reviews_and_ramblings | The Inside Reader: Gary Martine

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir Mitchell

Kingsley & I and its sequel are probably two of the most strange novels I have ever read, but at the same time enthralling. I really think they are out of the "average" league, and so is probably the author, Gary Martine. I think Gary Martine's list is as fascinating as his novels, mixing together classic authors with modern novels, and maybe, classic authors writing modern novels.

Gary Martine's Inside Reader List

As a writer of m/m erotic romance, I find it awkward, at best, to state publicly that while I greatly enjoy writing in this genre, I am a very limited reader of it. This is NOT because I believe there's less literary quality in m/m erotic romance than in other genres, and I do have some definite "favorites," but rather because I find the best in this genre to be intensely personal. Another way of saying this is that it has everything to do with what I'm personally looking for when I write or read.

One personal interest that seems more consistent over the years is that I love to write and read on the fringes, at the edge, in the grey rather than the black and white. For me, a good m/m read is more than two guys (or gals for that matter) having feeling sex. While it's arguable that that in itself is "on the fringes," my own experience, and it seems to me that of history's, is that more people than anyone can guess have at least experimented passionately or lovingly with same-sex sometime during their lifetime. No, what I'm talking about are issues of what m/m erotic romance means; how, against social mores, one comes to this and, if desirable, how one maintains such a relationship; what forms it eventually takes; what directions it eventually goes. I'm not so interested in the morality as the practice in an all-to-real, often intolerant and sometimes hostile world. Part of being "on the fringe" is knowing you are and over a lifetime, coming to grips with that in one way or another. That's the part that intrigues me.

1) Like most writers and readers I know, I love a good story. In that vein, I must recommend my first albeit somewhat dark choice: ARDENNIAN BOY by William Maltese and Wayne Gunn, two writer's I personally admire. When I began writing, a writer friend recommended that I master writing three particular things: love, sex and violence. THE ARDENNIAN BOY epitomizes these "to the max" as only a couple master m/m erotic romance writers could accomplish. It is the retelling of a tumultuous physical love affair between the two historical poets, Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. It is not an HEA (happily ever after) romantic fantasy, and yet it is, as both men, in the end, rise to the pinnacle of their creative powers as a result of their relationship. But, in the end, what relationship? Where does such creative critical mass ultimately lead? Harsh, sometimes brutal, but forever memorable, I regard THE ARDENNIAN BOY as the piece de resistance in my personal library.

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: MLR Press (July 14, 2008)
Publisher Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=ARDEN001
ISBN-10: 1934531618
ISBN-13: 978-1934531617
Amazon: ARDENNIAN BOY

Ardennian Boy has been named a 2008 Lambda Finalist in the GLBT Erotica category! Ardennian Boy, from coauthors William Maltese and Drewey Wayne Gunn, is historical romance and literary erotica blended into one masterful novel. Maltese's sensuous prose retells the tumultuous love affair between poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, while Gunn's lyrical translations of their bawdy gay poems, woven naturally into the fabric of the story, enlighten even as they arouse. Together, the two authors bring this singular love story brilliantly to life. Arthur Rimbaud is an untamed teenage savage from the French provinces, randy and ready to try any and everything, convinced that a life of unbridled excess is the true pathway to great poetry. Rimbaud's creative outburst is consumed in the decadence of his lifestyle by the time he is barely out of his teens, but not before he has established himself as one of history's greatest poets, hailed today as one of the fathers of the French "symbolist" movement - and not before he has nurtured Paul Verlaine from a passable poet into a great one. Paul Verlaine is a henpecked, closeted and probably bisexual husband who is trapped in an undesirable marriage, and totally unprepared for the whirlwind that engulfs him when Rimbaud appears in his life. In the end, Verlaine too defies the conventions of his day, and though he finds himself ultimately reviled by polite society for his incendiary relationship with the younger poet, Verlaine emerges from it not only a great poet in his own right, but a major figure in French literature. In tracing their gay heritage through some of the most influential men of letters and of politics from his day back to ancient Greece, he becomes one of the proponents of gay historical studies. Often condemned for the frankness of their relationship, these two men stand today alongside Whitman and Wilde as literary pioneers in the struggle for gay rights in the 19th century. Maltese and Gunn have captured that frankness with unprecedented exuberance.

2) An m/m historical erotic romance far ahead of its time that has a singular place in my personal library, THE PERSIAN BOY by Mary Renault, is the life story of a eunuch set during the rise and fall of Alexander the Great's reign. I love it as a story of awakening m/m erotic romance between a young man forever denied his physical right to procreate, and another with everything he could ever hope to have, except that once-in-a-lifetime selfless love coupled with unbridled passion that we all wish for. Neither, in Renault's compelling story, was born to same-sex love, but each finds in it, something that he values. It is the circuitous path of their slowly-evolving, dialectically cultural, flagrantly dangerous relationship and its unique outcome that make this one of my precious, lifelong rereads.

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Vintage (February 12, 1988)
Publisher Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780394751016
ISBN-10: 0394751019
ISBN-13: 978-0394751016
Amazon: THE PERSIAN BOY

“It takes skill to depict, as Miss Renault has done, this half-man, half Courtesan who is so deeply in love with the warrior.”–The Atlantic Monthly. The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

3) Lest I give the impression that it is mere historicity that I find compelling, I would like to commend a work by myself, written under the pen name of Raymond Gaynor, and William Maltese entitled TOTAL MELTDOWN. Originally written as complex exploration of the boundaries between gay/non-gay love and sex, and set in the present during the tempestuous economic meltdown of the United States, this "sleeper" novel released by Borgo Press in 2009 is also one of my personal favorites. The just-elected, heterosexual President must turn to Tripler and Clarke, a gay couple and two of his most trusted political aides, who in turn must turn to sexually-undecided Amelie, a frustrated Canadian political aide, and her weak, though staunchly heterosexual political partner, Phillipe, whose primary goal is the sexual conquest of Amelie. In the process of "saving" the United States, political, economic and sexual boundaries are constantly challenged and crossed. What results is a new definition of not only what makes the United States economically but also sexually strong. Oh, and I can't leave out the unforgetable gay misogynist Generalissimo Ramon Jose Ramirez de Sant Anna - General "Bad Ass" Mal Culo to the countless numbers of soldiers he samples once and never again. If a potent mixture of fictituous murder, mayhem, erotica and adventure are your cup of tea, I heartily recommend this fun favorite of mine that was as entertaining to write with William as it is when I re-read.

Paperback: 162 pages
Publisher: Borgo Press (August 27, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1434403556
ISBN-13: 978-1434403551
Amazon: TOTAL MELTDOWN

President-Elect Mathias "Alexander the Great" Jackson learns on election eve that the current President has resigned with over a trillion dollars in petroleum securities, leaving the US leaderless and facing an economic crisis of unparalleled proportions. President Jackson, wrongly accused of manufacturing the crisis, turns to his two must trusted political aides, Adelphous Tripler and Shawn Clarke. Committed lovers, Tripler and Clarke must reluctantly separate to carry out a series of incredibly challenging tasks for their discredited leader that takes them around the globe. With murder and mayhem facing them every step of the way, will they manage to get back to each other alive?

4) In my list has to be Victor Banis' LOLA DANCES, a classic "on the fringes" m/m erotic romance crisscrossing dress and gender lines. Set in the late 1800's, it tells the fictitious story of a young, effeminate boy who wants to dance and the complex path his life takes in ultimately attaining his dream. This is an "on the fringes" novel at its best, challenging every nuance of m/m erotic romance from within and without. Setting it in the mining camps of California and Montana, where "men are men, and there ain't much else," brings all the myriad issues of being gay out of the closet and into everyone's face. LOLA DANCES has received international acclaim and I'm pleased it graces a privileged place among my favorites. Oh, and did I mention that I love to dance?

Paperback: 244 pages
Publisher: MLR Press; 1 edition (February 10, 2008)
Publisher Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=LOLA0001
ISBN-10: 1934531421
ISBN-13: 978-1934531426
Amazon: LOLA DANCES

Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic and often bawdy, Lola Dances ranges from the 1850 slums of the Bowery to the mining camps of California and Montana, to the Barbary Coast of San Francisco. Little Terry Murphy, pretty and effeminate, dreams of becoming a dancer. Raped by a drunken profligate and threatened with prison, Terry flees the Bowery and finds himself in the rugged settlement of Alder Gulch, where he stands out like a sore thumb among the camp's macho inhabitants--until the day he puts on a dress and dances for the unsuspecting miners as beautiful Lola Valdez--and wins fame, fortune and, ultimately, love.

5) Next to these on my favorites shelf is KINGSLEY & I, my own entrance into the world of m/m erotic romance. K&I is a glimpse into the diary of a young, "hesitantly bisexual" male struggling to come to grips with his place in an intensely powerful sexual relationship with a "traditionally" gay man. Heterosexual by default but unsatisfied emotionally and sexually with his relationships with women, the writer (of the diary, lest you think otherwise) throws himself without restraint into his relationship with Kingsley. Ultimately, it is the process, rather than the answer to his own gender identity questions, that makes him the man he will ultimately become in this sometimes painfully raw, emotional "marriage." Can a "hesitantly bisexual receptive male" make it with a traditional gay male interested in having a "normal" gay relationship? That's "on the fringe."

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: MLR Press; 1 edition (May 4, 2008)
Publisher Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=KINGS001
ISBN-10: 1934531391
ISBN-13: 978-1934531396
Amazon: KINGSLEY & I

It is said that in a lifetime, a person may be lucky enough to experience true love, greater than the physical body, that eventually evolves into lifelong companionship. This is the an electrifying erotic love story between two men, one gay, the other hesitantly bisexual, that would irrevocably dominate the rest of their lives…

6) OK, "on the farthest fringe" would have to be, in my opinion, CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG by Maureen F. McHugh. I don't see this work commonly mentioned in the "best of GLBT" probably because it is a science fiction novel not about the physicality of m/m erotic romance, but a prophetic and disturbing vision of the future - a 22nd Century world dominated by Communist China - as seen through the eyes of its gay protagonist. Maybe living in San Francisco so close to the Orient makes me more sensitive to its incredibly powerful socio-cultural-econo-political influence. Maybe it's the experience that just about everything I purchase these days comes in some form or another from this huge country. Maybe it's my sense that 1.5 billion Chinese reaching out as they are these days to the West will eventually have to come to grips with the five to ten percent of gay and lesbian humans and the inestimable contributions they make to society. Maybe I'm simply waxing philosophical and simply need to go down to the corner an get a MacDonald's burger and Coke (next to the Chinese restaurant I believe). Whatever your take, there's no denying that CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG is way out there "on the fringe."

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Orb Books (April 15, 1997)
Publisher Link: http://us.macmillan.com/chinamountainzhang
ISBN-10: 0312860986
ISBN-13: 978-0312860981
Amazon: CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG

Winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the Lambda Literary Award, theLocus Award for Best First Novel, and a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee. With this groundbreaking novel, Maureen F. McHugh established herself as one of the decade's best science fiction writers. In its pages, we enter a postrevolution America, moving from the hyperurbanized eastern seaboard to the Arctic bleakness of Baffin Island; from the new Imperial City to an agricultural commune on Mars. The overlapping lives of cyberkite fliers, lonely colonists, illicit neural-pressball players, and organic engineers blend into a powerful, taut story of a young man's journey of discovery. This is a macroscopic world of microscopic intensity, one of the most brilliant visions of modern SF.

Well, there are many more, but these are six of my personal m/m erotic romance and GLBT favorites that have survived time and many re-readings including two of my own. Actually, living in San Francisco, I am privileged to witness the many "on the fringe" m/m erotic romance explorations in hundreds of lives that continue on every day, many untold and of such compelling power and importance to us a collective, emerging humanity that my fingers itch to get going and tell their stories for posterity.

If I have been overly pretentious in listing some of my own works next to the giants, I apologize for the effrontery, at the same time sincerely hoping that those who end up reading my works will end up adding them to their own "best reads" shelf.

Thanks, Elisa, for your constant support over the years and this opportunity to share with you and readers some of what I think makes m/m erotic romance the upcoming genre that it is.

Sincerely, Gary Martine

About Gary Martine: Gary Martine is a reclusive author, artist, photographer, and videographer who "lives and breathes" San Francisco.
Author website at http://garymartine.yolasite.com

The Inside Reader: Gary Martine

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gary,

Thanks for including my Lola and for your kind words. I feared as I wrote it that no one would ever "get it," and even that no one would publish it. Thank Heaven for Laura - and no one else would have published Ardennien Boy either, or The Golden Age. She is a treasure. But, yes, Lola holds a special place in my heart. Writing and reading m/m, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking of gay romance as all about big hunky studs. I suspect there are far more of us like Terry than that ideal.

Victor J. Banis

Thanks so much for appreciating William's and my two dirty boys. I'm going to confess that I grow fonder and fonder of them myself. William is a genius in his own right, n'est-ce pas! I just wish a French publisher would translate the prose and insert the original poems at the right places!
Wayne Gunn

Well, Gary, what can I say, but how pleased I am to see my name listed not once but twice on your favorites list; not to mention in a lineup that includes both Victor (a favorite of mine) and Mary Renault (think I've read all of her work)? Certainly, neither ARDENNIAN BOY nor TOTAL MELTDOWN are works with which I would likely have ever attempted on my own; so thanks to both you and Wayne for taking me in those satisfying directions. And my thanks to Laura, at MLR Press, and to Michael Burgess at Wildside/Borgo for daring to print a couple of books that are definitely out of the more convenient and comfortable box that can sometimes "be" GLBT fiction.

Gary, I thouoght I ought to mention, if you like on the edge writing, you really should check out some of Mykola Dementiuk's writing. He's always on (sometimes over) the edge, but never anything less than brilliant. Not, however, for those looking for pap

Victor J.

P.S. - you can feel honored - Wayne Gunn never reads blog posts.

Victor, William and Wayne, thank you so much for stopping by and leaving you comment for Gary. As I wrote above, and as you probably know, Gary is very reclusive and shy, so I don't know if he will comment here, but I'm sure he has read all yours.

Thank you again, it's an honor to have you all on my LiveJournal.

The Inside Reader: Gary Martine

your list

Ardennian Boy

Ardennian Boy AND Total Meltdown

on the edge

Re: on the edge