Rating: 
Summary: A fun read - enjoy the ride
Review: A good comic novel is hard to find. A good gay comic novel is even tougher to come by. This is a novel with humor at many levels, including its writing style and form. Some folks just won't get it, and that is ok, but those who do will get some great laughs. Also lots of fun is McLaughlin's other book, "Sex Toys of the Gods."
Rating: 
Summary: A gay re-telling of all modern myths
Review: After finishing this book (more precisely, relishing it for two days and being sorry when I was done), I wondered why I found it so engrossing. It certainly is not exemplary of any literary or stylistic innovation, though the flashbacks are rather well put together. Then it hit me- this book reunites and retells almost all of the myths which define "happiness" in modern America (and hence almost all romance novels at the check-out in the supermarket): fame, fortune, success, love, lust, beauty, etc. This book, then, along with many fine(r) forays in what we now call "contemporary gay fiction", offers us characters to whom we can relate and whose desires and fears are or have been at some point our own. Don't get me wrong, though- the characters in question are certainly no spiritual role models, but then again, the simplicity of unrequited love and yearning is universal, and you don't have to be James Joyce to write it...or a post-doc to read it.
Rating:
Summary: charming and funny
Review: An engaging story of the first love of a cute college junior, Alex. The object of his affection and lust is Nick, a law student who is gorgeous, sexy and sweet but seriously attached . A brief torrid affair and a broken-hearted Alex went on to a successful career as a daytime soap opera actor and a closeted gorgeous TV actor boyfriend. However disaster struck when Alex is outed publicly and he refused to deny his sexuality. The incident resulted in some positive happenings in his life though - like Nick! Light stuff but definitely worth a reading.
Rating:
Summary: A completely engrossing novel!
Review: An excellent novel for light-hearted reading to pass the day, I quickly became engrossed in the trials and tribulations of Alex Young and his coterie. Alex's narration has definite interest as McLaughlin has done an excellent job giving his characters personality. I strongly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoyed the Tales of the City novels by Armistead Maupin. My only wish is a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: A witty and romantic rendering of gay love in the nineties
Review: Christian McLaughlins GLAMOURPUSS has a truly appalling jacket - a bronzed, headless beefcake drapes his privates in crimson satin. Its the sort of jacket you have to twist over and hide when youre reading on public transport. But thats just about my only criticism of this book, which is one of the funniest and most romantic novels Ive read for some time. The story revolves around the life and loves of the extremely likable Alex Young. McLaughlin charts Alexs life from his college days to early stardom on a daytime TV soap. The constant throughout this time is Alexs passion for Nick, who remains elusive through his steadfast commitment to loser Barney. With a light touch, McLaughlin pinpoints the experience of being gay in the nineties. It is good to find a contemporary gay novel that isnt constructed around AIDS. Nevertheless, the politics of being gay loom large when Alex is outed and has to struggle with the consequences to his private life and career. Above all, McLaughlin brilliantly conveys the dilemmas of looking for love in the nineties. Whilst written from a gay perspective, McLaughlins observations have a wider constituency. Male or female, straight or gay, weve all fallen for people like Nick who are everything we want ... except available. Equally, weve probably come across people like Trevor who although gorgeous is self-obsessed. Admittedly, this is compounded in Trevors case by his being gay and living in fear of being outed. There are some particular frustrations to the love-hunt when youre gay. McLaughlin cuts right to the chase in one scene when its Saturday night and Alex is walking past the bars and clubs of West Hollywood. In one block, I counted nine faces handsome enough to kiss with little or no personality-intelligence data available. Couldnt one of them be Mr Right, lonely, bored of smoky clubs and their empty-hearted poseurs, not to mention terrible house-music? How could you ever know? There needs to be shelves more gay fiction like this. Like its central character, GLAMOURPUSS is witty, clever and genuinely sexy. Its just a shame it looks like the sort of book you need to hide under your bed!
Rating:
Summary: A GIFT FROM THE GODS! A MUST-READ!
Review: GLAMOURPUSS contains everything an escapist novel should have - excellent plotting, likable characters you can relate to, great humor, and (unexpected) emotion. It's a coming-of-age love story that is not to be missed. ALL HAIL CHRISTIAN MCLAUGHLIN!
Rating:
Summary: A total scream
Review: Highly recommended-- excellent, hilarious, light "beach reading" ...a scream.
Rating:
Summary: Fun Poolside read
Review: I am a huge fan of authors who can write a book without resorting to the same tired story lines we so often see in gay novels. This is an enjoyable book about an enjoyable guy. Alex Young, handsome a bit Naive and inspite of the fact that the object of his affection "Nick" is mired in a bad relationship an optomist. See, Alex move from Texas to L.A. Watch as he becomes a sucessful Soap Oprah Actor, Cringe as they discribe Nicks boyfriends wardrobe. Seriously though, the trials and tribulations that Alex goes through in his life make for fun sometimes laugh out loud reading. As a person I once lent this book said to me. "I was sad to put it down because I felt like good friends were leaving. So to the author I say, thank you for realizing some people like to laugh.
Rating:
Summary: Fun Poolside read
Review: I am a huge fan of authors who can write a book without resorting to the same tired story lines we so often see in gay novels. This is an enjoyable book about an enjoyable guy. Alex Young, handsome a bit Naive and inspite of the fact that the object of his affection "Nick" is mired in a bad relationship an optomist. See, Alex move from Texas to L.A. Watch as he becomes a sucessful Soap Oprah Actor, Cringe as they discribe Nicks boyfriends wardrobe. Seriously though, the trials and tribulations that Alex goes through in his life make for fun sometimes laugh out loud reading. As a person I once lent this book said to me. "I was sad to put it down because I felt like good friends were leaving. So to the author I say, thank you for realizing some people like to laugh.
Rating: 
Summary: Tries hard, needs to try harder
Review: I bought this book because I was looking for a little light entertainment - I got the light, but the entertainment was questionable. The book tries so hard to be funny along the lines of Keenan and Maupin, but fails badly, rarely reaching the easy humour of those authors, and never attaining their laugh-out-loud one liners and the deep empathy the reader often attains with their characters. McLaughlin's characters are firmly one dimensional, plot "development" is sketchy and erratic and, although one doesn't read this sort of book for its politics, the political and social ideas embodied here seem sadly, and surprisingly, out of date. Many aspects of the book are strangely unrealistic and embody an oddly out of place morality. For a gay novel trumpeted as being open and forthcoming about sex, it seems unusually moralistic to have a blond, buffed hero who has only ever had sex with two men, one the love of his life. Do any of us really believe in a character (the aforementioned love of the lead's life) who has been in a relationship with another man for four years, and has never, ..... never, not with anyone, had anal sex or, indeed, even thought about having it with his long term partner? Keenan and Maupin's characters might be simple, but they never reached these heights of inane simplicity and almost puritanic naivety. This book tries hard, but I am afraid trying hard is just not good enough. Two stars for effort.
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