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Man About Town
by Mark Merlis
| List Price: |
$24.95 |
Unavailable for
purchase at this time |
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Hardcover
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Joel Lingeman has been set adrift. Until recently, life was 'relative contentedness'; working for Congress, frequenting the Hill club a little too frequently, cooking dinner for two every night and routine sex on Sundays. Now Sam, his lover of fifteen years, has left him for a stunning twenty-three year old and he cannot score a trick in the sleaziest pick-up joint in town. Joel's revulsion for the politics around him has dissipated into mild amusement at the 'social Darwinists' ready to snatch the last cents from the hands of the old and ailing. And he is increasingly obsessed by the different lives he could have led. When a teenage fantasy reasserts itself, the blond haired demi-god his eye once fell upon modelling swimsuits in the back of an old magazine, Joel is overcome by a pervasive sense of loss and embarks on a quest to hunt down 'the Santa Fe boy'. Astutely observed and resonant with dark, sardonic undertones, Man About Town is an unforgettable novel about losing your way, your self-esteem and your security.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Mark Merlis - Man About Town |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Great Novel - I've now read 'Arrow In Flight' and 'American Studies' and this one. Mr Merlis better produce another book soon !
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| Mundane |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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After reading this book I asked myself, "do I care anything about any of the characters of this novel?". Self answered with an emphatic NO! The foundation of the novel is based upon a 15 year relationship gone awry out of simple boredom. Sam leaves Joel, (I can't blame Sam), and we are left with the whining and aimlessness of Joel, a middle-aged Federal paper pusher who bewails his fate, is a slob, does nothing of consequence to improve his lot in life, and accepts with complete surrender the way things are. He willing embraces a "relationship" with a younger man (1/2 Joel's age) that is based upon his essentially "keeping" the "boy" and knowing that the "boy", Michael, is stealing from his, Joel's, wallet regularly. The novel ends with Joel simply going through the motions of life and running the treadmill of life without thinking outside the box. If I was Joel's psychologist, I'd tell him to simply end it all....how terribly sad that even a reader cannot find anything redeeming in a literary character who is simply PATHETIC.
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| Bleak look at gay middle life |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Joel Lingemann works for the OLA in Washington, DC. He has just broke up with his partner of 15 years. He remembers the "man about town" he saw in a magazine when he was 14 and begins a project to find him. Meanwhile, Joel tries to reinvent his sex life until he meets a young African-American, Michael Greeley. Inserted into his personal life, is a bill he is helping to craft that would deny medical benefits to people becoming infect with HIV through unsafe practices. He is horrified by this legislation, but find himself only helping through the process. This piece his little closure except to reveal that it is w worthless legislation that if passed and signed will actually never be used. The votes with help senators and congressmen retain their jobs. At times these discussions seem like references to Jim Wallis' God's Politics.
Merlis' story is a bleak look at gay middle life, especially when a long-term relationship dissolves. Joel's partner, Sam, needs something he does not get from him. Sam finds a 23-year-old twink, who leaves him and he is back in bars at 50 chasing somebody, anybody. While Joel tries to do the same thing, he realizes that this chasing, whether in the bars or want-ads, leads nowhere. He is bored with his life, his job and he has turned down two potential lovers.
Michael is a challenge that is difficult to accept. Joel cannot believe Michael really could be happy with a 45-year-old bellied man. Michael occasionally takes a small amount of money from Joel's wallet. Joel wonders why until he understands that Michael wants him to know this. Finally, Joel has to come to terms with reality. The reality that the young guy he saw in a picture when he was 14 is now an old man. He needs to face the challenge of taking care of himself. He made even need to make a job change. He has become so settled, he is sinking into a malaise. Will he be able to accept the challenge of the relationship Michael offers?
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| Boring |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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I'm very disappointed in this book. His previous book An Arrow's Flight was pure brilliance and this is pure boredom. Very disappointing.
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| Disappointing third effort |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Man About Town is Mark Merlis's third novel, and the follow-up to the Lammie winner "An Arrow's Flight" (in my library, still unread).
I much enjoyed Merlis's first novel, "American Studies," and have looked forward to the trade paperback release of "Man About Town." (One of the many quirks to my character is that I prefer trade paperback to all other book editions. Don't ask why - I don't know).
"Man About Town" is plagued by a vaguely unlikeable narrator. This is frankly a daring choice. I'm not sure how easy it is to read a first-person narrative with a narrator who is plagued by so many neuroses and insecurities.
For me, this served as much of a cautionary tale - especially with respect to the prospect of being middle-aged and single in a gay world where middle-aged men are largely invisible.
Troubling to me were the continual references to how Joel, the narrator, had "let himself go" - implying that he was grossly overweight. What constitued grossly overweight? His waist size was 35. If/when I'm in a 35, it will be a day for rejoicing. This book, despite exploring issues of older gay men on the outskirts of the gym/AF culture, still, in my humble opinion, promotes the extreme lookism that permeates modern gay life.
This is an interesting irony in a book that idolizes the 50s/60s gay ideal that was much less gym-crazed (ie, men with natural beauty/bodies versus gym-crafted six packs). Even though it harkens back nostalgically to that time, the emphasis with how fat, lazy, and slobbish Joel is (with his size 35 waist) is insulting.
Why couldn't Joel have a 35 inch waist and be invisible and a good person? Who took pride in his appearance? He was a complete mess, as evidenced by his fatness/slopiness. He would have been just as invisible had he been well put together and fat. The latent racism was also alarming. Joel was a very dislikeable character, despite how much I might have understood/empathized with his situation.
The execution of the novel was expert, but sometimes I wonder about the plot choices that were made. In this case, I would give 2 stars to the plot/subject choices, and 3 stars for artistic merit.
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