Rating: 
Summary: This is one funny book!
Review: This book is cute, funny, sad, insightful and a totally fresh look at growing up gay! I highly recommend this book for anyone who has ever felt out of place/like an alien on this planet. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: A comfortable read
Review: Albo writes an easy to read story about a young gay man. The book fluctuates between his current city life and his childhood. His book is easy to identify with, for a gay man growing up in small town U.S.A. His description of "retro" products helps set the scenes and provide realism.
The book is not a painting of misery. Things weren't always fun; but by and large he has a cheery outlook on life. That is such a change from so many biographies of gay men.
Rating: 
Summary: I CAN'T PUT THIS DOWN
Review: I haven't laughed this hard in years. I haven't had greater insight into the passion and sadness and speedy joy of being in my twenties. The main character in this book basically just gets it - his loneliness and efforts to find love are so amazingly similar to mine. And they're also hilarious. But Hornito not a "humor" book like Art Buchwald or Steve Martin: it's a genuine, truthful tour of the insanity of being single and the most unspoken parts the heart. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS! People compare Albo to David Sedaris, but Albo is SOOO much better!! This book is INCREDIBLE.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty darn close to "dreadful"
Review: I haven't read the other reviews (with my luck, I'm the only one who pans this book)just so I don't lose my edge. I think I paid $1.74 (yep) plus postage so I could bring a book to book club. Would not recommend this, as the purchase price reflects the true value (minus the shipping charge). Cliche ridden (oooh! a gay guy, lives in Manhattan, has a stupid job, goes out looking for sex..now THERE's a fresh treatment!) Not funny (and definitely NOT David Sedaris funny). Not inventive (and NOT Sarah Berhnardt inventive). I want to read the book that the quotes raved about, because this was not it.
Rating:
Summary: Any urban gay man's lie life
Review: I read the first few pages of Hornito in a local bookstore and was immediately hooked. Not so much hooked by the story, but rather by the piles of description and the absurdity of the situation that opens the book. The main character is sitting in a car in a strip-mall parking lot, waiting for his parents who he is visiting to come back, itching with crabs, but already missing the insanity of life in the city (in this case, NYC). Although the book opens in the present, the story flashes back to childhood memories. At first, I wasn't interested in reading these flashbacks, as they distracted me from the main story. I wanted to identify with the main character as an adult and see how he resolves his problems. Particularly the problem of forming a real connection with someone in an urban, every-man-for-himself, artificial, market-segment of a world. Once I got into the book a bit, the childhood and teenage memories seemed more relevant, not to mention painful and at times, embarassingly familiar. I found myself laughing aloud many times. I think the first person point-of-view and the exruciatingly detailed, brand-name description work in this story, because it is so easy to identify with the main character. The experience is universal, but I strongly identified as one who grew up in the 70's and 80's feeling different from everyone else, alone, and who moved to the city filled with romantic ideas about love and life. I give it 4 out of 5 stars (although I really enjoyed reading it), because so few of the characters really get a chance to be developed and there isn't much in the way of a "traditional" plot. However, the situations, description, and honesty deserve 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Any urban gay man's lie life
Review: I read the first few pages of Hornito in a local bookstore and was immediately hooked. Not so much hooked by the story, but rather by the piles of description and the absurdity of the situation that opens the book. The main character is sitting in a car in a strip-mall parking lot, waiting for his parents who he is visiting to come back, itching with crabs, but already missing the insanity of life in the city (in this case, NYC). Although the book opens in the present, the story flashes back to childhood memories. At first, I wasn't interested in reading these flashbacks, as they distracted me from the main story. I wanted to identify with the main character as an adult and see how he resolves his problems. Particularly the problem of forming a real connection with someone in an urban, every-man-for-himself, artificial, market-segment of a world. Once I got into the book a bit, the childhood and teenage memories seemed more relevant, not to mention painful and at times, embarassingly familiar. I found myself laughing aloud many times. I think the first person point-of-view and the exruciatingly detailed, brand-name description work in this story, because it is so easy to identify with the main character. The experience is universal, but I strongly identified as one who grew up in the 70's and 80's feeling different from everyone else, alone, and who moved to the city filled with romantic ideas about love and life. I give it 4 out of 5 stars (although I really enjoyed reading it), because so few of the characters really get a chance to be developed and there isn't much in the way of a "traditional" plot. However, the situations, description, and honesty deserve 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding depiction of a life that lots of guys lived
Review: I spent a thoroughly delightful afternoon with this book and a series of mugs of beer, and I can fully agree with other interviewers that it is an absolute treasure. Relationship problems? You don't know from relationship problems, but Mike Albo does. Literary talent? Doesn't get much better. Making people remember what childhood and adolescence was like for a gay person in America? Oh, yeah. I can't use this book to put down Sedaris, who in my view is also hilarious, in a different way -- "Santaland Diaries", for example, must not be read while eating, because spitting up with laughter is a distinct possibility. I can put up both hands to recommend both Sedaris and Albo. I hope both of them continue to write more and more and more.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding depiction of a life that lots of guys lived
Review: I spent a thoroughly delightful afternoon with this book and a series of mugs of beer, and I can fully agree with other interviewers that it is an absolute treasure. Relationship problems? You don't know from relationship problems, but Mike Albo does. Literary talent? Doesn't get much better. Making people remember what childhood and adolescence was like for a gay person in America? Oh, yeah. I can't use this book to put down Sedaris, who in my view is also hilarious, in a different way -- "Santaland Diaries", for example, must not be read while eating, because spitting up with laughter is a distinct possibility. I can put up both hands to recommend both Sedaris and Albo. I hope both of them continue to write more and more and more.
Rating:
Summary: Clever Writing of a Too Familiar Story
Review: Mike Albo can spot a funny moment and can describe it deftly. This novel, Hornito, is full of these small moments that add up to a light and easy read. The characters are never developed but that could be because the main character never really connects with anyone but it does leave a film of shallowness over the entire surface of the novel. This may work better as a series of monologues but does not entirely hold together as a novel. The territory covered in this book has been covered before by other gay authors. The humour helps create the illusion of originality but it does feel, at times, that one has been here before. The novel, though, does come together nicely toward the end. There are no big revelations but the small discoveries are handled in a sweetly touching manner that does ring true to the character and to life. It is not a bad read but neither is it a great read. It is a light novel that will fill some time with its humour and then dissappear forever.
Rating:
Summary: Clever Writing of a Too Familiar Story
Review: Mike Albo can spot a funny moment and can describe it deftly. This novel, Hornito, is full of these small moments that add up to a light and easy read. The characters are never developed but that could be because the main character never really connects with anyone but it does leave a film of shallowness over the entire surface of the novel. This may work better as a series of monologues but does not entirely hold together as a novel. The territory covered in this book has been covered before by other gay authors. The humour helps create the illusion of originality but it does feel, at times, that one has been here before. The novel, though, does come together nicely toward the end. There are no big revelations but the small discoveries are handled in a sweetly touching manner that does ring true to the character and to life. It is not a bad read but neither is it a great read. It is a light novel that will fill some time with its humour and then dissappear forever.
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