Felice PicanoRecensioni

This book was just too poorly written for me. The action is not well described, the characters are unappealing and it all feels quite unrealistic.

One of the best literary Gay novels I have read in this genre.
A great book.
A classic.

Flamboyant, mercurial Alistair Dodge and steadfast, cautious Roger Sansarc are second cousins who are both gay and whose lifelong friendship begins when they first meet as nine-year-old boys in 1954. At crucial moments in their personal histories their lives intersect, and each discovers his own unique - and uniquely gay- identity.

A young professor is given the task of cataloging the works of a famous group of gay writers "the purple circle" (in real life like the violet quill group). But someone doesn't want him to do his research. And things are... not what they seem at all.

A very fun read, and informative about gay american culture.

After my initial distraught at the writing style (because Ganymede reads like the teenage life advice column from the Bravo magazine at the turn of the millennium and not at all like a Classic Greek tale), the book started growing on me quite a bit. So I removed the rod of conceit stuck high up my ass, promptly called myself a philistine and began enjoying the story.

I must say this was quite the breath of fresh air: funny, well documented and Ganymede's witty barbs made me laugh out loud. He makes fun of immortals like Hermes, Ares and Apollo whom he twists around his little finger mercilessly. The speech is very contemporary but it works.

I compartmentalized the fact that Ganymede was actually 12 when Hermes had him and 14 when he became Zeus's (not spoiling you guys it's all in the blurb). I chose not to think about that too much. The reason for this was that in Ancient Greece there was the social custom of paiderastía , the socially acceptable romantic relationship between an adult male and an adolescent male. And I'm all for historical accuracy. Nothing pisses me more in a book that the lack of historical accuracy. When I see thousand year old tragic historical or mythological stories turned into HEAs for the sake of sales I feel like breaking my Kindle in half and never reading that author again. Happy to say this follows the story of Ganymede told in the Illiad.

I also got a little shout out at my two favorite boys and this brought a smile to my face:
"Achilles was also a good-looking guy, with a real doll for a lover, Patroclus."

I'm quite happy my dear Shin Mon recommended this book at the right time, because GR's passive aggressive messages informing me I'm behind my reading challenge were starting to feel like the worst whopping cough.

Later edit: This was written in 1981?? So awesome!

Spanning around thirty five years starting 1954 we follow the spasmocically interweaving lives of two boys, second cousins, both gay. Roger Sansarc, the narrator, and Alastair Dodge are to look at more like brothers, but there the similarity ends. Alastair is the polar opposite of the staid, conservative Roger. Not surprisingly their relationship is volatile, with Alastair invariably the one to light the fuse.

It is Alastair who awakens Roger to his gayness by virtually offering him to another. Later it is Alastair who covets Rogers greatest love, The dark and handsome Vietnam hero, Matt Loguidice, sailor, model, poet and gay icon. but that is just a small part of this vast novel that takes us through the days of gay sexual liberation to the devastation of the AIDS epidemic as Roger leads us though his varied life.

But this is much more than a chronicle of gay life through the second half of the Twentieth Century, it is a brilliantly written, entertaining, thought provoking, funny and moving.

Two imaginative and engaging short stories both with the theme of time travel.

The first, Wonder City of the West is told by the ageing and now bankrupt gay gentleman we will come to know as Christopher Hall. Befriended in 2010 by a mysterious neighbour claiming to be from the future who offers him the chance to go back to the 1930s and a new life. With all matters arranged our narrator arrives in Los Angeles in 1935 where he is meet by another mysterious stranger who provides guidance.

It is now that our narrator takes the name Christopher Hall, and begins his new life, and makes new friends. Although it is the depth of the Depression Christopher, with his mature head and knowledge of the future sets about helping his friends, and along they way secures a promising future for himself involving Hollywood, films and film stars, including his gay idol. As he learns first hand of the 1930s his Twenty-First Century liberal conscience prompts him to put to try right the social injustices of the time he now occupies. It is around then that he (and we) learns the real reason for his being sent back in time.

The second story, Ingoldsby, is initially more obscure, or intriguing. Told mainly through newspaper articles, police reports, eye witness accounts and eventually the main subject's own journals, it concerns a remarkable handsome young PhD student who is employed in his vacation at the mysterious country house of the title, a house the locals are wary of, and who parades around the nearby small town in little more than a skimpy pair of shorts, much to the horror of the local matrons and the delight of the young girls; that is before he disappears, for it his disappearance that is the centre of this tale.

Of the missing man, Neal P Bartram, we learn about him from from others' reports, but of what happens to him from his own journals. That involves some visitors who appear to be out of their time, two handsome young men, one of whom is gay, and a beautiful young girl with whom he falls in love. Using his abilities as a student he investigates, and devises a plan whereby he can be with his new found girl, and at the same time help her hapless gay friend saving him from a life of compromise and repression. As with the other story the solution involves time travel.

A quick read, the author has high expectations for other cats that walk into his life. Few are as in tune with you as the ones that you raise.

This book is some sort of weird romance novel. Yeah sure, I believe in bisexuality, but this book just frustrates me, but maybe that's just because it all seems rather dated now. This book rates a rare *one star*.

St. Bart's 2016 #5 - mildly entertaining book about a creepy telephone relationship between a young guy and a voyeur of sorts in an upper east side Manhattan neighborhood.....and it sort of gets a little out of hand......not graphically, but psychologically.....and a somewhat unexpected ending, which is always good for me. Not great, but good....

This is the first book I have read by Felice Picano. The two 1/2 star rating that I give to this review does not in anyway reflect on Mr. Picano's talent as a writer. He obviously is a very gifted story teller. My objection to this novel is much like the reactions some of the gay community had to the film "Cruisin" The violence and narcissim in this novel does not reflect my experience as a gay young man in the 1970s. There were such people like Noel and Eric like that I am sure but when at the end, the character of Eric says "We Won". I kept wondering what the heck was it that they won?½

There's lots of interesting information here, but I found the prose all but unreadable

I was disappointed with the first story (**)! The initial pages are gleaming (that's why I bought the book...), but thereafter the writing style is descriptive, unimaginative and the plot uninteresting. Where is "my" Felice Picano of "Like People in History"?
Fortunately, the second story, Ingoldsby, is much better (****)! It is also a sci-fi/fantasy tale that mix past with present, but this time with much more subtlety. Even the narrative structure (a series of police reports, newspaper articles and journals) is smarter, bringing the reader to the author/narrator level, in trying to understand what happened from scraps, bits and pieces, just like what may happen in a real police investigation.

Reading this collection of “true stories” is at the same time wonderful and sad. You can feel the time and the energy, the lives of so many artistry men, writers, actors, musicians, but you can also feel the sadness of a man who knew them all and now it has lot of memories but also lot of “in memory” feelings.

I’m true, I shed a tear or two reading about the more famous Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley, but also, at least to me, unknown Frank Diaz or Bobby Brown. I enjoyed the light story about W.H. Auden, that yes, died, but after he had the chance to enjoy life. There are so many different lives in this book, but all of them have one thing in common, Felice Picano.

This is not a book about the AIDS related losses (Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley), even if many of these stories have the horrific plague as deadly ax; some of these men succumbed before AIDS, due to the pain of living (Bobby Brown and Frank Diaz); some of them (W.H. Auden, Charles Henri Ford and Tennessee Williams), were of inspiration to young writers far into their old age. But strong, weak, longtime friends (Ricky Hersch and Jerry Blatt), lovers (James and Bob Lowe), business partner (Terry Helbing), relatives (Grandpa Ralph and Philip Picano) or simply acquaintances (Diana Vreeland), all of them were vivid enough, still are vivid enough, to dig a little spot in Felice Picano’s mind (and heart), and through this book he is letting them out once again, for people who didn’t know them to have the chance to know them a little bit now.

This is not a counting of dead people, it’s more like a Spoon River Anthology a la Picano style: each chapter brings alive a memory and with that memory a man, his dreams and loves, his art and his death. All of them spread through a New York City that changed with them, from the freedom of love of the ’60 and ’70, to the AIDS indulged fear of living of the ’80 and ’90. Through all the period, Felice Picano was friend, lover, witness and now recorder. It’s clear that for some of these stories, Felice Picano would have preferred to let them rest in peace, it’s clear that for him it’s still painful to remember, but it’s also clear that the author is willingly hurting himself to allow these men to come alive again; they are not ghosts, they are like shadows that Felice Picano can still see on the corner of the street, or hearing their voices calling him, or feeling their arms giving a loving embrace. Reading this book is like having a peep into Felice Picano’s heart.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984470778/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

The title of this book turns out to be very appropriate! It's a literary mystery, fun, suspenseful, and with a surprise or two at the end.½

Roger Lynch treats his wife Karen to a visit to the his family's old Sumer stomping grounds in Nansquett, and while they're walking through the neighborhood of his grandfather's house, they stumble across the old Pritchard place. Roger's and Karenr's eyes light up when they spy the For Sale sign in the yard and investigate the house, making a quick decision then and their to by the place and to restore it. But during the restoration, Roger finds the diaries of Amy Pritchard and learns what happened between her and her sister, and Amy's impending marriage to a Capt. Calder of the Union Army. No one lived there since the end of the Civil War, after Amy became a pariah of sorts within the small community, shunned by them and in turn shunning them, committing suicide in the property's well.

As he reads further into the diaries, he begins to see parallels between the Pritchards and his own life, especially when his cousin Chas appears on the scene. Vivid memories of their sexually charged youth weigh on his mind, and he can't help thinking that something more is at work, drawing Roger, Karen and Chas into an dangerous, unending cycle that's been running for hundreds of years.

"Looking Glass Lives" tells a decent story, but my problem with the book has to do with the main plot point being hinted at within the first few pages and then being tossed about and hung over the entire story. I like to uncover bits of the plot as I read, and while a small hint every so often of what may lie down the road is fine, mentioning it almost too often slows the pacing down. Which is what happens with this book. From the very beginning, the reader is told that something terrible happened at the Pritchard house and that it was playing out again. That knowledge and its creeping up again and again in most chapters lessened my desire to continue reading. Why would I want to if I already know what's going to happen? It makes the whole story turn overly dramatic and less enjoyable than it could have been.

I'm someone who enjoys ghost stories and tales of the supernatural most of the time, but this one seemed to miss the mark with me.½

Excellent first-hand account of the emergence of the gay small press in New York City.

Another very nicely written autobiographical book of Picano's. It's charming and heartfelt and I enjoyed it immensely.

I truly hope that all of Felice Picano's books are this terrific of a read. The author truly has a way of describing his characters and developing these three short stories. The first has to do with growing up the in the East in a neighborhood much like the one that I grew up in. Against his 5th grade's teacher wishes, he insists on using both his left and right hands. But he takes something as simple as this (today it would not be significant but not in the 50's - in the forties and fifties left-handedness was frowned upon) and creates a wonderful story. In the end he rebels -- he experiments with sex in the basement of a neighbors (Susan Flaherty). His writing of this first story is truly incredible - couldn't put it down until I finished the first fifty pages.

In Pelicano's second story entitled "Valentine" the writer writes about a local neighbor boy Ricky Hersch who he obviously admired in all respects. The short story talks about his classmates in middle school but especially his adoration of Hersch, their adventuresome times. He writes about his first sexual experience as a juvenile with another boy and how the experience changes to love; their is no reciprocity of the feeling and the feelings are discussed in length; love and intimacy.

Picano's last short story, The Effects of Mirrors, centers around juvenile sexual play with a Franny Solomon -- an ice princess that both the writer and Franny engage in juvenile sexual escapades while being watched with the effects of mirrors by an adult. He's thirteen and writes a story centered around this situation, which is rejected --the rest affects - the truth.

Frivolous retelling of the Ganymede myth. Light but fun.

So, das ist spannend. Und sexy!

Eine überragende Geschichte über zwei Brüder, die zudem auch noch meisterlich erzählt ist. Bravo!

What was Picano thinking when he wrote this book. It appears that his soul was not into the writing of this novel...his other books are fantastic. I read a little over 100 pages and truly hate when I do not finish a book but this one is a stinker. It has no soul or thought put into it....it's just an exercise in writing a book to make some money.

It's hard to say too much about this book without giving the end away. It's mostly a mystery with a twist that changes your whole view of the book in the final pages. The mystery is related to a group of author's who resemble the Violet Quills.

Picano weaves a story of two protagonists in this wonderfully written book; his second cousin, Alistair Dodge, self obsessed, attractive and only out for himself and to connect with the high and mighty. And, Matt Loguidice, a beautiful Viet Name Vet just return from Nam, decorated with a past that is discovered at the end of the book. Matt is extremely handsome, always chased and becomes the story teller's Roger Sansarc lover. The story wheels its ways through the several decades including the advent of the gay movement, to AIDS and through self discovery and people no longer being in the closet but accepting and celebrating their gayness. It's a tear jerker at the end and quite frankly it reminded me of the many many friends I personally lost to aids, the death watches and friends that had given friends the means to commit suicide. It was a terrible period and this book brought reminisces of this period .... a delightful and touching book.