HEY, JOE

Rating:
Summary: Fast-paced, raunchy literary fiction.
Review: "Hey, Joe" is the novel I reread the most this year. The characters are funky and the lines they speak are so palpable that they jump off the page. I found myself reading lines out loud to my friends. New Orleans, where the novel is set, looks and smells and feels exactly as I remember it. Joe, the main character, is the most heartbreakingly open-hearted character of the year. He's a sixteen year old kid who just happens to be gay and who gets caught up in a wicked conspiracy. The fresh supporting cast recur at just the right frequency, as in the best novels; just when you've forgotten about one great character, he or she returns. There's plenty of sex, plenty of great food and booze and dancing. Gentle breezes. Wet kisses. All of the best things in life

Rating:
Summary: A realistic look inside a gay youth discovering who he is.
Review: "Hey, Joe" takes you inside the head of a young teen just coming to grips with his sexuality. In a very believable way, we watch as Joe tries to balance his emerging sexuality with the push and pull of all the other everyday problems that surround him. Ben Neihart has coupled his own insights into this coming-of-age story with an implausible, but entertaining suspense story involving murder, betrayal and, of course, love. As a first novel, "Hey, Joe" shows great promise. Neihart has a strong voice, a clear style and an ability to create likable characters. His one weakness, his contrived subplot, is offset by his unwillingness to take the safe wrap-it-up ending that until the final page seems all too likely. For those drawn to coming-of-age novels, good character development and a fun fast read, "Hey, Joe" is a good bet

Rating:
Summary: 'Hey Joe' favors style, crisp dialogue over plot
Review: 'Hey Joe' keeps company with one of gay literature's freshest, most likeable characters. Author Ben Niehart wet-jacks us into Joe's central nervous system from page one -- his world, his fantasies, his raw emotions are vibrantly, painfully real. Because Joe rings true, his world (New Orleans, the backyard, the bar) rings true. When the book is over, you'll miss him.Unfortunately, for all the crisp dialogue and hypnotic style, the book's ultimate plotline -- a trial in a sexual abuse case -- is nowhere near as interesting as Joe. The conclusion of the book is more required than inspired, and the antics of the novel's antagonist (the evil Rae Schipke) become almost cartoonish. Ultimately, here's a novel you'll never forget -- with an ending you'll wish you could

Rating:
Summary: A Night in New Orleans
Review: Hey, Joe, a first novel by Ben Neihart, is an enjoyable enough romp through New Orleans. The lead character is the wonderful creation Joe Keith, a sixteen year old fiercely homosexual and pleasure diving kid. He is the perfect guide to lead the reader through New Orleans (which can be even more decadent than portrayed here, if the reader can believe that is even possible). It is one night with a number of characters moving through this novel. Not all the personalities and the plot lines gel but there is more than enough in this short novel to take the reader happily and quickly to the end.

Rating:
Summary: Nice unenjoyable read
Review: I read "Hey Joe" while I was on vacation and it is the perfect book for that- vacationing, hanging around. The novel chronicles sixteen year old Joe on one night when something really important happens- I won't give it away. The novel also introduces a counterplot with a jury verdict, a female sexual predetor, Joe's neighbor who hasn't come to terms with certain items, and his mother.
"Hey Joe" takes its readers in the colorful, crazy, and at times implausible world of this New Orleans teen. The characters are fun, have a sense of reality, the dialouge is realistic, and the story moves well. I enjoyed the fact that Joe was not hung up about his sexuality, but rather accepted it. Niehart also didn't portray Joe as a flamer or any of the characters as caricatures, which is often a mistake in first novels. The writing as languid, easy to understand, and enjoyable- all things a vacation book should be.
I must say that the novel ends on a confusing note. I have a hard time beleiving that such a comfortable guy would end with such jargon. And I couldv'e done without the counterplot about the trial and jury. That sounded a bit outlandish. The book wasn't meant to change the face of the world and how people view gay teens ... but was meant to be enjoyable, dream like and even a bit romantic- in it's old notions of course. But don't take it for anything else. Niehart has a good stlye. I just hope to see it develop in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Nice unenjoyable read
Review: I read "Hey Joe" while I was on vacation and it is the perfect book for that- vacationing, hanging around. The novel chronicles sixteen year old Joe on one night when something really important happens- I won't give it away. The novel also introduces a counterplot with a jury verdict, a female sexual predetor, Joe's neighbor who hasn't come to terms with certain items, and his mother.
"Hey Joe" takes its readers in the colorful, crazy, and at times implausible world of this New Orleans teen. The characters are fun, have a sense of reality, the dialouge is realistic, and the story moves well. I enjoyed the fact that Joe was not hung up about his sexuality, but rather accepted it. Niehart also didn't portray Joe as a flamer or any of the characters as caricatures, which is often a mistake in first novels. The writing as languid, easy to understand, and enjoyable- all things a vacation book should be.
I must say that the novel ends on a confusing note. I have a hard time beleiving that such a comfortable guy would end with such jargon. And I couldv'e done without the counterplot about the trial and jury. That sounded a bit outlandish. The book wasn't meant to change the face of the world and how people view gay teens ... but was meant to be enjoyable, dream like and even a bit romantic- in it's old notions of course. But don't take it for anything else. Niehart has a good stlye. I just hope to see it develop in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Ack
Review: Since I purchased this book I've read it about a million times, I read a lot and have never gotten so caught up in a story or the characters that are so human they feel like old friends. This is a wonderful book its style is not that of a novel, but of an experience, like spending a night out in the city streets of New Orleans with friends.

Rating:
Summary: Great Style, Meaningless Plot...
Review: This book is a fine delving into the sweet character of New Orleans gay youth, salty southern distric attorney scoops, and a tour of the real places of the city of night. I love the way that the health club is detailed, the way the hugs, kisses, and teenage belly buttons weave with the boney knee passion of the 16 y.o. hero. I was that boy, and many of the men I know were JOE. We answer to Joe, now Ben Neihart has made the call an archetype, an anthem for we who have walked the walk. Ben, YOU'RE THE BEST! No way this is one of those "false southern accent" works. Ben Neihart is a true poet of the south, of men interested in men, and in the special quality of New Orleans at night.
Hey, Joe! Or should I say, "Hey, Ben Neihart!" What a great fresh approach to the New Orleans scene. I know it from the bottom up, and can tell you this is THE FLAVOR OF NEW ORLEANS done right. It isn't the syrup jazz place some writers would have it be, no...it is a hip place, with fast mood and atmosphere changes, a taste of salty sweat on a forearm, a moonlit Mississippi River by night and a profound search for the connection that is sensual and at the same time creative and spiritual. I want to hug Ben Neihart and tell him: HEY, BEN! I LOVE YOU! For he has resurrected the longing of youth and the blessing of passion and pathos.

Rating:
Summary: A NEW KIND OF HERO
Review: What a great little hero: young Joe Keith is comfortable - even cocksure - about his own homosexuality, while reasonably anxious about a lot of the common ground shared by all teens, gay or straight: family relationships, desires for the future, curfew, drug-use, romance. Its refreshing to have an author advance the optimistic notion that a contemporary kid might be more traumatized by the generalized angst of adolescence than by his gayness in particular.

Rating:
Summary: Well written yet poorly structured
Review: While Ben's prose style and attention to descriptive detail is charming and seductive the plot is weak and confusing. This may have worked better as a short story. The author capture's the anxst of teen gay love well but falls short of creating a believeable landscape for his characters.