Looking for It

Rating:
Summary: Yes, dark in spots, but realistic for a small town.
Review: Except for his other novel, "Last Summer," Michael Thomas Ford is known primarily for his compilations of his humorous essays, such as "My Big Fat Queer Life" and "That's MR. Faggot to You!" Perhaps looking to distance himself further from his humor essays, his second novel, "Looking for It" comes off as rather dark in spots, though overall realistic and with a positive message.

The novel tells us about a group of gay men in a small upstate NY town. The main character is Mike, bartender at The Engine Room, the only gay bar in about a two hour radius; Mike is kind of a free spirit who has no long term plans or any conscious desire to settle down. On the other end of the spectrum is Stephen, a closeted accountant whose sex life is solely imaginary with online partners, and Thomas, a closeted Episcopal priest dealing with feelings he had thought were successfully repressed. Add in a mature gay couple whose relationship is trying to survive the "seven year itch," and a wise old queen named Simon who has resogned himself to be alone since the death of his longtime partner, and you have most of the characters for the novel's coverage of developments in their lives between Halloween and New Years of a recent year. There are some steps forward, some steps backward, and some tough decisions that could affect their makers for many years to come. The "dark" part of the story comes mostly from the involvement of an additional character, a self-hating "straight" men using violence to deal with his homosexual urges, preying upon the insecurity of gay men he encountered at a porn cinema and via the internet.

I thought the story was somewhat predictable, though the characters were original, portrayed well and put in realistic situations for small town living. The overall message is a positive one, of "community" and entended families, although it also seems to suggest that gay men, at least in small towns such as this, really don't know what they want out of life, even if it is in front of their eyes. I give this one four stars out of five, including extra credit for recognizing all gay men don't live in big cities or gay "meccas" like P-Town and WeHo.

Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS AMAZING
Review: I LOVED THE CHARACTERS...THESE CHARACTERS ARE DESCRIBED WITH SUCH PERFECTION - I FEEL LIKE I KNOW THEM SO WELL BY THE END OF EACH CHAPTER - The detail ford writes is just breath-taking!

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book by Michael Thomas Ford
Review: I really liked this book. I found it an intense and page turning drama. Michael Thomas Ford seems to have a knack for writing drama's that have large casts and mutiple storylines and he blends them together magically. This is the story of John and Russell a couple who decides to split after seven years, Simon an older man dealing with the death of his long term lover and moving on, Thomas a priest dealing with his sexuality and his future in the church, last but definitely not least Mike a bartender who is looking for love and possibly a career change. Throw into the mix Pete a mechanic who has some anger management issues, a man who enjoys sex with men but who is adamently not gay. This book is very dark compared to 'Last Summer' and the authors humorous essays, and that is what I liked about this book. I loved the fact that it was dark and not merely a light fluffy romance, it had romance but it also had a sadistic violent edge that kept me up late into the night reading to discover what is going to happen next. I really liked 'Last Summer' but felt that this book is much better and I am anxiously looking for to Michael Thomas Ford's next fiction effort.

Rating:
Summary: Another great gay novel!
Review: I very much enjoyed Michael Thomas Ford's first attempt at gay fiction, but I really thought this book was superb - much better than the first. The way he develops the characters is excellent - especially Simon and Walter the two older men, and their forty-year relationship. All the characters are very interesting, including the rather pathetic portrayal of the gay-basher. I highly recommend this work for all gay readers.

Rating:
Summary: Keep looking for it...
Review: I've enjoyed Michael Thomas Ford's writing in the past, but this story is poorly written, poorly edited and extremely shallow. I couldn't help but think that Ford was just cranking out a story to meet a deadline. There's no depth of character in any of the main figures. The story line seems to serve no purpose other than to connect the over abundant and graphic sex scenes, some of which are extremely brutal. If your looking for a good story with believable characters...keep looking for it.

Rating:
Summary: Look for it somewhere else
Review: In My Big Fat Queer Life, Ford admits to the use of prescriptions-I wonder if this has changed his writing ability. This extremely dark story weaves flat, surface characters together with interlocking storylines and the solution of sex at the end of most chapters. I love Ford's style but I what I do not like is his need to cram all of these characters into one book. A book about a priest and a bartender would have been a lovely read, or a book about a deranged man trying to figure out why he's gay, or even a book about why two lovers should stay together, yet all of these characters thrown together in a dump cake is too much. Naming two of the main characters after oneself (Mike and Thomas) is self-inflating. The role of the self-hating gay man made the story dark (although I believe Ford was trying to convey being gay in a small town) and seemed out of place. This character seemed problematic as if it was going to turn out to be an SM erotic tale, not a book about families and how we form them. Ford writes horror very well, but next time he needs to keep it out of a summer book.

Rating:
Summary: "We're all looking for something. All of us"
Review: Last year Michael Thomas Ford shook up the gay literary scene with his charming novel Last Summer. I liked it so much that I even placed it in my top ten best books of 2003. There was a freshness and honesty to Ford's work that was impossible not to like. In his latest novel, Looking For It, Ford again centers on a group of gay men and presents an eclectic tapestry of their often disparate, incongruent lives. Whereas Last Summer had a light, breezy, almost sit-com feel to it, Looking For It, is much darker. This is a powerful, hard-hitting novel that doesn't shy away from savage, violent sexuality. Themes of gay bashing, bar life, gay spirituality, and middle-aged loneliness are all presented in a tight, taught narrative. And while the sex is almost pornographic, it is never gratuitous, as Ford manages to juxtapose these blunt scenes with sections of profound tenderness and humour.

The story centers on a group of gay men living in Cold Falls, a small town in upstate New York. Christmas is on the way, and as the first snow falls, life for these men is about to bring about profound changes as they all look for sex, romance, companionship and spirituality. Mike, a hunky, sensitive barman works at the Engine Room, a small local gay bar, but when he meets and falls in love with Thomas, the local Episcopal priest, he begins to profoundly question his life and job. John and Russell have been together for seven years, but John's steadfast inflexibility has begun to annoy Russell. Acting on impulse, Russell decides to have a break from the relationship and move in temporarily with Simon, an older man who is mourning the loss of his partner of many years.

The shy, reclusive and somewhat closeted Stephen still lives next door to his parents, and haunts late night adult bookstores and online chat rooms looking for anonymous sex. He gets more than he bargained for when Pete, a blue-collar mechanic, who is full of self-hatred about his own homosexuality, savagely beats him. There's an absolutely riveting subplot involving the violent, alcohol fuelled sex obsessed Pete when he almost murders another of the main characters after meeting them though the same local Internet chat room.

At times the narrative tends to become cluttered and some readers may find it hard to keep track of all the characters as Ford seems intent on having each character run the total gamut of gay life from coming out to one's parents to questions of faith and worship. But the central message of the novel remains current as the characters meet to celebrate the holiday season and talk about the importance of family, the relevance of religion, their respective sexual practices, and gay marriage. Although parts of the story are dark and sexuality shadowy, there is always a feeling that true love will conquer all.

It is obvious that Ford's target audience is gay men, but the themes in Looking for It are quite universal and are told from a youthful and romantic viewpoint. This is essentially an idealistic and somewhat quixotic story, with its characters facing dramatic events and, at times, great danger, but Ford's simple, direct, and restrained style help reveal great depths of character and keep the plot moving along briskly. And Like Last Summer, the cover art for Looking For It is absolutely beautiful. Mike Leonard October 04.