Some Men Are Lookers

by Ethan Mordden | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 031219336x Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 10/15/2004
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Friday, October 15, 2004
This is the fourth of Mordden's enchanting "Buddies" cycle, and - so far - the last (though I thought the previous book, Everybody Loves You, was the last, too, so perhaps there's hope for another sequel someday). [Update, August 2005: there is another sequel: How's Your Romance: Concluding the Buddies Cycle. I'm almost afraid to read it, though; I don't want the series to end...]

[One of many books I've read-but-not-journalled; will catch up soon!]

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Friday, January 7, 2005
Still trying to catch up on my huge to-be-journalled stack. I read this book in early August of 2004, and I think it was one of the founding members of the read-but-not-journalled club. I loved the book and wanted to write a thorough and enticing review, complete with many of the quotes that I'd marked (the book's still studded with little bits of torn-up-bookmark) - but I kept putting it off because I wanted to take the time to do it right, rather than just dashing off a few comments, and the longer I waited the more other books needed journalling, and the less time I felt I had to address this one... And to complicate matters, I finished The Fall of the Kings at about the same time, and there were aspects of both books that made me want to compare and contrast them, so I had to do two complete journal entries AND the comparison, and it felt like such a big task that I just kept putting it off.

Well. That was all just silly. I'm going to journal the book now, and if it isn't the masterpiece of critical review that I'd been envisioning, tough! [Oh, and this may contain spoilers; I love talking about the characters so much I get carried away.]

This is the fourth book of Ethan Mordden's "Buddies" series (which you should read before tackling this one or you'll miss all the backstory and much of the fun). I simply loved the first three, and was delighted to find this one, although I had also been dreading it a bit because I'd had hints that it would include the breakup of one of my favorite fictional couples. And, in fact, it did - but the way it was hinted at, led up to, carried out, and dealt with was, while sad and a bit tormenting, also satisfying and believable. [It also left the ends dangling - literally; the book ends with this line: "I made no remark, because, for the first time in this series, I haven't the vaguest idea what happens next."]

We open with the households arranged as they were at the end of Everybody Loves You; the narrator, Bud, seems resigned - rather happily so - to be settling in with Cosgrove. Here, Cosgrove has decided he wants to build an arcane and wondrous CD collection, with Bud's approval and guidance:
"I am sympathetic to anyone who surrenders his independence in worship of the unjust and vindictive god Demento, who rules over all obsessed collectors. Gods, of course, are the mythological idealization of fathers, and all known mythologies are heterosexually man-made. But Demento has his campy side. He likes to be thought of as dread, yet he'll materialize in a Sabu take-a-peek loincloth and Rochell Hudson fuck-me-or-I'll-scream-the-place-down wedgies. Cosgrove fears and serves him.
"Is it rare enough?" he worried when he considered buying the Swedish Phantom [of the Opera] on a visit to the show buff's specialty shop, Footlight Records. I told him, "It's outlandishly expensive, it's incomprehensible, and it's available in only two place in the entire world - this store and Sweden." Still Cosgrove pondered. Then I said, "Just think, no more than five or six Americans will own that album. This is unique."
"I'm coming, Demento!" cried Cosgrove. He blew his bank account on it - double-disc CDs imported from Sweden run to fifty bucks or so. But Demento was content.

Despite the domestic tranquility and buddy-hood, all is not well; Virgil, once known as Little Kiwi, is over 30 now and no longer a man-child, and has been gradually asserting more independence from the increasingly curmudgeonly Dennis Savage. Dennis tries to behave as if he doesn't care - as if he's quite content to see Virgil go his way, and wouldn't dream of trying to stop him; but it's clear that he is not taking this well at all. There's a lovely little byplay between him and Bud about this:
"You know," I said, as they vanished around the corner, "I keep thinking of questions that Virgil and Cosgrove left out of their sex survey. Essential ones - like 'How do you hold your lover?'"
[Dennis Savage] nodded as we went back inside.
"But what's your answer?" I said.
"It depends on the lover. You hold a fine, eager young chap by teaching him. They love that - getting smarter, more powerful. You hold an older, perhaps more sturdy man by sharing his sorrows and celebrating his victories."
"How do you hold Virgil?"
"I did, for fourteen years, by giving him structure, entertainment, and praise. I was his college, emotionally, psychologically, and culturally."
"Fourteen years is a long college."
"Yet everybody is graduated sooner or later."
We got into the elevator.
"How do you hold Cosgrove, while we're at it?"
"I don't. He has nowhere else to go."
"I knew we weren't going to get a straight answer on that. I just wanted to enjoy hearing you finesse your way around the question for the hundredth time. 'He has nowhere else to go' - as if he were checking into a hotel during a blizzard."
"Ah, here's my floor," I said, doing an exit.

[By way of contrast, later on Bud and Cosgrove go to Venice, and Bud makes a point of encouraging Cosgrove to explore on his own, complimenting him on his independence - but also cuddling him and finally (finally!) admitting to an endearment or two. Coming from Bud this is huge. And incredibly sweet.]

Much of this book is about growing up, moving on, taking chances - and comparing the risk of loving someone with the risk of not loving. And since the relationships here include friendship and familial affection as well as romantic love (and a good bit of lust) - and sometimes the same people feel all of these things for each other - the changing of relationships is more complex and far-reaching than a simple breakup might be. I sympathized with Virgil's desire to finally grow up and set out on his own - but I also sympathized with poor repressed Dennis, whose "draw back and remain stolid" coping technique may well have backfired bigtime. But is there a chance...?

The various courting dances and partings ebb and flow, and near the end things take a turn that surprised me quite a bit - and which, as I've said, remain unresolved. As does the fate of the newest member of the household, rent-boy Billy, who came under very bad auspices but managed to win people over anyway. So there must be a sequel, if only to find out what happens to him; maybe Carlo needs a houseboy?

[I've quoted too much here already, and it was tough to keep it to that. But I wanted to post another quote in the "what's on page 43" thread of the Book Talk forum, as page 43 of this book just happened to include a cute have-you-read-this duel in which I think I only recognized one or two of the authors and only one of the titles. Click here for the forum post.]

Released 3 yrs ago (6/7/2020 UTC) at LFL - Main St. #263, Revive Recovery Center in Nashua, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in the Little Free Library outside the Revive Center; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2020 Pride LGBTQ challenge. ***

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