As of recently I've taken an interest in trying to find gay writers who I can actually enjoy reading. As of recently that list of gay writers has been short: William S. Burroughs and Poppy Z. Brite (okay okay, I know Poppy Z Brite is really a straight woman but she says she's a gay man in a women's body so I'm counting her in!) I can't count Dennis Cooper yet as I've only read one of his books, "Closer".
So, I was at the gay section at Borders recently flipping through titles, looking at the back of books, but it was mostly erotica, or coming out stories, or queer coming of age stories... blah. Give me weirdness! Give me postmodernism! Give me something experimental! And make sure it's from a queer viewpoint!
And then I saw a book called "Anarchy" by James Robert Baker. I look at the back and see what it's about. I'm hooked. So I buy it along with another book that seemed interesting by him, "Tim and Pete".
I finished 'Anarchy" today and it was great. Assembled by an editor after Baker killed himself, it's about the writer (he uses his real name ala Philip K. Dick in "Valis") acting as a sort of queer Philip Marlowe, doing bizarre jobs for various LA people. It's about forged OJ Simpson murder videos, a cult of fundamentalist nudist tech heads, Eva Braun's secret diet pills, the restoration of Hitler's bunker, the Russian mafia, and, best of all, an obsessed plastic surgeon planting bombs into the implants of an actress he's obsessed with. All delivered in a cool, sardonic narrative style. Over the top, much like David Lynch's "Wild at Heart". Great stuff, I loved it, can't wait to read "Tim and Pete" and whatever else of this guy's stuff is out there. |
