Books
Books: Grounded by grief
New gay-themed novel grows darker as it proceeds

āThe Trapeze Artistā
By Will Davis
Bloomsbury
$16
313 pages

(Image courtesy of Bloomsbury)
Many folks wish theyād done things differently. If some vicarious escapism via a fictional character who, as clichĆ© as it sounds, really does run off and join the circus sounds enticing, āThe Trapeze Artistā by Will Davis is your book.
The main character hadnāt planned on following the circus.
He hadnāt planned it, but after he slept with Vlad, the trapeze artist who seemed so dramatic and needy, what else could he do? He called his mother to tell her heād be gone for awhile, and he shut off his phone in the middle of her protestations.
He had decided at age 6 to be gay because his Uncle Dan was gay, and Dan enjoyed life. His parents refused to see it, just as they refused to see him, and he often imagined what it would be like to live like his friend, Edward, whose parents were famous and quite bohemian, while his parents only discussed the weather and their jobs.
Edward, well, he wasnāt like anyone else in the world. Edward was the first gay boy heād ever known, the first boy heād ever kissed. He supposed he was in love then, and it hurt to think about that.
Maybe there were a million reasons to follow the circus but Vlad was the reason to stay. And though staying wasnāt always pleasant, he realized heād never been happier. Officially, the circusā owner didnāt allow hangers-on, so after awhile, he was given a series of menial jobs to earn his way. Nobody liked him, and why should they? They thought heād break and leave, but he didnāt.
Until it all fell apart and he headed back home to find everything changed ā including himself. His mother was gone, Edward was gone. So were his old dreams, ready to be replaced with new ones.
Without a doubt, āThe Trapeze Artistā is one of the most pensive books Iāve read in a long time. Author Will Davisā main character is never named; we only know him by pronouns, which adds to the feeling of despair on each page. Itās as if the man is so bland and invisible that heās not worth naming.
For the longest time, I enjoyed that facet of Davisā story. It intrigued me, but as the novel proceeded and this character was piled with more and more grief, I found myself growing morose along with the story. This is a beautifully told tale and no, I didnāt exactly want to throw it across the room, but oh, is it sad.
While some may see it only as a joy killer, to reduce it to just that would be an oversimplification. Itās different and can be engrossing if youāre in the right mindset for its charms.
Books
Tragedy and comedy intertwined in witty āQuietly Hostileā
Irbyās fourth essay collection addresses pandemic, TV writing career, more

āQuietly Hostile: Essaysā
By Samantha Irby
c.2023, Vintage
$17/304 pages
You know from the get-go that āQuietly Hostile,ā essayist, television writer and humorist Samantha Irbyās fourth essay collection, is filled to the brim with the authorās mordant wit, cynicism and empathy. Who else but Irby, 43, who has struggled with depression, would write: āThis book is dedicated to Zoloftā?
There are zillions of essay collections. But few are as memorable, poignant, funny (sometimes grossly, in a good way) and heart-filled (a term Irby might hate) as āQuietly Hostileā

This long-awaited collection is filled with what Irby would call āgood shitā: from hilarious descriptions of her bad dog in doggie day care to bits about, literally, shit, (that will gross you out, but reduce your shame about pooping).
Irby, who is Black and bisexual, grew up in poverty in Evanston, Ill. Her parents died when she was 18 (her mother from multiple sclerosis; her father, who gambled, likely, suffered from post traumatic stress disorder).
At the age of nine, Irbyās motherās MS went out of remission. While still a child, she was called upon to care for her Mom.
āWhen I was an actual kid growing up on welfare with a sick mom and expired Tuna Helper from the dollar store, the future and its infinite possibilities stretched before me like a sumptuous buffet I couldnāt afford to go to,ā Irby writes.
There is a backdrop of pain, sadness and, sometimes, anger to much of Irbyās humor. But self-pity and rage donāt consume the book.
Irby, the author of āMeaty,ā āWe Are Never Meeting in Real Lifeā and āWow, No Thank You,ā knows that the cliche is true: tragedy and comedy often are often intertwined.
Itās fun to learn in āQuietly Hostileā that Irby, who was a writer for the popular TV shows āShrillā and āTuca & Bertie,ā is as much a fan as the rest of us of the TV shows she loves.
In 1998, Irby couldnāt afford cable or HBO. She had to wait to watch the āCityā until it came out on VHS. āThe show reflected nothing of my life,ā she writes, ābut provided something of a road map for my future…ā she writes.
In a future, she wouldnāt have dreamed of then, she grew up to become a writer on āAnd Just Like That,ā the āSex and the Cityā reboot. (Sheās a writer on season two of āAnd Just Like Thatā which premieres on June 22 on Max.)
Irby was stunned when Michael Patrick King of āAnd Just Like Thatā asked her to write for the show. āI was like … Are you allowed to work on a show like this if you only wear nine-dollar T-shirts,ā she writes, āand have no idea how many Brooklyns there are.ā
āDuring my interview,ā Irby jokes, āI said, āCan I give Carrie diarrhea?ā and I was hired immediately.ā
Even ardent āSex and the Cityā aficionados may find too much of SATC in āQuietly Hostile.ā
No worries: Irby who speaks of herself as being āfatā and āsickā (she has arthritis and Crohnās disease), riffs on many things in āQuietly Hostile.ā Irby turns her sharp wit on everything from what itās like to run for a public toilet when you have diarrhea to why sheās a David Matthewās fan girl to her love for (approaching addiction to) Diet Coke to the ālast normal dayā before the pandemic to the āfood fightsā that are a part of the most loving marriages.
Grab a Diet Coke (or libation of your choice), tell your bad dog to quit barking and enjoy āQuietly Hostile.ā
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
Books
āHarley Quinn: Ravenousā a dark Gotham novel with a feminist warrior
New book awash in crazy action, humor, and superheroes

āHarley Quinn: Ravenousā
By Rachael Allen
c.2023, Random House
$19.99/349 pages
Forget about it.
Put it out of your mind; don’t worry about it. It’s likely nothing, so let it rest. Let it go and don’t be afraid because, as in the new book “Harley Quinn: Ravenous” by Rachael Allen, fear is how they make you scream.

Being a first-year intern at Gotham University was going to be the best.
Having completed the university’s gap-year program last year, Harleen Quinzel was practically bouncing. She’d decided on research, possibly psychology, as a career and first year program included mentorship and a chance to study some of Gotham’s worst, most notorious criminal minds. The Joker, Two-Face, King Shark, Mr. Freeze, she could be assigned to any one of them at Arkham Asylum.
First year was also going to be a bit of a relief.
Sure, she’d still have to put up with classmates like the jerk who kept asking if she was “straight now” (nope, still bi, today, tomorrow, last week) and she’d have to try to fit in, which was hard to do after what happened at the end of last year. Then, some of Harleen’s friends were attacked with a fear spray that made them scream and scream, and her best friend died from it. There was gossip but Harleen had her research to enjoy, she loved her mentor, and she was fascinated by Talia al Ghul, who’d tried to assassinate Gotham’s mayor. Talia was a great study-subject ā even though Harleen wasn’t technically supposed to ever speak to her.
Until Talia said that she knew who made the fear spray. She needed information for information, tit for tat, and she hinted that she knew the truth about Straw Man, who was rumored to haunt Arkham and who had a hand in the fear spray, so…
So then Harleen woke up in the hospital, the victim of a bad accident and amnesia. But was it an accident? Were this guy, Win, and the adorable Ivy trustworthy? And the escape of Gotham City’s worst, most violent criminals ā was Harleen at fault?
Let’s say a movie theater mushed its film to a pulp and made a novel from the leftover cells. Or they used the mush to paint a Ben-Dot artwork panel, but in words. That’s kinda how you could think of this book. As a part of the “DC Icons” franchise, “Harley Quinn: Ravenous” almost screams graphic novel or comic book.
So what’s the problem?
Nothing, as long as you know that before you pick it up because that’s the sort of feel you’ll get in what only looks like a regular novel. Nothing, if you relish a story that starts with action and peppers it with chaos before dropping readers into a land of dark monsters and crime. Nothing at all, if you’ve read author Rachael Allen’s novel-before-this-one ā otherwise, you’ll be awash in humor, feminism, superheroes, and scrambling to find your footing. Be warned.
Overall, if you love a funny, crazy-paced dark-Gotham novel with a feminist warrior, you’ll devour “Harley Quinn: Ravenous.” As for a bookmark…? Nah, forget about it.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.

āMonsters: A Fanās Dilemmaā
By Claire Dederer
c.2023, Alfred A. Knopf
$28/288 pages
Recently, I listened to an audio version of āThe Sorcererās Stone,ā the first of J.K. Rowlingās āHarry Potterā series. I cheered when Rowling said Dumbledore is gay.
Yet, I wondered, should I read the Potter books (no matter how much I love them) when Rowling has made hurtful remarks about trans people?
That is the question many fans ask today: What do we do when artists make art we love, but behave badly?
āMonsters: A Fanās Dilemma,ā by memoirist and critic Claire Dederer delves into thisĀ vexing question.

This perplexing query has no ārightā answer that works for everyone. Yet, if you enjoy art, youāre likely to keep wrestling with it.
A book delving into this conundrum could be as outdated as the last news cycle. The cancel culture debate has engulfed social media for eons.
Yet, Dedererās meditation on the relationship between art and its fans is provocative and entertaining. Reading āMonsters: A Fanās Dilemmaā is like downing two, three, maybe four espressos after a couple of cups of strong coffee.
One minute, you may feel that Dederer has it exactly right. The next moment, you might wonder what planet sheās on.
I applauded Dederer when she wrote, āThere is not some correct answer…The way you consume art doesnāt make you a bad person, or a good one.ā
But I wanted to throw the book across the room as I read that Dederer preferred Monty Python over queer comedian, writer, and actor Hannah Gadsby. āListen, Iād rather watch the Pythons than Gadsby any day of the week,ā Dederer writes.
To be fair, Dederer opines about Monty Python to make a point about the āmonsterā of exclusion. āNone of these guys has the bandwidth,ā she writes about Monty Python, āto even entertain the idea that a womanās or person of colorās point of view might be just as ānormalā as theirs, just as central.ā
Dederer, the author of two critically acclaimed memoirs āLove and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoningā and āPoser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses,ā struggles, as a fan and critic, with many types of monsters.
Dederer, who started out as a movie critic, began grappling with monsters in 2014. Then, āI found myself locked in a lonelyāokay, imaginaryābattle with an appalling genius,ā she writes.
The āappalling geniusā was filmmaker Roman Polanski, who, Dederer reports, raped a 13-year-old. Despite her knowledge of Polanskiās crime, āI was still able to consume his work,ā Dederer writes, ā[though] he was the object of boycotts and lawsuits and outrage.ā
Her gallery of monsters contains the usual hetero male suspects from Bill Cosby to Woody Allen. Dederer deplores Allenās behavior, but considers āAnnie Hallā to be the greatest 20th century film comedy. She finds āManhattanā unwatchable because Allenās character dates a high school girl, but considers āAnnie Hallā to be better than āBringing Up Baby.ā (Mea culpa: I love āAnnie Hall.ā But, better than āBaby?)
For Dederer, monsters arenāt only male or hetero. She wonders, for instance, if the brilliant poet Sylvia Plath, was a monster because she abandoned her children for her art.
Dederer muses about the actor Kevin Spacey (who will be on trial in June for alleged sexual assault in the United Kingdom), Michael Jackson, and J. K. Rowling.
āOne of the great problems faced by audiences is named the Past,ā Dederer writes, āThe past is a vast terrible place where they didnāt know better.ā
āBut, Dederer reminds us: sometimes they did.Queer writer Virginia Woolf (author of the luminous āMrs. Dallowayā and the gender-bending āOrlandoā) is a god to many queers. Yet, Dederer reports, Woolf, though married to Leonard Woolf, who was Jewish, made flippant anti-Semitic remarks in her diaries. You could say Woolf was just ājokingā as people in her time did. Yet, Dederer reminds us, gay author E.M. Forster wrote in a 1939 essay, ā…antisemitism is now the most shocking of all things.ā
I wish Dederer, who writes of racism and sexism in art, had written about the homophobia in art (in the past and present). Iād have loved it if sheād mused on the brilliant queer, anti-Semitic, racist writer Patricia Highsmith who gave us the āTalented Mr. Ripley.ā
Iād liked to have seen some mention of Islamophobia, ableism and racism against Asian-Americans and indigenous people in art in āMonsters.ā
Despite these quibbles, āMonsters: A Fanās Dilemmaā is a fascinating book. Thereās no calculator (as Dederer wishes there was) to tell us whether we should go with the art we love or renounce the work of the artist whose behavior we deplore. But, Dederer turns this dilemma into an exhilarating adventure.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
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