Hold Tight

Rating:
Summary: Great Writing But Not Sure of What It Wants To Be
Review: Christopher Bram writes extremely well however this is not Bram at his best. A few years ago I read Father of Frankenstein and was impressed with the depth that Bram gave to his characters and settings. He literally brought the reader into the now gone Hollywood world of James Whale. Hold Tight takes us into another world, that of early WWII New York but the characters leave us flat and the story becomes more romance novel than substance.

Bram's premise for this novel is a good one. Seaman Hank Fayette is arrested at a gay brothel while on shore leave in New York. Rather than court martial him they turn him into a prostitute in order to capture spies in the same brothel that he was arrested in.

If Bram had stuck to this plot line the story would have been much more interesting. Bram however uses the next third of the novel building a relationship between Fayette and the black houseboy, Juke. The Fayette/Juke storyline is the stuff of trashy romance novels and really does nothing to advance the plot of the novel. If you want to write a romance novel well and good but don't cloak it as as espionage thriller.

The characterizations in this novel tend to be disappointing as well. Characters drift in and out of the story with very little development and there is plenty of stereotyping throughout the book.

If the neding of this novel is supposed to show the redeeming power of friendship between the gay and straight worlds that point is missed completely. The ending is contrived and feels as if it were added just to provide a conclusion to the love story presented earlier.

Mr. Bram can write much better than this and I hope he will do so in the future. Overall the read was not a bad one but rather one that could have been much better had it been able to deliver what it promised.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting possibilities
Review: Hank is a sailor during WW II, who comes from Texas and has had no problem is accepting his homosexuality!!?? While trying out a brotherl in NY, he gets arrested. Tied into this story is a movie projectionist and his daughter who are Nazi spies. A closeted queen who is a wannabe Nazi becomes involved with Hank who now is being turned into an American spy and whose boss is a Navy psychiatrist who intends to send him to a mental hospital after his tour of duty as a spy is over so he can be "happy" because homosexuals are sick and unhappy. Add to this list of characters a Viennese jew who has become an American citizen who has conscious qualms about the way the Navy is handling Hank, Juke an African-American teen queen and an appearance by Monty Whooley, Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa and one has a novel that has some possibilities, but has to finish too fast with an ending that raises more questions than it answers.

The characters are sometimes well drawn and interesting, but Bram does not develop them in a way that satisfies the story. Obviously Hank and Juke are attracted to each other. but Hank's attitude towards African-Americans is not overcome until it is too late. That is good writing, but why Juke's outcome happens is not.

This novel has some good passages, some interesting characters, but a plot that falls apart.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting possibilities
Review: Hank is a sailor during WW II, who comes from Texas and has had no problem is accepting his homosexuality!!?? While trying out a brotherl in NY, he gets arrested. Tied into this story is a movie projectionist and his daughter who are Nazi spies. A closeted queen who is a wannabe Nazi becomes involved with Hank who now is being turned into an American spy and whose boss is a Navy psychiatrist who intends to send him to a mental hospital after his tour of duty as a spy is over so he can be "happy" because homosexuals are sick and unhappy. Add to this list of characters a Viennese jew who has become an American citizen who has conscious qualms about the way the Navy is handling Hank, Juke an African-American teen queen and an appearance by Monty Whooley, Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa and one has a novel that has some possibilities, but has to finish too fast with an ending that raises more questions than it answers.

The characters are sometimes well drawn and interesting, but Bram does not develop them in a way that satisfies the story. Obviously Hank and Juke are attracted to each other. but Hank's attitude towards African-Americans is not overcome until it is too late. That is good writing, but why Juke's outcome happens is not.

This novel has some good passages, some interesting characters, but a plot that falls apart.

Rating:
Summary: A good story with potential but a disappointing end.
Review: HOLD TIGHT caught my attention because I thought it satire, but after reading the book I found myself amused, touched and, yes, aroused. Bram's descriptions of NYC during WWII are particularily vivid, and his use of character is just as strong. I defy any hot-blooded homo not to be deeply aroused by the sex, including antiquated cruising on 42nd Street. This book reminded me a bit of Susan Isaac's great novel SHINING THROUGH, providing a unique take on the WWII novel.

Rating:
Summary: dazed and confused
Review: okay, i admit it, my attention was caught by the buff sailor on the cover. and my eyes perked up even more when i saw the author's name: mr christopher bram. and just like [e-mail], i was totally aroused by the sex in the novel.

but it kinda ends there. the novel was and still is a horrible mess. call me thick but i totally did not get what he was trying to put across to me. here's what kirkus reviews said: "nazi intrigue in a homosexual brothel... a spy thriller that breaks new ground." but just a bit of a summary before we proceed: Hank, sailor, gets shore leave. hank goes to gay brothel, place gets raided by shore patrol. hank gets offered to work as undercover to trap nazi spies.

hank's innocence at his sexuality was touching, irritating and unfathomable all at once (if at all possible). the confused morality (?) of erich was just that - confusing. and what was that thing with juke? love, colour, sex all mixed together does not a good potion make, mr bram... at least not in the way you did it. And blair, anna and mr. krull? they were extras that were created just so that there is a story to climax and end with.

the idea was really something. and my god, the setting... the mood was fantastic, no one can fault mr bram for any of those. it felt so real to me. that accounts for the two stars... but the novel just spirals downwards to hit bottom where the denoument is supposed to be. and the ending just whittles away at what's left of the characters' lives.

Rating:
Summary: This time with a twist.
Review: There are passages of this book that are so wonderfully sketched out that they seem to play as black and white movie clips inside the reader's head. No mean feat, the author has a real gift for transporting his audience. And of course, what's not to like about Hank Fayette? Yowzer. I'm not too familiar with the author's work, though I did read Surprising Myself when I was in college, but I bet he has a great American gay novel inside him somewhere. (Insert Richard Gere joke here.). Nice work.

Rating:
Summary: This time with a twist.
Review: There are passages of this book that are so wonderfully sketched out that they seem to play as black and white movie clips inside the reader's head. No mean feat, the author has a real gift for transporting his audience. And of course, what's not to like about Hank Fayette? Yowzer. I'm not too familiar with the author's work, though I did read Surprising Myself when I was in college, but I bet he has a great American gay novel inside him somewhere. (Insert Richard Gere joke here.). Nice work.

Rating:
Summary: Bram's worst novel
Review: This novel was entertaining enough but really horribly written. You're just bombarded with cliche after cliche after cliche. I wonder if he was making a concerted attempt to write a gay, trashy, romance/thriller. That's what he wound up with, anyway, emphasis on the word "trashy". The characters are all one dimensional, and worse, the book is chock-full of racist stereotypes. This is somewhat forgivable; it's difficult for me to call a novel racist which is clearly not mean-spirited. However, there is plenty to cringe at here. There are also loads of historical inaccuracies, and the bits of period detail are obvious and draw far too much attention to themselves. That said, I did find a couple of his other novels unique and touching --- Surprising Myself and In Memory of Angel Clare, in particular --- although the writing itself, even in those novels, was problematic. He certainly can move a story along and hold your interest, though, and there is SOMEthing in his style that makes me think he might write something very good one day. I am a bit disturbed by the outrageously glowing reviews he seems to get. He is CLEARLY not "a truly brilliant novelist" or "one of the best novelists writing in the world today". I realize taste can be a relative thing --- but only to a point. A well-read, intelligent person picking up one of his novels is virtually guaranteed to be disappointed if they are expecting great writing.