Last Summer

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Reading Experience
Review: The first thing that I noticed about the book was the beautiful cover art. I then read the summary of the book and gave it a try. I have never heard of Michael Thomas Ford so I decided to give the book a try and was astounded. This is one of the best gay books I have read in quite a while. All the characters were very likable and realistic. The bond that the characters build throughout the summer in Provincetown is very believable. I hated when the book ended because you lose contact with many of the characters you grew to love through the novel. I hope that Michael Thomas Ford is planning a sequel because I would love to know what the characters are going to be up to next summer.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling!
Review: There is a stark honesty to this book which makes it all so poignant yet uplifting in the end. The cast of characters and their stories are brilliantly conceived and written with a heart felt sincerity. The main characters seem so real that I wish they truly are. Even the side characters are vividly potrayed. With a captivating dialogue it is just so easy to be imprisoned by "Last Summer". Like all great books, there is a lingering emptiness long after I finished Last Summer because one wishes there is more. I look forward to Ford's next novel.

Rating:
Summary: Made-for-TV Movie
Review: This novel reads like a made-for-TV book. There are numerous characters and subplots. And as it ends happily, we can see the credits rolling over the happy little diverse family of gay people.

There are books I refer to as "summer" reading meaning that they are light and entertaining. This novel qualifies and in fact it is about summertime in Providence, Rhode Island, where gay people gather for their vacations. Some of the characters are "Rounders" who stay in Providence all year and some come there to enjoy the sun, beach and the attractive people.

Josh Felling is a copy writer who has recently broken up with his lvoer of eight years due to the other's one-time infidelity. Felling's trauma over this has more to do with the predictability of his life. Later when he will have a fling, he will remember some of their former stirrings he had before he settled into his relationship. Ford does not comment on that. One might have thought this could have led Josh to a better understanding of Doug and perhaps led to a reconciliation.

Other characters include a gay film producer and his gay lover, who happens to be the big star of the moment. How they work out their relationship both professionally and romantically provides some fun. Jackie, an African-American lesbian ,wants to have a baby, has recovered from alcoholism, but still runs the bar she inherited and wonders when it will be time to leave. Emmeline/Mason wants to be totally a woman and has one more operation to complete the transformation. Yet she still needs to come to terms with her family, importantly her dying mother. She mothers the "newby" Toby whose first sex came crashing down when he realized he was a trick.

Ford's novel reads briskly, but has its own predictability, but one does not want "summer" reading to challenge one's deepest dreams. One can imagine that as a movie this story would be brisk, entertaining and fanciful. And probably forgotten the next day. If one wants a more "literary" work, skip this one. But it is certainly good reading for one's vacation.

Rating:
Summary: A BRILLIANT DEBUT NOVEL!
Review: Up until now, Michael Thomas Ford has been recognized as been one of the best gay humorists/commentators for his highly praised collections of essays like THAT'S MR. FAGGOT TO YOU and ALEC BALDWIN DOESN'T LOVE ME. Now he has produced his first novel, and it is one of the best reads of last, this and probably next summer.

The setting is the summer season in P-Town and Ford has populated it with a most diverse, interesting and enjoyable cast of characters - gay, lesbian, transgender and straight - singles, sluts, engaged, married, separated or abandoned - and a 17-year old virgin from Hannibal. But mainly it's about Josh Felling a free-lance copywriter from Boston who is trying to get over a six-year relationship shattered by a cheating love and the "families" he discovers around him.

The author is very adept at working with a large and varied cast and entwining their many different tales into a common theme that all works out in the end. Also because of his gift for writing totally believable dialogue, you'll probably go on reading the book just another chapter or two after you've planned to stop.

Characters, plot and dialogue - you just can't top what you'll find in LAST SUMMER. And until Ford's next novel, I guess I'll just have to start with his essay collections. Don't miss this one, I'm giving it my rare *****+ rating and making it Our Bookshelf's Book Of the Month.

Rating:
Summary: Loved every minute
Review: What a great read! I loved the character development and the intertwined story lines. As much as I enjoyed this book, I did not want it to end. I too am anxious to find out what happens next summer.

Rating:
Summary: Hmm, not the Provincetown I know.
Review: While this book was light enough for my recent summer week in Ptown, I must say I found a few things odd and off about it.

First, it reads as if Ford knows a LITTLE bit about Ptown, but doesn't really like it. For example, in the high summer season, characters just jump into their cars and drive down Commercial Street when they want to grab a bite to eat. Anyone who's ever been to Ptown in the high summer season knows that cars are superfluous on Commercial Street - everyone walks, and parking is NOT available. The streets are teeming with tourists and bikes and drag queens on scooters, making driving nearly impossible. Ford also tosses around an actual restaurant name or two, but they seem inserted for authenticity. And the characters' quick walks from restaurants to lonely beaches make me scratch my head, wondering where exactly they're supposed to be. So, I really think that anyone who's spent some time there (I've been vacationing there for 15 years) will see that the sense of place is rather off.

Second, and much more troubling, is the general tone of internalized homophobia. The scene where Josh and Doug argue at the cafe, and the "queens" around them can't avoid listening because they love arguments, especially those that involve troubled relationships. Ouch! Or the various characters who hate "the scene," from Josh to Reilly. Part of that is reflected in the "everyday guy who happens to be gay" aspects of the book. Frankly, every gay guy probably thinks of himself this way - it's just that we all have different ideas of what "regular" means. It's all about the love and support, folks, from the nelliest queen to the butchest he-man (not the mention the those of the B, L and T varieties!).

Fianlly, I must say that the many plots are rather trite. Look at them: straight engaged guy comes out; young midwestern boy comes out; guy's relationship breaks up (over one affair? but i digress); 40-year-old lesbian wants a baby; transgenedered gal wants the operation; hollywood hunk comes out. All stories were treated VERY lightly, so there's very little depth to any of them. And all stories have been done to death in other places.

So, I don't mean to diss MTF, but I was disappointed with this book, and offended by its tone. I guess I feel that if you want to set a novel in Ptown, among the gays there, you should at least LIKE Ptown and the gays there. I sense that MTF doesn't really care for either.

Rating:
Summary: hot and solid
Review: With a cast that Almost requires endsheet flowcharts to keep them untangled (think War & Peace) this novel ultimately unfolds like a useful highway map.
I had to work at it a little in the first 100 pages but the charcters are indeed believable and the story line(s) fun.
A good read with some interwoven serious thoughts ranging form why perfection breeds boredom to why gay relationship, lacking role models, are difficult. It was good to be fed some brain food as well as entertainment. I have given it to friends, all return it with a smile and thanks. Is there a better measure?

Rating:
Summary: ¿A gay guy who is just a normal guy¿
Review: With a nice tight plot, Last Summer is a saucy, sexy and wild read. And is packed with great, lively characters that mischievously weave in and out of each other's lives. Michael Thomas Ford has written an incredibly entertaining first novel, which is not only packed with some timely references to popular culture, but is also an extremely perceptive account of modern gay life and the sorts of issues that gay people, particularly younger gay people face today.

Ford is raising lots of interesting issues, and doing this with humour and insight: Can sex be just sex, an act separate from love and presumably no threat to a relationship? Can there more to love than the reproduction of children and the leaving of legacies? What is the fairy tale nature of love and can people keep the passion going long after the movie credits role? How does one cope with one-night stands and being single again after so long in a relationship? And can one be a normal gay guy in the sense of not belonging to any particular gay clique?

Set in the gay Mecca of Provincetown with its wind-swept dunes, lazy summer afternoons, and starry nights, the book centers around Josh Felling When his lover of seven years, Doug, announces that he's recently had an affair, Josh's world is turned upside down. His whole life, Josh has believed in true love, even though his friends tease him for being a hopeless romantic. He really thought that he and Doug were forever. Broken-hearted, he heads to P-Town for a few days of reflection and to figure out where his relationships, and his life, are headed. But the summer has other plans for Josh, and his weekend trip to P-town will bring bigger changes than he ever imagined. We follow Josh and a rich cast of characters as they live through an unforgettable summer together and find the answer to many of life's challenges.

There are lots of entertaining and astutely drawn characters: The hunky "straight" carpenter Reilly Brennan with his fantasies about men and his imminent marriage to his fiancée Donna; P-town's unofficial lesbian mayor, Jackie Stavers, who has a failing relationship and a ticking biological clock; Toby Evans, looking for a new and openly gay life, fresh-faced and fresh out of a Midwestern high school. And there's Emmeline, P-town's resident drag royalty and how she has to cope with the arrival of her overbearing invalid mother. There's also gay Hollywood producer Reid Truman who is looking to find true love with Ty Rusk, Hollywood's latest young movie idol.

The characters merge and intertwine with a "six degrees of separation-like" quality, as secrets are revealed and each character reaches their cross roads of life. Hot, sexy and entertaining, Last Summer is probably one of the best gay novels in quite a while. I also agree with the other reviewers - the cover art is just beautiful.

Michael.

Rating:
Summary: Great Novel Debut for MTF
Review: Yes, yes, yes, all of the reviews that praise this book are accurate. The characters are real, it's funny, blah blah blah. I think the best part of the book as a longtime fan of MTF is to read the characters in this book and compare them to various people mentioned in his previous essay books.

(*SPOILER AHEAD.. STOP READING THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING*)
My one gripe with the storyline is that the whole Hollywood thread was just WAY too easily tied up. I never really got a sense that there were ANY negative reprecussions in the "self-outing". It just seemed too convenient.

That said, however, MTF needs to keep writing novels! Not that he'll be reading this review anyway (or maybe he will...) but it seriously inspired me to get back to writing. Way to go!