Books
Sondheim book makes you feel like you’re having drinks with an icon
‘FINALE’ will be catnip to lovers of musicals
‘FINALE: Late Conversations With Stephen Sondheim’
By D.T. Max
c.2022, Harper/HarperCollins
$20.99/225 pages
“My idea of heaven is not writing,” the iconic gay composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is reported to have said.
“On the other hand,” Sondheim, who died last year at 91, was, thankfully, as he reportedly said, “obviously compulsive about it.”
“FINALE: Late Conversations With Stephen Sondheim,” a new book by New Yorker staff writer D.T. Max is good news for Sondheim’s multitudes of aficionados.
“I’m not good. I’m not nice. I’m just right. I’m the witch. You’re the world,” Sondheim wrote in “Into the Woods.”
Whether you’re a teen in a production of “Into the Woods,” a Boomer who came of age with “Company,” an 80-something who fondly remembers “Gypsy” or an artist who identifies with “Sunday in the Park with George,” you know you couldn’t have hung out in Sondheim’s world.
Frequently, profiles of celebrities are take-downs or suck-ups. Max avoids these pitfalls.
In “FINALE,” sometimes Sondheim is witty, entertaining, hospitable (his staff offer Max wine) and generous (Sondheim tries to help Max find a puppy for his family). At other times, Sondheim talks hatefully about his mother (who sounds like a cool customer) and cops to not reading much, though he loves “The Catcher in the Rye” because of its dialogue. Sondheim veers away from the orthodox take on Hitchcock. “Vertigo,” he says, is overrated. His fave “Hitchcock” movie was “Shadow of A Doubt.”
In “FINALE,” Max makes us feel like we’re having drinks with Sondheim.
It wasn’t easy for Max to have informal, entertaining, illuminating conversations with Sondheim.
There’s always some drama, metaphorically, some seduction involved when a reporter attempts to interview a celeb. This was even truer with Sondheim, who zealously guarded his privacy.
“Profiles are fraught efforts,” Max writes, “Profiles of the famous famously fraught.”
Some writers don’t bring the difficulties of their work (from getting the interview to coaxing candor and new reveals from interview subjects who’ve been burned by social media) into their reporting.
But in “FINALE,” Max doesn’t just clue readers into the vexations involved in nailing and conducting his interviews with Sondheim. “FINALE” is structured around his quest to discover revelations about Sondheim. His search for insights into Sondheim’s life and creative process becomes, figuratively, a Broadway show. In this vein, the book’s chapter titles range from “Prelude” to “Audition, January 2016″ to “Opening Night, April 2017″ to “Closing Night, March 2019″ to “Curtain.”
The main focus of “FINALE” is Sondheim. But Max is a character in the narrative.
Sometimes this is off-putting. Do we need to learn where Max went to school, where he grew up or what movies he enjoys? (He agrees with Sondheim about “Vertigo.”)
Does it shed light on Sondheim when Max spills his feelings (from angst to enthrallment to disappointment when Sondheim cancelled appointments) around writing about Sondheim?
But though, at times, there’s too much of Max, sometimes his presence adds to the story.
Max, like many who’ll read this book, grew up loving Sondheim. Max’s uncle was a playwright, and he was introduced to Sondheim, when his mother brought home a signed recording of “Side By Side” after a benefit. But he’s not an expert on musical theater.
He views Sondheim with the admiring, but unprofessional, gaze of many theatergoers. This serves readers well. It keeps the conversations lively and un-pedantic.
Most of the book is a series of one-on-one conversations that Max has with Sondheim at his home in New York City and his house in Connecticut. Sondheim’s dogs and husband Jeff Romley wander in and out. Sondheim talks about not being able to finish a musical that he’s working on. He remembers that decades ago, one day, Katharine Hepburn, then his neighbor, came by when he was playing the piano, composing. “Pipe down! she told him.
It’s doubtful that Sondheim, given the time when he grew up, would have talked about being gay. (Though he never denied his sexuality.) Still, I wish Max had asked him about it.
This is a minor quibble. “FINALE” will be catnip to lovers of musicals.
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Books
A rabid fan’s look at the best and worst of queer TV
‘Rainbow Age of Television’ a must-read for viewers
‘The Rainbow Age of Television: An Opinionated History of Queer TV’
By Shayna Maci Warner
c.2024, Abrams Press
$28/304 pages
Wanna hand over the clicker?
You don’t want to miss the season premiere of that show you binge-watched over the summer. You’re invested, a fan who can’t wait to see what happens next. You heard that this may be the last season and you’ll be sad, if that’s so. Is it time to start looking for another, newer obsession or will you want to read “The Rainbow Age of Television” by Shayna Maci Warner, and find something old?
Like most kids of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, Shayna Maci Warner spent lots of time glued to a television screen, devouring programming before school, after school, and all summer long. For Warner, that programming eventually led to a revelation. They saw people that looked like them, for which they formed “a personal attachment.”
It was “life-changing.”
It didn’t happen all at once, and some of TV’s “milestones” are forever lost, since broadcasts were live until the 1950s. Shortly after shows were taped and preserved, homosexuality became a “source of worry and blunt fascination” but certain performers carefully presented gently risqué characters and dialogue that nudged and winked at viewers.
Some queer representation appeared in the 1960s, but it wasn’t until the 1970s when dramas began to feature more gay and lesbian characters, however subtly. It took a while for “the ‘rest’ of the alphabet” to be represented in a meaningful way and – despite that “Star Trek” and its many versions included gender-diverse characters – it wasn’t until 1996 that an intersex infant was featured on a regular television drama.
Since Ellen DeGeneres came out practically on her namesake TV show and “Will & Grace” became a wild hit, queer representation on TV has ceased to be an unusual thing. And yet, programmers and writers know that caution is still warranted: sometimes, “there can still be hesitation around pushing the envelope and fear that a queer character who burns too brightly just won’t last.”
Quick: name three after-school TV shows that aired when you were in fourth grade. If you can’t do it, one thing’s for certain: you need “The Rainbow Age of Television.”
But get ready for some argument. Author Shayna Maci Warner offers a rabid fan’s look at the best and the worst queer representation had to offer, and you may beg to differ with what they say about various programs. That makes this book a critique, of sorts, but Warner offers plenty of wiggle-room for argument.
Tussling over the finer points of queer programming, though, is only half the fun of reading this book. Microwave a box of pizza snacks or mac-and-cheese, demand “your” sofa seat, and dive into the nostalgia of old TV shows, most of them from the later last century. Yep, your faves are here. It’s like having an oldies channel on paper, and in your hand.
This is a must-have for former kids and current TV addicts who are happy to see themselves represented on TV. If that’s you, who brought the chips? “The Rainbow Age of Television” will just click.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
Books
Author rails against racism and desire, politics, loss
‘Rage’ explores being ‘Queer, Black, Brilliant’
“Rage: On Being Queer, Black, Brilliant… and Completely Over It”
By Lester Fabian Brathwaite
c.2024, Tiny Reparations Books
$28/288 pages
Somewhere up in the clouds.
That’s where your blood pressure is, right there as high as it’s ever been. Hoo, boy, are you angry. Your teeth are clenched, your eyes are slits, and you can’t trust yourself to speak in more than a growl. You’re plenty steamed and, as in the new book “Rage” by Lester Fabian Brathwaite, it shouldn’t have to be this way.
When he came with his family to America from Guyana at just four years old, Brathwaite couldn’t believe what his new home country offered. Malls, new kinds of food, cable television? Shirtless white men on TV and in magazines? Yes, please!
He’s always had crushes on white men, but he loves being a gay Black man – even though racism, overt and subtle, can be an aggravation. When Brathwaite is on a dating app, white men sometimes dismiss him with a racial comment. He’s heard and seen the “n-word” more than once and he doesn’t tolerate it. Wouldn’t a greeting and a no thanks be less rude?
He is bothered by unnecessary meanness.
He is bothered in a different way by bodybuilding. Hot, muscular bodies, to be exact and he’s sure that whoever created the sport was a genius. Brathwaite participates in bodybuilding himself sometimes – it’s expensive and he does it for himself, not for other men – though he believes that gay men are bodybuilding’s biggest subset. For sure, he’s payed homage to his share of bodybuilders, superheroes in movies, and hot shirtless boys on TV.
There were many times, years ago, that Brathwaite ended up drunk and in a stranger’s bed or looking for an old hook-up, and he was arrested once. Nearing 30, though, he realized that that life wasn’t what he wanted anymore. His knees couldn’t take it. Besides, he liked who he was and he liked his blackness. He realized that he didn’t need anyone else to be a hero of his tale. He could do it better himself.
One thing’s for certain: “Rage” lives up to its title.
At times, author Lester Fabian Brathwaite rails against so many things: racism and desire, club society, being a writer and editor, the generational differences between gay men, politics, and loss. At other times, he’s outRAGEous and hilarious, writing to readers as though he’s holding court in a cafe somewhere and you’d better listen up.
You should know that that means honesty – poking in the corners, calling things out for what they are, chastising people who need schooling on how to behave in a way that doesn’t leave room for nonsense. This arrives unabashed and raw, accompanied by plenty of profanity.
You’ve been warned.
And yet, Brathwaite’s candor and his blunt talk is fresh and different. This gay man doesn’t pussy-foot around, and getting his opinions without fluff feels good and right. Readers will appreciate that, and they might come away educated.
Generally speaking, this ain’t your Grandma’s book, unless Grandma likes real talk laced with profanity. If that’s so, then get “Rage.” You’ll both be mad for it.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
Books
Fall books offer something for every taste
Hollinghurst’s latest plus a look at Queer Harlem Renaissance
Welcome to the fall book season, where you’ll find gifts for your friends, family and (most importantly?) the best reads for yourself. This is when you’ll find the blockbuster novels you’ve been waiting for, the surprise memoirs and nonfiction that you’ve wanted, and gorgeous gift books your coffee table. This fall, keep your eyes open for all kinds of literary goodness.
NOVELS
Lovers of a good novel will want to curl up with a huge TBR pile.
Romance novels will fill the shelves this fall, and if love is what you want for the holidays, you’re in luck. Look for “The Rules of Royalty” by Cale Dietrich (Wednesday Books, December), a modern tale of a prince and a “commoner”; or “Feast While You Can” by Mikealla Clements and Onjuli Datta (Grand Central Publishing), a scary-romance-erotica novel of small-town life and monsters.
Reach for “Our Evenings: A Novel” by Alan Hollinghurst (Random House, October), a novel of a young man who happily accepts a scholarship to a boarding school filled with classmates who are much, much wealthier than he is. “The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts” by Louis Bayard (Algonquin Books, September) is a historical novel about Oscar Wilde’s family.
For lovers of Gothic tales, look for “The Resurrectionist” by A. Rae Dunlap (Kensington, December), a tale of bodysnatching. Classics lovers will want to read “Private Rites: A Novel” by Julia Armfield (Flatiron Books, December), a queer reimagining of King Lear. Or find “Women’s Hotel” by Daniel M. Lavery (HarperVia, October), a book about a second-rate women-only hotel in New York City.
If your taste runs more to rom-coms, there are dozens of those available this fall, too, as well as Christmas novels with gay, lesbian, and trans characters inside.
NONFICTION
Even nonfiction readers will have reason to read this fall and winter.
Look for “Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known” by George M. Johnson and Charly Palmer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September), a book about 1920s Harlem and the influential queer folks who left their marks on entertainment.
“Something, Not Nothing” by Sarah Leavitt (Arsenal Pulp Press, September) chronicles, in comic form, the death of Leavitt’s partner and the paths grief takes to healing. Learn more about LGBTQ history with “The Book of Awesome Queer Heroes: How the LGBTQ+ Community Changed the World for the Better” by Eric Rosswood and Kathleen Archambeau (Mango, December); check out Mary L. Trump’s heartbreaking memoir, “Who Could Ever Love You?” (St. Martin’s Press, September); or check out a collection of essays in “Songs On Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes” by Anthony Veasna So (Ecco, December). Look for “Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous,” an anthology of secret confessions from women around the country, by Gillian Anderson (Abrams Press, September), or find “Queer Disability through History: The Queer and Disabled Movements Through Their Personalities” by Daisy Holder (Pen and Sword History, November). Also: Cher has a new biography out this fall, “The Memoir, Part One” (Dey Street Books, November).
Not quite what you’re looking for? Check with your favorite bookseller or librarian for more ideas because, this fall, they’ll have lots of them. Or give a gift certificate and hold on for spring. Season’s readings!
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