In the Spotlight: Dale Peck

[reviews_and_ramblings]

The Book: Sprout Bradford has a secret. It’s not what you think—he’ll tell you he’s gay. He’ll tell you about his dad’s drinking and his mother’s death. The green fingerprints everywhere tell you when he last dyed his hair. But neither the reader nor Sprout are prepared for what happens when Sprout suddenly finds he’s had a more profound effect on the lives around him than he ever thought possible. Sprout is both hilarious and gripping; a story of one boy at odds with the expected.

Amazon: Sprout

Other Books in the List:

Body Surfing: A Novel (2010) - Amazon: Body Surfing

The Author: Dale Peck was born on Long Island in 1967, moved to Kansas when he was seven, then returned to the East Coast to attend college at Drew University.

In 1993, he published his first novel, Martin and John, which the New York Times called “a brilliant debut.” Two more novels followed: The Law of Enclosures (1996), which was adapted into a feature film by John Greyson starring Sarah Polley and Diane Ladd, and Now It's Time to Say Goodbye (1998), which prompted Michiko Kakutani of the Times to write: “All of thirty years old, Mr. Peck has more than fulfilled the promise of his first two novels: he has taken on the same big themes Toni Morrison tried with less success to address in Paradise…and delivered a novel commensurate with his ambitions.”

Five years later, Peck published a memoir-cum-novel, What We Lost (2003), which was, however, overshadowed by the attention bestowed on his book of literary criticism, Hatchet Jobs, and its most notorious review, that of Rick Moody’s The Black Veil. Its famous first line* became the subject of thousands of reviews, blog entries, and a profile in the New York Times Magazine, as well as a good old-fashioned bitch slapping and one (slightly sour) pie in the face. Since then, Peck has published two novels for children, Drift House (2005) and The Lost Cities (2007), one young adult novel, Sprout (2009), and a literary thriller, Body Surfing, (2009).

The Garden of Lost and Found, which was to have been published in 2007 by Carrol and Graf before that company was bought and dissolved by Perseus Books, is currently on hold while Peck finishes the trilogy The Gate of Orpheus, which he is co-authoring with Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes; the first book, Shift, is due out in September 2010.

Peck lives in New York City with his boyfriend, Lou Peralta, where he teaches in the Graduate Writing Program of the New School.

http://dalepeck.com/

Top 100 Gay Novels List (*)

External Link to the Top100 Gay Novels List (simple - without photos)

External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (wanted - with photos)

*only one title per author, only print books released after January 1, 2000.

Note: I remember to my friends that guest reviews of the above listed books (the top 100 Gay Novels) are welcome, just send them to me and I will post with full credits to the reviewer.

Other titles not in the top 100 list:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/top50MM