Saturday, April 16, 2011

How's Your Romance/Ethan Mordden/288 pp.

Subtitled "concluding the 'Buddies' Cycle", How's Your Romance is the last in a series of Mordden novels about a group of gay men living in New York City. The narrator, Bud, is loosely based on Mordden himself, a writer and known authority on Broadway musicals. Unlike many gay novels, which deal with the coming-out process or with the effects of the AIDS epidemic, the "Buddies" novels tell stories about a group of friends who also, incidentally, happen to be gay. The "coming out" and AIDS topics are included, but the novels deal with them as parts of the overall gay experience.
Mordden is one of my favorite writers; his sense of humor matches mine, and his attempts to show that gay people are humans too really hit home to me. Unlike characters in such gay "standards" as The Boys in the Band and the TV series "Queer as Folk", Mordden's group truly care for each other; they may tease, but they avoid really hurting one another.
The theme to this final volume in the cycle seems to be change. Bud's cousin, Ken, belongs to a group of gym-bunny "Chelsea Boys", only interested in surface topics and sex. Ken realizes that it's time for him to mature a bit and step away from these so-called "friends". Bud's naive young lover, Cosgrove, is forced to understand that his former best friend "J" ("Little Kiwi" or "Virgil" in previous stories) has changed and is no longer interested in the crazy activities they used to do together. And by the end of the novel, a "straight dude" roommate of one of the guys comes to the realization that he is gay.
As I said before, I really love Mordden's writing. This volume is perhaps not as strong as previous chapters of the "Buddies" cycle, but it's still a very enjoyable read. I heartily recommend it to "budding homos" and "curious breeders" alike!

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