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Rating: 
Summary: If you want to feel, or want, you feel you want this book.
Review: Eddie Socket is hilarious, subtle, and gut-scooping. Ignore the jealous moron who bashed the author. Buy the damn book.
Rating: 
Summary: I actualy finished the book
Review: I can't help but imagine the other reviewers who raved over this novel as the All-Rainbows-All-The-Time type. To some people ANYTHING gay is GREAT! Well, I went through my own rainbow phase, can't deny it. But these days I'm a little more discriminating. ...no pun...Our protagonist is a sweet, young, urban, naiive, "friend of Dorothy" obsessed with grand-old-Hollywood. He contracts HIV, doesn't have health insurance (silly-head), and promptly commences wasting away. Neither a far-fetched, nor a boring premise, this book had some potential. But unfortunatly the style was over-dramatic and the voices of the various characters sounded eerily similar... like it was a one man puppet show with the puppetteer's curtain missing.
I guess there must be some small niche for this kind of writing, and in the author's defense the title DOES convey the exact feel of the story. But I was disappointed and I had to work at my suspense of disbelief.
Rating:
Summary: I actualy finished the book
Review: I can't help but imagine the other reviewers who raved over this novel as the All-Rainbows-All-The-Time type. To some people ANYTHING gay is GREAT! Well, I went through my own rainbow phase, can't deny it. But these days I'm a little more discriminating. ...no pun... Our protagonist is a sweet, young, urban, naiive, "friend of Dorothy" obsessed with grand-old-Hollywood. He contracts HIV, doesn't have health insurance (silly-head), and promptly commences wasting away. Neither a far-fetched, nor a boring premise, this book had some potential. But unfortunatly the style was over-dramatic and the voices of the various characters sounded eerily similar... like it was a one man puppet show with the puppetteer's curtain missing.
I guess there must be some small niche for this kind of writing, and in the author's defense the title DOES convey the exact feel of the story. But I was disappointed and I had to work at my suspense of disbelief.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I don't know if I wold be willing to leave bags of blood at the bookstore, like the previous reviewer suggested, but it's a great book. Everyone should read it!
Rating:
Summary: I never have this book out of my reach.
Review: I have reread this book a hundred or more times. Ok maybe not so many but I do return to different parts of this novel and find that I identify with each charactor in a different way each time. I always love Eddie though sometimes I'm mad at him and sometimes I'm in love with him. And of course Polly is always endearing. The others who you will love to meet and remeet sometimes seem caught up in themselves and of course since this book is about Eddie that is just not acceptable. The fact that I would rave on like a madman about a charactor who doesn't exist will be enough for me to tell you that this book while very simple is like an old friend. You can pick it up and open to any page and be right back where you left off with all the emotions you've shared right there.I know very few people have ever heard of this book or will ever read it but if you get the chance I promise you that you will not be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: I never have this book out of my reach.
Review: I sometimes rush through novels rather quickly. With this one, I kept reading it a little a time, even switching to other novels that I had told someone I'd read. However, I never lost interest in it. Something about this book made me keep wanting to enjoy it over time, and it almost disappointed me when I reached the end. I loved the ending, and the entire book, but its episodic nature and its wild mixture of narrative devices made it a reading experience I kept wanting to sustain. The main character's relationships with his mother, his lovers, and the world bring up a host of insecurities, further complicated by AIDS, materialism, and deep longings. John Weir makes readers laugh, while he treats them to a thoughtfully complex reading experience. (Duane Simolke's books include The Acorn Stories, Degranon, and New Readings of Winesburg, Ohio.)
Rating:
Summary: I love this 'A Reader' guise
Review: It's almost like you give yourself a license to be a schmuck. Not to get into a war of words here, but this book is only exploitative of the AIDS plague if you feel that any writing about AIDS is exploitative. What, exactly, is your point, A Reader? Does the fact that Paul Monette didn't wallow in misery throughout all of Becoming a Man and Borrowed Time make them less worthy as AIDS chronicles? Does Mark Doty deserve contempt because he looked toward the bright moments in the face of unrelenting despair (and almost-certain destruction) in Heaven's Coast? What, exactly, are you suggesting? I disagree with the author- I disagree with the author! my god, it's treason!- that it's overwritten; it, in fact, struck me as better prose than anything Jean Genet turned out, just as one example. And besideswhich, A Reader from USA, what exactly do you consider to be worthwhile literature about the holocaust of AIDS?
Rating:
Summary: Sorry, dude
Review: It's me, John Weir, responding to the guy/girl who hated my book so much. Yo: I hate it, too. It's over-written, and I didn't make nothing in royalties. Plus, where was the hype? Was I hyped while I wasn't looking? Dude, it sold 4000 copies. Dave Eggers is hyped. I'm a clown who wrote a book. I won't argue that it's "silly" or, whatever, "trivial." Anyway, those are two of my favorite qualities. As for exploiting AIDS, well, I gotta ask: do the words "dying homosexual" make anyone *you* know run to the nearest bookstore? If I was gonna exploit something for laughs and personal gain, I would've picked a topic that sells. I wish I were more of an exploiter! Then I could pay the Parking Violations Bureau. It is of course true that all - count 'em - six of my blurbs were written by my friends and students. Apparently they hadn't heard that I give *A*s to everyone anyway. You should know that my next book is one long grim and unrelenting dirge about tragedy and loss. Of course, it's set in New Jersey. Bringing fine fiction to satisfied readers for over a decade, I remain, your humble author, John Weir.
Rating:
Summary: a lozenge with an acidic center
Review: okay, so not only does john weir deserve the $1.50 he gets from every sale of Eddie Socket (a rough estimate; he probably gets less, judging by the email i just got from him where he laments the IRS's iron hand)(and i got the email not because i'm some sort of insider but because i wrote to him and he deigned to write me back) but you deserve the experience of reading this book. it's been named to the "alyson classics library", so it's pigeonholed as a "gay" title, and yes, it is about a gay man, but it's so much more than that. calling this a gay book is akin to saying that edmund white isn't worth reading unless you happen to be homosexual. which is nonsense unless you want to avoid reading one of the great novelists of the late 20th century because he sometimes writes about homosexual romance. this book is as alive as your heart. can you feel your heart, pumping the lifeblood? that's how alive this book is. what it's about is a man in New York dealing with his life. what it is is a treatise- a sweet polemic with a tinge of nostalgia and a hardbitten message at its core. i can't begin to say enough good things about this book. let's leave it at- ten dollars is not nearly enough for a copy of this kind of book. readers should be leaving bags of blood at the bookstore. it's that good.
Rating:
Summary: Give me a break!
Review: Rarely has a book touched me to the core. Rarer still has a book been worth reading three times (Sorry, John, I did not buy 3 copies). The terrible invisible-ness of being nice, insecure and a tiny hero in a large urban landscape are what make Eddie one of my favorite characters. Ranks with David Feinberg and John Fox as one of those authors whose book you never forget. I can't remember the amount of times I've said, "Who am I quoting?" after cribbing a famous movie line. Also think of Eddie every time I pass the old globe at the ghost-like World's Fairgrounds in Queens on the way to NYC airport (you have to read it to get that reference). More, John, more!!!
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