Man About Town

Rating:
Summary: Gay, mid-forties, in Washington DC
Review: This book kept me up late until I could get to the end. Not many books do that. At first I was reading with horror, the misery of discovering at 45 what happens when you have "let yourself go" and that your long term lover has decided to leave. This is just the start of a journey into self-discovery and the roots of what is real and unreal, meaningful or not, to one person. It was fun to read it since I have lived in DC for years and recall all of these places and locations, and even some of the senators this author seems to be describing! As a person living here, I can say that the gay scene described in the book is utterly realistic. As for the other characters that fade away toward the end of the book, I think that is the point. His old jaded drinking buddies are just left behind, and perhaps his belief in the value of his job, as the man grows up. The book brings up many interesting ideas, some we don't see much mentioned in print, like getting old and dumpy and finding your way anyhow. I'd recommend the book. It's real.

Rating:
Summary: Big dissapointment
Review: What a mean little book! After AMERICAN STUDIES and AN ARROW'S FLIGHT, each in its own way very well written and rewarding, Mark Merlis has little to offer this time out except a central character who seems not so much real as he is a cliched vehicle for the author's contempt for the people he writes about, their world, and his own themes.