Ardennian Boy by William Maltese & Wayne Gunn

I still remember a maybe 13 years old girl who stole a book of poems from the shelves in her mother room. They were, as I read on the preface, poems that Paul Verlaine has written during his relationship with Arthur Rimbaud. Really I didn't find any clue of this relationship in that book, but I cherished the memory of this love. I remember that the preface underlined the age difference between Verlaine and Rimbaud (10 years) but said nothing about the fact that Arthur was 16 years old when he met Paul. When he coscientely and willingly seduced the older poet.

In Ardennian Boy, Arthur admits that he didn't find Paul physical attractive, seems an excuse, but in this case we can absolutely believe when Arthur says that he is attracted by the genius of Paul Verlaine, the greater poet in Paris, excluse himself of course. Even if Arthur is younger, he is the why and the how of the story. He is him who drags Paul out of his bourgeois life. But what they have together is not a romance, a pure love to leave to posterity. It is a selfdestructive relationship, brings forward by a selfish and genial boy and a whining and genial man, who apart are nothing but together are a vulcan of poetry.

And while Wayne Gunn translates for us rhymes that I truly find difficult to believe are been written more than 130 years ago (but it seems so, according to the detailed chapter where he explains how he has done the work), William Maltese tells us the life story of these two men, with a force and a writing style that make them alive again. Story and rhymes alternate themself in the book, and you can't say if it is the story which brings alive the rhymes or if they are the rhymes which give a sense to the story. During sex Arthur and Paul exchange poems as others exchange grunts and moans.

It's not a romance, all us know what the end of this real story is, and if you still believe it's a romantic story, the everyday life describes by William Maltese will remove you of any lingering dream. But even if there isn't romance, you will find a lot of love: even if Arthur says he loves only Paul's dick, and not the man, that he loves only his poetry, and not the coward man who seems not to be able to give up to his bourgeois life, even if Paul tries to set himself against the way of life Arthur wants to coax him, he only can follow this man everywhere he wants to bring him, until...

Now they say you are dead. May the devil
Torment for all eternity
The messengers who just rendered me
This news dreamed up by an imbecile!

Dead, you? No. I cannot take it in,
You, a God among lesser gods.
Those who mouth such are clods!
Dead, you, my great and radian sin,

Memories of whom still burn in my brain
And ceaselessly set my blood afire,
You it is alone who can inspire
And guide me to such feverish heights again.

Dead? Our thriumphant break-out
Raging without check, never coming to an end,
Impossible now or ever to rescind
While it lives in my heart forever devout!

You might as well say that poetry,
All philosophy, my patrimony,
And ever possibility of originality
Are dead. No; no way! You live in me.

("Les courses furent intrepides" (Laeti et Errabundi) by Paul Verlaine, collected in Parallelement, 1889. Traduzione di Wayne Gunn)

http://www.mlrpress.com/ShowBook.php?book=ARDEN001

Amazon: Ardennian Boy
Amazon Kindle: Ardennian Boy
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: MLR Press (July 14, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1934531618
ISBN-13: 978-1934531617

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Ardennian Boy by William Maltese & Wayne Gunn

I still remember a maybe 13 years old girl who stole a book of poems from the shelves in her mother room. They were, as I read on the preface, poems that Paul Verlaine has written during his relationship with Arthur Rimbaud. Really I didn't find any clue of this relationship in that book, but I cherished the memory of this love. I remember that the preface underlined the age difference between Verlaine and Rimbaud (10 years) but said nothing about the fact that Arthur was 16 years old when he met Paul. When he coscientely and willingly seduced the older poet.

In Ardennian Boy, Arthur admits that he didn't find Paul physical attractive, seems an excuse, but in this case we can absolutely believe when Arthur says that he is attracted by the genius of Paul Verlaine, the greater poet in Paris, excluse himself of course. Even if Arthur is younger, he is the why and the how of the story. He is him who drags Paul out of his bourgeois life. But what they have together is not a romance, a pure love to leave to posterity. It is a selfdestructive relationship, brings forward by a selfish and genial boy and a whining and genial man, who apart are nothing but together are a vulcan of poetry.

And while Wayne Gunn translates for us rhymes that I truly find difficult to believe are been written more than 130 years ago (but it seems so, according to the detailed chapter where he explains how he has done the work), William Maltese tells us the life story of these two men, with a force and a writing style that make them alive again. Story and rhymes alternate themself in the book, and you can't say if it is the story which brings alive the rhymes or if they are the rhymes which give a sense to the story. During sex Arthur and Paul exchange poems as others exchange grunts and moans.

It's not a romance, all us know what the end of this real story is, and if you still believe it's a romantic story, the everyday life describes by William Maltese will remove you of any lingering dream. But even if there isn't romance, you will find a lot of love: even if Arthur says he loves only Paul's dick, and not the man, that he loves only his poetry, and not the coward man who seems not to be able to give up to his bourgeois life, even if Paul tries to set himself against the way of life Arthur wants to coax him, he only can follow this man everywhere he wants to bring him, until...

Now they say you are dead. May the devil
Torment for all eternity
The messengers who just rendered me
This news dreamed up by an imbecile!

Dead, you? No. I cannot take it in,
You, a God among lesser gods.
Those who mouth such are clods!
Dead, you, my great and radian sin,

Memories of whom still burn in my brain
And ceaselessly set my blood afire,
You it is alone who can inspire
And guide me to such feverish heights again.

Dead? Our thriumphant break-out
Raging without check, never coming to an end,
Impossible now or ever to rescind
While it lives in my heart forever devout!

You might as well say that poetry,
All philosophy, my patrimony,
And ever possibility of originality
Are dead. No; no way! You live in me.

("Les courses furent intrepides" (Laeti et Errabundi) by Paul Verlaine, collected in Parallelement, 1889. Traduzione di Wayne Gunn)

http://www.mlrpress.com/ShowBook.php?book=ARDEN001

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http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Arresting Developments by James Buchanan, Josh Lanyon & L. Picaro

Story about cops and about a past you want to forget, and about doors opened in front of you that you want to pass on.

Coyote Crossing by James Buchanan: I was totally misled by the blurb and by my lack of English knowledge. When I started reading this story I was expecting a shifter story about cops. And instead Coyote is a word meaning that men who help Mexican people passing the border. Ricardo, Rick, is a gay cop, who has recently dumped his cheating boyfriend and moved again near his hometown near the Mexican border. And during a police round up he steps into Agustin, Augi, the little brother of his high school best friend. Rick is immediately attracts by Augi, even before he recognizes him, but he not dares to make a move: apart the fact that he has always considered him like a little brother, Augi can't possibile be interested in a gay relationship. And then Augi is a troubled man, with a lot problem with justice and also his family has disowned him. But he has also some surprise for Rick... A good story about the longings of your teen years and the desire to forget about a present life you bear no more and the tiny hope to build something important for the future.

In a Dark Wood by Josh Lanyon: Luke, a cop, and Tim, a journalist and travel writer, meet at a house party. A common friend wants to put them together and they oblige. During the dinner Tim tells a story about his past, an experiece he has had in a woods concerning an abandoned house and a human skull, and Luke sees a chance to get to know better Tim asking him to go together again in that place. But during their two days off Luke and Tim's relationship sees up and down, probably due to Tim's dependency to alchool. The desire to not admit his weakness makes Tim being a little nasty with Luke, but Luke is a very perfect man, ready to support and comfort the man he maybe wants to be a little more than a friend. A beautiful story that confirm my belief that Josh Lanyon is a wonderful voice in M/M romance (yes I said romance, cause I like his personal way to tell us the love).

Gamble Everything by L. Picaro: this is maybe the story with the more interesting plot but which left me with the feeling that the author has tried to tell us too much in too few pages and in too less time. Apart some problems with objects which first aren't there and then suddenly appear (pay attention to the condoms...), I have had too open doors in a story that I haven't seen closed in the end. Adam is a police officer who patrols the street of a little province town. One night he meets Marc, a former gay porn star who seems to have some trouble with unkwon stalkers who threaten his life. Both Adam and Marc are lonely (even if when Adam meets Marc, the last is coming out of a gay club...) and they share an hot sexy night which has the scope to fullfill Adam's phantasies about the well-hung porn star. But one night seems not to be enough and then Marc's problems are not still finished...

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/anthologies/male-male/arresting-developments/prod_92.html

Buy Here

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle

Arresting Developments by James Buchanan, Josh Lanyon & L. Picaro

Story about cops and about a past you want to forget, and about doors opened in front of you that you want to pass on.

Coyote Crossing by James Buchanan: I was totally misled by the blurb and by my lack of English knowledge. When I started reading this story I was expecting a shifter story about cops. And instead Coyote is a word meaning that men who help Mexican people passing the border. Ricardo, Rick, is a gay cop, who has recently dumped his cheating boyfriend and moved again near his hometown near the Mexican border. And during a police round up he steps into Agustin, Augi, the little brother of his high school best friend. Rick is immediately attracts by Augi, even before he recognizes him, but he not dares to make a move: apart the fact that he has always considered him like a little brother, Augi can't possibile be interested in a gay relationship. And then Augi is a troubled man, with a lot problem with justice and also his family has disowned him. But he has also some surprise for Rick... A good story about the longings of your teen years and the desire to forget about a present life you bear no more and the tiny hope to build something important for the future.

In a Dark Wood by Josh Lanyon: Luke, a cop, and Tim, a journalist and travel writer, meet at a house party. A common friend wants to put them together and they oblige. During the dinner Tim tells a story about his past, an experiece he has had in a woods concerning an abandoned house and a human skull, and Luke sees a chance to get to know better Tim asking him to go together again in that place. But during their two days off Luke and Tim's relationship sees up and down, probably due to Tim's dependency to alchool. The desire to not admit his weakness makes Tim being a little nasty with Luke, but Luke is a very perfect man, ready to support and comfort the man he maybe wants to be a little more than a friend. A beautiful story that confirm my belief that Josh Lanyon is a wonderful voice in M/M romance (yes I said romance, cause I like his personal way to tell us the love).

Gamble Everything by L. Picaro: this is maybe the story with the more interesting plot but which left me with the feeling that the author has tried to tell us too much in too few pages and in too less time. Apart some problems with objects which first aren't there and then suddenly appear (pay attention to the condoms...), I have had too open doors in a story that I haven't seen closed in the end. Adam is a police officer who patrols the street of a little province town. One night he meets Marc, a former gay porn star who seems to have some trouble with unkwon stalkers who threaten his life. Both Adam and Marc are lonely (even if when Adam meets Marc, the last is coming out of a gay club...) and they share an hot sexy night which has the scope to fullfill Adam's phantasies about the well-hung porn star. But one night seems not to be enough and then Marc's problems are not still finished...

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/anthologies/male-male/arresting-developments/prod_92.html

Buy Here

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading+list&view=elisa.rolle