Now make no mistake. Unraveled is mostly well written, but the author peoples his/her world with enough cowardly bitch-and-moan whiners, homophobes, liars and ‘holier-than thy-ers’ to build another West Angeles Church Babylonious shrine. 

Unraveled: Sealed Lips, Clenched Fists

By D. Fostalove (iUniverse 291 pps)

Chauncey, a struggling journalist, and Destiny, an unmotivated welfare recipient, have been in a toxic live-in relationship for four years. Chauncey, while at a concert with his low-life, alcoholic cousin Frazier, meets Thai, a decent and proud gay man. Though Thai has unhidden romantic feelings for Chauncey, their friendship is noble and platonic, but because Destiny is the girlfriend-from-hell (“We fight good and we sex good,” she proudly tells Chauncey in her twisted idea of a come on), Chauncey spends a great deal of time in Thai’s company crying on his shoulder. 

Nothing much else happens in this story of any considerable consequence except domestic argument after domestic argument. Chauncey is too much of a milquetoast to leave Destiny, Thai is too unrealistically patient to send Chauncey packing, and cousin Frazier is too much of an asshole to illicit any sympathy when tragedy comes calling. 

I very much like Chauncey’s mother and found the chapter devoted to his returning home to her most compelling, but even here we are faced with a woman who is subtly condescending and antediluvian. 

Arguably the two greatest narcissistic, cry-baby, racists, bitch-glorious heroines in modern literary history are Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlet O’Hara (“Gone With The Wind”) and Tennessee Willams’ Blanche Dubois (“A Streetcar Named Desire”) but those authors walked that literary tightrope with such impeccably inventive and daring-do dexterity that we have been forever endeared to the very nasty qualities these characters imbued. But Fostalove’s Destiny is one of the most unlikable bitches ever committed to paper. 

The author also shoots him/herself in the foot with an over dependency on dialogue and precious little narrative, and the characters’ responses to anything are overly physical and emotionally anemic—cracking necks and knuckles, rolling eyes, staring up at the ceiling. 

Watching the lives of people unravel and fall apart is easy fodder for empathy and sympathy, but the characters here are so cold, unfeeling, and angry, that, after finishing this book, I felt mostly the same way. 

Urban Scholar Learning Academy presents 2 benefit performances of Stanley Bennett Clay's "Armstrong's Kid" Saturday, August 8, 2009. 6 pm and 8 pm. Lucy Florence Village Theatre 3351 W. 43rd St. L.A. 90008. 323.293.1356 or 323.707.7732

While RAHEN (my personal favorite) boldly tackles gay bashing and rivets until the heartbreaking end, CONFINING ROOM flips the script on homie-sexuality. And take note of this beautifully written phrase from THE SPACE BETWEEN: “He opens her with four fingers. He speaks rivers inside her. She does not know what to do with her hands. The rest of her body. Or the thoughts, like famine and harvest, roiling in her head.

” UNDER AN EARLY AUTUMN MOON is the tale of a late night tryst with a surprising twist set in the fuckable landscape of a public park. PATH and SICK DAYS are thematically linked both in tone and content; tracking the light hearted—-in fact downright hysterical—escapades of a metrosexual homosexual’s quest for transient trade and the attended consequences of infidelity.

JOHN poignantly examines a self-loather’s confrontation with his demons via a therapist and a hustler, and although I’m not much of a fan of sadomasochism, I found SOMEWHERE NEARBY brilliant in its mix of cruel sex, brutal assault, intellectualism and the power of brooding self-examination at death’s door.

A seventeen-year-old boy weathers a violent physical and psychological storm in his native Jamaica as his older gay brother, banished years earlier by a now-absent father, lays dying of AIDS in the brief but powerful STORM. And CHURCH returns a prodigal world traveler to his hometown congregation where his moving revelation restores faith in a true and loving God.

This twelve-story collection ends with THE EMBRACE, a bright and buoyant story of three friends and their sexual fantasies that slowly turns erotically haunting when one of them introduces another to a mysterious lothario. THE EMBRACE is sure to leave you breathless.

As in any story collection, some are better than others. But there is not a week one in this bunch, as the author gives each narrator a unique voice, each story its own fascinating twist, and writing as appealingly grandiose and artful as Morrison and Baldwin.

Indeed, Baldwin and Thomas Glave are the only BGM writers to win the prestigious O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction. Based on a couple of the best stories in SHAMING THE DEVIL, it would not surprise me one bit if G. Winston James was chosen to make this a literary trinity.

Special Los Angeles Black Pride Celebration performance of Stanley Bennett Clay's "Armstrong's Kid" followed by a champagne reception Sunday July 5th.

A hundred years ago hotels posted sign that said “no niggers, Jews, animals, or actors allowed.” I am an actor. God made me special and you don’t get it.

I am in love with the man that I’m in love with, yet I am not allowed to enjoy the sacredness of marriage enjoyed by others. I pay the same taxes, but I am resorted to a separate but equal taxation without representation inhumane clause that allows religious beliefs to trump the constitution that clearly states that there should be a separation between Church and State so that we do not duplicate the tyranny of the Spanish Inquisition, and other faith-based persecutions. The constitution clearly states that the minority should be protected against the tyranny of the majority. Marriage between a man and a woman is a faith-based agenda and should not be a legal standard. Marriage between consenting adults should be law-protected.

Without a single hint of humor, he informs us that he cannot be bothered with the females in this terrible place called America because they don’t love the true ‘him.’ They love only his jet black eyes, his jet-black face, his pearly teeth, his tall, lean, over-six-feet frame, even the feet in his kicks. “[T]hey never seen a black man so masculine, so pretty, so beautiful before,” he reminds us in case we hadn’t noticed. “…I come from a country of real men who take real life, real serious.”

Fourteen-year-old Midnight, while dissertating on the sacredness of Muslim women, the complex relationship she has with Muslim men and her finite place in Muslim culture, tells us his incredible story.

At the age of seven, he finds and pays for an apartment he’ll share with his mother and future sibling, beats down three thugs years his senior, and becomes a star student in a Ninjitsu martial arts class.

His collection of 31 ancient Hindu proverbs and words of wisdom from such gentle persons and deities of peace, including Gandhi, Ashtavakra Gita, Tirukkural, Taittinya Upanishad, Bhagavad Gita, Buddha, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is as
soothing as a warm scented bath, and as cleansing.

Each proverb page is interfaced with Mr. Fields’ remarkable and colorful drawings featuring beautiful babies of all colors and cultures in various yoga poses, which, aside from the aesthetics, are quite instructional.

This physically slight but spiritually potent collection is the perfect marriage of art and poetry and I assure you, you’ll revisit its pages time and time again.

But buyer beware. Pick up two or three copies, or more. For as your heart swells with the closing of the final page, your mind will fill with the names of those individuals special to you, special enough to be gifted with this wonderful little treasure.

Stanley Bennett Clay's "Armstrong's Kid" starring Stanley Bennett Clay and Tory Scroggins Thurs. 3/19 & Thurs. 3/26. Lucy Florence Village Theatre 3351 W. 43rd St. L.A. CA 90008. 323.293.1356

Both of Mr. Ariel’s barrels are fully loaded with Addison DeWittisms lethal as paper cuts or an arsenal of Dorothy Parker slams, often at his own expense, resulting in a delightfully caustic read; hysterical and humanized by self-deprecation and keen observations of not only the world around him but his deepest thoughts and the bright and dark sides of his heart and soul.

Author Oscar Hijuelos

"Joseph"

A novel by Sheila P. Moses (174 pps)

The spiritual death of so many young African American males at the hands of political neglect, drug-addicted babies having babies, and the systemic indoctrination of self-hate and short life expectancy ‘encouraged’ by neglectful bureaucracy, bad parents, and gang pimps is a numbing reality that just might come out of a long state of comatose with the promise of change offered by a new, no-nonsense leader of the free world rejecting all things brave young Joseph is forced to battle.

Only time will tell. But in the meantime, Joseph traverses the mean streets of his emotional existence with as much admirable dedication and personal conflict as his father who is fighting for his country, trying to stay alive, and managing to be a good father to his only child.

A good kid and a smart kid, Joseph is aware of how much everyone wants to help him by taking him away from his mother, but he stays loyally by her side, knowing that he’s all she’s got. Living with her in a homeless shelter (Betty lost the house left to her by Joseph’s grandfather, and spends the welfare money and child support money she gets from Joseph’s dad on drugs, drinks, and general good times), Joseph resist leaving his mom to go live with his loving aunt and uncle, a lawyer and an airline pilot, unless they allow his mother to come live with them too. Reluctantly they give in, and with the appearance of Betty comes all the attendant drama of a Boyz In The Hood invasion of The Huxtables.

Even when he overhears his mother’s hurtful truth about his existence, his love is undaunted. He simply continues to make good grades, win tennis matches, be the best young man that he can be, and hope for the best.

This young adult novel is a must read for any young man living under trying domestic/parental situations. In spite of his terrible mother, Joseph is a reflection of the wonderful black men in his life: his father, his grandfather, and his Uncle Todd. Author Moses should be commended for creating these wonderfully believable role models; these Obamamen.

And although the writing might seem a tad simplistic, the points are well made. Perseverance in the face of major obstacles remains a simple truth.