Boys Books

J.J. Christopher is a breath of fresh air. Many authors come and go before we see one quite like this, but when it does... it makes it well worth the wait. To the author: Tremendous work, I hope you have many more to come.

I am not a well known book critique but, I have read alot of books. I am not really into the whole sci-fi act because fantasy is more my thing. But this book really caught my attention. J.J. Christopher has awoken in me a urge to find out more about the Complex, the Wolf Boys and anything secretive about the government. The Wolf Boys relate to me and my friends so I can understand how important it is to "run with the pack" so to speak. This book is packed with action, and heart. I would say it is not for the faint of heart . But I could not put it down. This book is a great example of imagination and perfect writing.The plot was well thought out and the placement of words created a vivid picture in my mind. It took me a while to find the climax of the story because of all the action, and suprises. It was an excellent read and I am proud to say that I consider J.J. Christopher to be a good friend of mine. Soon to be author, J.D.E.

I'm 15, a high school student in Kansas City. My English teacher was reading this book and it looked cool so I got it, and you know what? I couldn't put it down! JJ Christopher's gonna be the next Stephen King, for real! Peace!

I read this book in about four days. I just couldn't put it down. The plot was enticing and well-thought out and the book flows well because of it. My only suggestion to the author would be to proofread for spelling and grammatical errors a little more carefully. All-in-all, a must read!

This book is absolutely riveting. It GRRRRRRabs you by the jugular from the first page and doesnt let go. The characters are stunningly vivid.I have not read such a captavating story in years and I can't wait for J.J. Christopher's next book. The next King?, I think not....This author has already surpassed King. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone and everyone, In fact I have already started my campaign...The Wolf Boy's Club in every household library!!!!

This is a great book. Its full of action. The guys must find a person, who just may not want to be found.

The book is a very intresting one.Frank and Joe have shown their talents in solving puzzling cases.They risked their own life to help Irene to find her father.He had been officialy declared dead but Irene had a strong belief of him being alive.The Hardy boys risked a trip to Antartica to find themselves in trouble.Find out yourselves on how Frank and Joe Hardy solve one of the most challenging cases they ever came across.

This is a book I've read several times, and have not gotten board. It's full of action and suspense. This book is great for a starter. It will prove why Frank and Joe are so popular.

A great book. Starting with the dissapearance of Irene's father, it goes to New Mexico with the boys in hot pursuit of the great scientist. This puts or rather takes them to Antarctica where the cold there to bury the boys anytime !

Tired of all the bloated, new SF on the shelf that isn't worth your time, let alone money? Stop right here. The answer to finding new SF that is enjoyable may not lie in weeding through the chaff of new writers. Instead try looking for old books, that just never quite hit the Heinlein, Asimov level of noteriety.

Revolving Boy is almost like Flatland in how it is short, easy to read, yet interesting and new. The author takes a very simple concept and runs with it. If you lived through the 70s, you'll recognize a bit the dystopic future that the story is set in...sort of retro. But it's still a warm vision...and the story is more about people.

Really, really good stuff...but in a simple package. Give it a shot. This was an Ace Special. And for good reason.

I love the way the book was written and the way the author would throw in new things and they would be understandable with out an explanation. I have read the book about ten times in the past year. The Revolving Boy stands out as a one of a kind book, that I will always remember. My connection with Derv Nagy is something that can not be explained.

In this book you see the uniquely talented/disabled character of Derv Nagy grow from a very young leaning todler to a towering old man. You watch as his unusual way of birth throws him into what could be the most important discovery of his time. The society that he develops in is well described and very believeable. The love of his wife, who has absolute pitch, and the fear and frustration of keeping a secret are constatly tugging him in different directions. An old run down sky tracking site and the leaning of an old man just might hold the key to unraveling the universe.

The protagonist of this book, Derv Nagy, has an apparent physical disability that causes him to be--well--different, but in the end becomes an element in a highly original science fiction novel. Gertrude Friedberg's writing style is simple and unadorned in the extreme, which appeals to me, as I am generally not fond of writing that is so stylish that it distracts one's attention from the narrative. That is no problem here. Should be interesting and understandable to readers from around age 10 on up. I've read a great deal of science fiction, and this one stands out as one of the most unique.

Because I have begun my doctoral thesis on this very subject, I found that this critique has opened windows that heretofore I have only imagined. Mr. Cunningham must have known his subjects well (or developed a preternatural insight into their oeuvre) and also must possess an astounding knowledge of music, both classical and modern. I would recommend this book to anyone with more than a superficial interest in the subject.

A collection of intelligent and informed essays from the late, lamented magazine. Not necessarily for the casual fan, but rabid BB admirers will find tasty food for thought in these pages.

Don Cunningham and Jeff Bleiel edit Add Some Music To Your Day, about analyzing the music of the Beach Boys. Over forty articles, essays and reviews provide critical analysis of albums and songs in a coverage which will delight Beach Boys fans. A highly recommended pick.

Don Cunningham and Jeff Bleiel have assembled some of the best Beach Boys writings here in this book, "Add Some Music To Your Day." I wasn't around to read these the first time in the "Add Some..." fanzine, but this is GREAT stuff. BRAVO!

It was our doctor that told us about this book. It gives warning throughout that help a boy make decisions, in several places it gives examples for an adolescent to talk to parents and how to do it, it covers things no other book I have read ever did, and since I have read this, I see others trying to follow the same path, but the first, from the heart is always the best, and this is the best. Artwork and photos could be better, but the text is what we want them to read, and it is super

The content of this book is excellent - just what I had hoped for and it covered everything I wanted in a very appropriate manner.

Ok I found this under the coffee table! I was tricked into reading it. I thought dad or mom just dropped it or something so I picked it up snuck it in my room and read it
Over and Over and Over
What I learned my dad or mom would never have told me about what I learned makes liers out of the [people] on the net THEY HATE THIS BOOK because it tells the truth and it tells about them and warns you what they are trying to do! Now Im smarter and oh yeah I never gave the book back- but they did ask if I had seen it LOL

I am a teen that comes from a family that isnt very open minded about sex, it taught me alot and mabye one day will share my very copy with my kids...

This is a great resource to get the kids outside and get them moving! Chapters are rated by activity level, which is pretty helpful. You can decide how much you feel like moving before you start selecting what to play. For each game, the following information is listed: Number of players, Age, Time Allotted, and Playing Field. At a glance, you can determine which games would be appropriate for your particular group.

Instructions are provided on over 130 games. For some of these, our group just needed a refresher course to remember how to play, many others we had never heard of. Several games seem too simplistic to have been included - such as Monkey in the Middle, Tug-of-War, and Follow the Leader. A few require the purchase of equipment that would typically include the necessary instruction - Bocce, Lawn Darts, and Jacks. However, the majority of the games were new to us or seemed as though they would be worthwhile to learn.

The set-up is very thorough for each game, detailing equipment, object, and how to play. The instructions are well written and nicely detailed, including comments on how to vary the games for more fun. We had no trouble understanding games we had no prior experience with.

Overall, this would be a terrific tool for kids of any age group. This book obviously encourages outdoor play, but also promotes creative thinking and plain old exercise!

I bought this for my sister, and she's been teaching these games to her kids. They love it! It's amazing how many different types of games are in this book.

This is a really good idea - getting kids away from endless preoccupation with media and back outside into the fresh air and moving their whole bodies rather than just twitching their fingers. The suggestions are fun and and have helped generations of kids grow and learn to play with each other.

I bought this book for my little cousins (ages 5, 9, and 12) and my aunt said they LOVE it. They have been gathering all the kids in the neighborhood and don't want to come back inside all day! She said the instructions are clear, the cost is minimal to none, and now the kids can get some excercise! I can't wait to buy this for all my friends and relatives with kids! It's a GREAT IDEA for a present!

I am not a huge fan of audiobooks, primarily because I often find them tedious to listen to compare to reading the book. I am a fast reader, so I can invest three hours or so to reading a novel compared to twelve or more sometimes to listen to an audiobook. As a consequence, I usually only listen to audiobooks on long drives or sometimes while exercising.

I am also a big fan of Neil Gaiman's work - novels, short stories, comics, at al.

So, I'm calling this audiobook edition a rare thing because, as much as I like the novel (and I read it on paper first), I think the audiobook may be better than the "real" book due to the confluence of the story and Lenny Henry's wonderful characterizations and reading. The novel is simply more nuanced and emotional when given voice by Mr. Henry.

I'm also a big fan of the MP3 audiobook format, even if I don't always have access to a CD player with MP3 capabilities (like my current car stereos) since they are much easier to transfer to MP3 players.

Gaiman hits a home run! Lenny Henry does an excellent job reading. When I read American Gods, I was mildly impressed. This book leaves me wanting more and more from Gaiman. I will also be on the look out for more from Lenny Henry.

This story opens with Charlie. He lives a very ordinary, somewhat dull life in England. He travels home to Florida to his father's funeral. While there he is told that his father was not an ordinary human, but the human form of an Anansi (an African Trickster God). Charlie doesn't believe it. While there he is also told that he has a brother named Spider. Charlie is shocked as he believed he was an only child. He is told that if he is ever in trouble and needs his brother's help that all he has to do is tell a spider. He is warned, however, not to do so since the consequences could disrupt things for him.

Back in England, he feels some despair as well as a desire to meet his brother. So he sees a spider and whispers to it to tell his brother Spider to come to him. From the moment his brother arrives, his life is turned completely upside-down. Spider seems to bring nothing but trouble into Charlie's life. To tell more would ruin the story for you.

This was my first Neil Gaiman story and it won't be my last! This unabridged audio of his novel "The Anansi Boys" was very well narrated and the story was so good that I often stayed in the car to listen to more of the story after already arriving at my destination. Now that I've enjoyed the audio version so much I plan to buy the book. I highly recommend this fantasy novel.

I am very picky about the audiobooks I'll listen to on my long commute. I've opened up books that I was very much looking forward to "reading," only to throw box and all against the rear window of the car after ten minutes of some boob murdering the prose. So when I find one I like, that means I like it a lot.

Commedian Lenny Henry's rich voice and delightfully accented character readings really bring Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys to life. Henry floats easily between an Americanized urban accent, thick British types, a hilarious cabal of little old black ladies in the wilds of Florida, and a number of Caribbean voices. His voice can be light enough that the females don't sound ridiculous.

Revisiting a character from American Gods, but zooming in on a more focused set of players, this is the story of "Fat Charlie" Nancy, an easily embarrassed, buttoned-down accountant in London with a dead-end job and a nice finacée. He makes a call to a family friend in Florida to invite his debonair, estranged father to the wedding, but finds his father has just died. After the funeral Charlie learns his father was the god Anansi, and that he had another son, Spider, that Charlie didn't know about. Not really believing any of it, he summons Spider, who quickly turns Charlie's life inside-out. Ancient animosities and modern crimes merge in Gaiman's fast-moving narrative. His sense of humor does not fly in your face -- you have to be paying attention and thinking things through -- but the comedy is rich and rewarding, in that restrained way the English are so bloody good at.

Several times listening to this I've laughed out loud, and kept chortling for another mile or so at some turn of phrase or quirk of character, or one of Henry's particular voices. I can recommend this wholeheartedly to anyone who enjoys Gaiman's sense of whimsy and storytelling.

This is a very nice addition to Gaiman's book "American Gods"--one of my favorites. It is a thoughtful, character driven story with good humor and an interesting take on traditional folk tale characters. I highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoyed "American Gods."

Right from the start Mr. Gaiman nail it. A fast, humurous and dark ride he presents in this novel. Fat Charlie, Rosie, Grahame Coats, Spider and Mr. Nancy, all characters that will haunt you and most probably make you smile when you are not reading the book. No mistake. Mr. Gaiman did it again, great book!!!

I'm a Neil Gaiman fan; American Gods is one of my favorite novels. This book never quite reaches the scope of American Gods for me, it's still entertaining and the book itself would actually get a 4 from me, most likely.

But the binding of this book, it's the best around. I'm very buggy about my books, if I'm to buy a book I can't stand reading Mass Market Paperback, I enjoy this format, of quality paperback and words that are somewhat bigger so I feel like a page doesn't take too long.

So I may seem a little nutty about books, but regardless this is a great book with great style, and any Neil Gaiman, or fantasy fan for that matter, will enjoy this book.

PS: American Gods is NOT a prerequisite for reading Anansi Boys. They take place in the same universe and share a character, but Anansi Boys was an idea conceived before American Gods, so you can read either one first, if you're curious.

You think your dad is embarrassing? Well, at least he isn't an African trickster god -- now that would be nothing but trouble.

But it's what you'd expect of Neil Gaiman, who is best known for his witty, slightly wonky brand of dark fantasy -- and his ability to spin up the most absurd stories in an entertaining fashion. And "Anansi Boys" features Gaiman getting in touch with his lighter, playful more humorous side, in a sort-of-sequel to his smash hit "American Gods."

Fat Charlie's dad has always been weird -- brass bands for the terminally ill, nicknames that stick, and much more. But even away from his dad, Charlie isn't happy. Then he gets the news that his dad died during a karaoke song; when he goes to the funeral, an old neighbor tells him that Daddy was really Anansi the spider god. Even worse, Charlie finds out he has a brother.

Spider is everything Charlie isn't -- charming, debonair, witty, and magical. Soon he has not only taken over Fat Charlie's house, but his fiancee as well, distracting Fat Charlie from his boss's attempts to frame him. Determined to get rid of Spider, Fat Charlie enlists the Bird Woman's help -- but soon finds that his pact will only get them in deeper trouble with the ancient gods.

Trickster gods -- like Anansi, Loki, Kokopelli, or even a bit of Hermes -- are always the most entertaining part of old myths and legends. They're unpredictable, unmistakable, get all the best lines, and perpetually wild'n'crazy -- and they are also the worst kinds of dads you could imagine. They probably wouldn't make wonderful brothers, either.

So of course, Gaiman goes to town with "Anansi Boys," by simply forming a story around that idea: what if a trickster god had two kids, who were nothing alike, but suddenly had to deal with one another? Gaiman also sprinkles it liberally with corporate intrigue, romance, and the old Anansi legends (which he inserts periodically). Don't expect the darker overtones of "American Gods," because this is a very different story.

With this lighter tone, Gaiman sounds a lot like his pal Terry Pratchett, right down to wry humor and on-the-spot comic timing. And the dialogue is pure gold: "There are three things, and three things only, that can lift the pain of mortality and ease the ravages of life. These things are wine, women and song." "Curry's nice too." Gaiman seems to be having a lot of fun in this book.

And nowhere is the fun more clear than in Spider and Fat Charlie. They're like yin and yang -- one brother is charming, conscienceless and self-consciously divine in his attitude, and the other is nervy, awkward and painfully mundane. Spider's charm leaps out from the page, while Fat Charlie is sort of Gaiman's "Charlie Brown." Don't worry, Fat Charlie improves as the book goes on.

Everyone gets annoyed by their siblings and embarrassed by their dad, but the "Anansi Boys" have a life more complex than most. Lighter than most Neil Gaiman books, but hilarious, dark and perpetually clever.

To open an art mag is to see so much art. Our world has become more and more visual in the last 20 years: MTV, Industrial Light & Magic, flashy product design... So little actually can be called arresting. Flipping through magazines, Anthony Goicolea's work actually caught my attention in the riot of color that is our modern world. Its themes are strangely diffuse but all very relevant: Our growing interest in male adolescent sexuality and aggression, our nervous anticipation of human cloning, our need to find the last taboo standing.

Goicolea's work is photomontage in which the 20something artist dresses and poses in such a way as to seem 13-15 years old. Usually, his photographs contain multiple images of himself as an early adolescent interacting with each other to produce the effect of a gaggle of boys doing boyish things. These might be anything: bullying, bare-knuckles fighting, masturbation, receiving Holy Communion, playing a prank, engaging in sport.

The photos are highly stylized, slick and beautiful. They appear a bit like movie stills of a film never made. It adds to their mystique that we are forced to fill in narrative around them. It is interesting the artist chooses to focus on early male adolescence, a time of isolation and transgression. The photos then are cool and distant while hinting at a roil of desire.

With his interchangable and narcissistic boy-clones/septuplets, Goicolea makes a statement about the closed world of the pubertal boy. His secret wants, his bewildering changes are kept to himself. The viewer looks on voyeuristically, never to truly enter the sexually febrile, wildly imaginative, wolfishly violent mind of our subject and his Doppelgangers.

This is a great book at a great price--the only problem being that Amazon doesn't actually have any to sell. I ordered this book in June (when the site offered shipping in 24-48 hours) and in their latest email they have pushed the delivery date to mid September. A phone call to customer service revealed they actually have no idea when or if they can get this book. I've had this problem before trying to order art books published in limited editions from Amazon. They'll never admit they won't ship something, so if you don't get your order quickly, I advise you to cancel and go to another source. They will never have this book in stock. You can however, still get it from the publisher, just not at Amazon's low price.

ANTHONY GOICOLEA makes art that is as much about beautiful photographic compositions as it is about the investigation of pubertal psyches. Using himself as model, Goicolea creates moments frozen by his camera to create Renaissance-like staged retablos that deal with the childlike approaches to adult dilemmas and situations. There are pranks, there are episodes of bad behavior, there are surprisingly tender moments of self-exploration. The artist's imagination is fertile and his ability to create these pictures by manipulating his own physical presence is a bit mind boggling! But the overall effect is fun and thoughtful and never cloying. How he is able to do all of this is another bit of magic beyond the resultant fine photographs. A beautiful book for the art lover's collection. Grady Harp, February 2005

off-the-hook beautiful. dark, satyrical, amazing and original
storytelling - painstaking composition,staging. an eye for
stark, whimsical truth.

highly recommended...

One of the world's most respected masters of the art of Erotica has recently published what is perhaps his masterpiece. William Maltese has for years been one of the most consistently praised writers in the field.

"Ardennian Boy" is a remarkable book. It tells the explosive story of the two Nineteenth Century French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud and their sexual affair that shocked the world and ultimately brought a stint in a Belgian prison for the unfortunate Verlaine.

This story of course has been told before, but never like this. Mr. Maltese has put the sex back into the story where it belongs. Explicit, hot, dirty sex as it was most likely experienced by the poets. Of course this is not a biography, but a novel, so Maltese has taken some liberties, imagining what "must have been" between the lines of the well-documented actual events. In addition, the novel is enhanced by liberal samplings of the poetry itself in sparklingly sexy new translations by Professor Drewey Wayne Gunn.

The affair between Verlaine and Rimbaud lasted less than two years. But oh! What an affair! Rimbaud was only a 15-year-old country boy from the Ardennes region of France (hence the title) when he sought out Verlaine, ostensibly for advice and help with his literary career. From the first moments, the recently married and terminally "bourgeois" Verlaine fell hard for the sexy young teen.

Mr. Maltese skillfully follows the trajectory of the torrid affair from Paris, to rural Charleville, back to Paris many times, to Brussels, to London, and back to Brussels (where the shooting incident leads to the conviction and jail time for Verlaine.) The reader becomes exhausted from all the explosive, exciting action so beautifully and volcanically described by the master story-teller, William Maltese.

No fan of gay erotica should miss this fine book that's presently short-listed on the Lambda Literary Awards list for erotica! It is not only a novel; it is a great anthology of the work of both poets. In a well-written and scholarly appendix to the book, a factual history of the poets and their work is summarized, along with references to the actual titles of the original French poems and where the interested and/or scholarly reader can find the originals.

Don't miss this one. It is HOT!

I still remember a maybe 13 years old girl who stole a book of poems from the shelves in her mother room. They were, as I read on the preface, poems that Paul Verlaine has written during his relationship with Arthur Rimbaud. Really I didn't find any clue of this relationship in that book, but I cherished the memory of this love. I remember that the preface underlined the age difference between Verlaine and Rimbaud (10 years) but said nothing about the fact that Arthur was 16 years old when he met Paul. When he coscientely and willingly seduced the older poet.

In Ardennian Boy, Arthur admits that he didn't find Paul physical attractive, seems an excuse, but in this case we can absolutely believe when Arthur says that he is attracted by the genius of Paul Verlaine, the greater poet in Paris, excluse himself of course. Even if Arthur is younger, he is the why and the how of the story. He is him who drags Paul out of his bourgeois life. But what they have together is not a romance, a pure love to leave to posterity. It is a selfdestructive relationship, brings forward by a selfish and genial boy and a whining and genial man, who apart are nothing but together are a vulcan of poetry.

And while Wayne Gunn translates for us rhymes that I truly find difficult to believe are been written more than 130 years ago (but it seems so, according to the detailed chapter where he explains how he has done the work), William Maltese tells us the life story of these two men, with a force and a writing style that make them alive again. Story and rhymes alternate themself in the book, and you can't say if it is the story which brings alive the rhymes or if they are the rhymes which give a sense to the story. During sex Arthur and Paul exchange poems as others exchange grunts and moans.

It's not a romance, all us know what the end of this real story is, and if you still believe it's a romantic story, the everyday life describes by William Maltese will remove you of any lingering dream. But even if there isn't romance, you will find a lot of love: even if Arthur says he loves only Paul's dick, and not the man, that he loves only his poetry, and not the coward man who seems not to be able to give up to his bourgeois life, even if Paul tries to set himself against the way of life Arthur wants to coax him, he only can follow this man everywhere he wants to bring him, until...

These two gifted authors combine their considerable talents for this incendiary retelling of the notorious love affair between the celebrated French poets, young Arthur Rimbaud - a "wild boy" from the Ardennes with a passion for living life at the brink and beyond - and Paul Verlaine, an older, closeted bisexual.

Gunn's translations of the often X rated poetry, many of them done in partnership with his longtime companion, the late Jacques Murat, are alone worth the price of admission, and Maltese disperses them throughout the book for maximum effectiveness in buttressing his story. The book's cover rightly warns that this is not for "the sexually faint of heart." This is the tale, after all, of a romance that scandalized 19th century France and fomented some of the bawdiest--and, yes, most beautiful - gay-themed verses ever penned.

The novel's sexual content, much of it frankly scatological, is unrelenting and ultimately so stupefying as to altogether lose its eroticism, but Maltese makes skillful, even subtle use of it to limn his characters and further the story.

The book would no doubt have benefited from the inclusion of even a single sympathetic character or, more importantly, the discovery of any redeeming qualities that might have humanized the two lead characters, without which they sometimes veer dangerously close to caricatures. One puts the book aside when finished with no feeling of satisfaction but rather with a sense of having wallowed in the excrement of which they are so fond.

This was almost certainly not intended, however, to be a pretty nor a cheerful story. Genius and insanity go hand in hand, as the old cliché has it, and what these two writers have done, and done brilliantly, is to offer compelling glimpses into the tortured psyches of two poetic geniuses who, if not quite insane, certainly dwelt on the far reaches of anything that could be considered "normalcy."

It is generally thought a wise thing to separate the art from the artist. The authors here have suggested that this is not always possible--nor even always wise.

The ultimate result is a masterpiece of its kind, an instant classic of literary erotica, and, if not for the faint of heart, certainly a must-have for every serious collector of the genre.

Maltese, William and Gunn, Wayne. "Ardennian Boy", MLR Press, 2007.

Romantic Erotica

Amos Lassen

I have always been drawn to historical fiction mainly because you not only get a good read but you learn a little something. This is essentially true in Maltese and Gunn's "Ardennian Boy" which is based on the lives and loves of French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. You not only get historical fiction but classy, raw erotica (and Maltese is well known for this).
We first meet Rimbaud as a teenager from the French provinces. He is wild and will do anything and he believes that the more excesses that he experiences, the better poet he will become. He experiences much as a young man and lives an extremely decadent life.
Verlaine is in a marriage which seems to hold him a prisoner. His wife nags him and he must suppress any homosexual feelings that he has. However, when the two men meet, sparks fly and the two men begin a torrid love affair, one that Verlaine is totally unprepared for. Before Rimbaud, Verlaine's poetry was merely passable but the passion that is awakened in him by the younger man from Ardennes, pushes him to the position of a great French poet. Verlaine ultimately ignores the societal conventions of the time and the two men live on the fringes of French culture. Ultimately the two poets join others such as Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde as "literary pioneers in the struggle for gay rights in the 19th century.
When the two men met, Rimbaud was only 16 years old and Verlaine was ten years his senior. "Ardennian Boy" tells us that Rimbaud was not physically attracted to Verlaine but admired his mind. Rimbaud manages to "drag" Verlaine out of his mundane life style and brings him into a self-destructive relationship and this self-destruction seems to be the reason that the two men rose to the heights of poetic expression. I think it is important to understand that the book does not deal with modern times but actually takes place some 130 years ago. Maltese tells the story with vivacity wile Gunn is responsible for the translation of the poetry. The two authors alternate poetry and story and it works beautifully. Both the poetry and the storyline are important to understanding the "love" that the poets shared. I particularly love the way that the poets exchange their poetry while they are involved in sexual activity. There is not a lot of romance here but there is great sex.
The two authors tell a story that is blatantly erotic. The relationship between the two Frenchmen scandalized French society and also brought us some of the most beautiful and bawdy gay poetry ever written. Maltese gives us hot sex all through the book and he does so in a sublime manner. The sex is hot but it also beautifully written. The story is not one that I would call "pretty" but it is compelling and a look at two of France's greatest poets in a new light is a rewarding experience. The characters are geniuses who need to the sex to set off the fuse of their minds.
Granted the book falls