reading it. Now I have, and I think many of you would like it very much. Knowing what I do about the tastes of some of our participants here, however, I'd make two comments:

 

1. In my memory, this is the most thoroughgoing literary attempt to understand the inner lives of gay men and to turn those lives into high art. I'm almost 2/3 of the way through it, and haven't yet encountered a hot scene. There may be some coming, but I don't really care. The loving scrutiny with which O'Neill investigates the nature of love between men, moving from an erotic friendship between two boys to a romantic erotic attachment across generations, is unparalleled by any writer I can think of, with the possible exception of Walt Whitman.

 

2. With that in mind, potential readers should also realize that AT SWIM is serious literature, deliberately and self-consciously written as art. If you don't like what's called "fine writing," don't attempt it. If you aren't willing to give a novel the first one hundred pages, don't attempt it. If you aren't willing to think about the vast historical context into which the narrative is set with the care of a diamond in a Tiffany setting, don't attempt it. If you aren't amenable to the kind of prose I'm about to quote, don't attempt it.

 

To help you decide whether or not to have a go at it, here is a little sample from page 108. These are some of the most beautiful sentences I have read in a long, long time. They describe a woman carrying a load of laundry in one arm and a baby in another:

 

"How proud she walked and softly sang. The air carried over the listening lawns. Beyond the lawns the sea glistened and her song had the breezy yawn of the sea as softly she sang to her slumbering child and her humble burden she carried."

 

At last, a contemporary fiction writer has ennobled us -- I know no better word -- with exquisite prose. In my opinion, of living gay authors only Edmund White comes even close.

[Rod Hagen]

Wow, thanks for that bit out of "At Swim" Will. I'm actually leaning toward stepping away from Gay literaure for awhile, despite this post, and catching up on some other interests; this weekend my friend told me that the latest Paul Theroux is one of his best.

 

However, that said, I do like to keep Literary Porn next to the John (just finished Flesh and the Word 2, and was most impressed by Aaron Travis' "Slave" as well as "Kit", by Robert Patrick), so what I'm doing is looking for other works by my favorite authors in both collections, FW 1 and 2 (I've ordered FW 3, and also Michael Lowenthal's latest collection). I'd prefer to find short stories, free, on the internet to print and keep in the head, however I'm also looking on Amazon.com, which brings me to my next questions (maybe we should have a book forum)

1. has anyone read "Understanding the Male Hustler" by Phil Andros? It seems like great bathroom material.

2. Where, if anywhere, are some free copies of other work by some of the greats of these collections available online (duh, not "Nifty" :-) I can list some other favorite authors of Cerebral Porn if you need me to.

 

Thank you.