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Rating: 
Summary: All that Glitters Ain't Gold
Review: A look into Dorian Moore's life affords us the opportunity to glimpse at family dysfunctions, lies, hatred and pain. Nevertheless you are not left feeling like "In Search of Pretty Young Black Men" was only an entree. For this avid reader it was the entree and the main course.
I hear alot of reference to the term "down low" with regards to this book, which I do not understand. Is it possible that Dorian had a large apetite?? Heck Baskin Robbins has 32 flavors, it does not hurt to test drive them all."Black Men" was just what the doctor ordered short sweet and entertaining.
I walked away from "Black Men" with the following thought Why are folks willing to die for someone who is not willing to die for them. Be yourself no MATTER who *YOU* are.
What an unforgettable read! -
Missy
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating reading experience
Review: Baldwin Hills is the nouveau rich black person's enclave just as Beverly Hills is the white's prestigious addresses in 1989. Maggie Lester Allegro trapped in a bittersweet loveless marriage, drinks and plays cards to ease her emotional pain. Her marriage never had a chance because on her honeymoon, she was pregnant with another man's child. With her husband's assent, she gave the baby up for adoption but the marriage disintegrated anyway.
Enter Dorian Moore, a young black stud who she has a one night stand with, a hunk who has women pay him for sex. She never forgets him and when she learns who he really is, she does something drastic. Maggie's husband Lamont is a closet gay and he knew that when he married his wife; he abstained from giving in to his urges, because he didn't want to disobey God's law but when he met Dorian Moore, he fell in love with him and wanted an exclusive relationship with him. Dorian never wanted that. When Dorian was killed Lamont broke down and was institutionalized. When he comes out, he also comes out of the closet and has a second chance at love.
Stanley Bennett Clay, author of Diva has written a characters study about blacks who have it all yet feel they have nothing. Lamont has to hide his true self in the1980's or face being ostracized and Maggie gave up the love of her life's child and found him again in very ugly circumstances. THE SECRET OF PRETTY BLACK MEN is a fascinating reading experience due to Dorian an enigmatic man who feels his calling is to satisfy the sexual needs of Baldwin Hills rich blacks.
Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Good Story but kind of weird
Review: Dorian Moore is a pretty, young, black man who provides various services to the Black elite in Baldwin Hills, California. The novel follows Dorian's stimulating and often-erotic experiences and the affects he has on people. Clay does an excellent job of portraying the Black upper class, their desires, and their dependencies. Although a mere 127 pages, the book is a slow, poetic, sensuous read with many surprises that will leave the reader wanting more. I eagerly anticipate more works from this author. Reviewed by Latoya Carter-Qawiyy
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: Search No More!
Review: Dorian Moore is a pretty, young, black man who provides various services to the Black elite in Baldwin Hills, California. The novel follows Dorian's stimulating and often-erotic experiences and the affects he has on people. Clay does an excellent job of portraying the Black upper class, their desires, and their dependencies. Although a mere 127 pages, the book is a slow, poetic, sensuous read with many surprises that will leave the reader wanting more. I eagerly anticipate more works from this author. Reviewed by Latoya Carter-Qawiyy
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT SUMMER READ
Review: Excellent quick read. Beautiful lyrical prose with enough though provoking information to keep you guessing and discussing for a long time. Great for a book club. One of the better
writers of fiction in this type of genre. This author could
provide a sequel to this or write many more great novels.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story but kind of weird
Review: I have a love and hate relationship with this book. I love the way the author wrote the book and how he made Dorian almost seem Christ like to Margerot and her husband but it was really too short.
Rating:
Summary: An Stunning Novel by a Significant New Voice in Literature
Review: Stanley Bennett Clay is one fine writer! Not only does he have the ability to create an intensely fascinating story, he does so within an arena of Black culture that has neither been tapped or portrayed with such insight as in this revelation of a book seductively and successfully titled IN SEARCH OF PRETTY YOUNG BLACK MEN. From the cover jacket art to the rollercoaster ending, this short novel is on fire with passion, lust, pansexuality, atmosphere, mystery and just plain superb interaction of story and technique that may just be the crowning example of 'new Black literature', while simultaneously standing strongly on its own as simply exquisite contemporary writing without the need of the sobriquet of 'Black literature'.
Though woven like a fine loom of dazzling threads that ultimately bind together the lives of every character depicted in this story, the main character is one Pretty Young Black Man named Dorian Moore who lives among the wealthy Black community of the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles and makes the most of his inordinately perfect physical charms by providing sexual pleasure for both men and women. The setting is 1989 and for the first half of the book we see the exploits of Dorian through the eyes of a disillusioned housewife Maggie Lester-Allegro and her quartet of friends, one of whom is a 'Madame' who sets Dorian up with her clients (including Maggie), promising these rich ladies of the suburbs the perfect joys Dorian always delivers. Maggie's husband Lamont Lester-Allegro is distant emotionally but provides Maggie with the accoutrements of superficial happiness while tending to his own diverse needs elsewhere. Events unfold revealing secrets and crimes that bind this section into a cohesive and fascinating series of twists and turns.
The second half of the novel is devoted to Lamont Lester-Allegro
and how his relationship to the proper family expectations governed by his powerful father contrast to his own inner life secrets: Lamont, too, has fallen under the spell of Dorian Moore. Again, Lamont's story takes as many twist and turns as Maggie's and while it is obvious that the common denominator of these life altering experiences is the ubiquitous Dorian Moore, the core of the story reveals just how compounded are the vagaries of fate.
Clay's means of relating this tightly cohesive drama is the poetry that is his gift. He is at once able to integrate the cultural idiosyncrasies of Black phraseology with this perspective of the moneyed Black community in a way that updates Faulkner and Baldwin. He is able to write as through a woman's sensory perceptions as easily as he is able to describe the wholeness of the male sensory responses to both women and men. If ever there was a writer who could define bisexuality, Clay is the man. Here is some of the most erotic writing available and its presence has poetic significance to drive this unique story to an unrivalled conclusion. This is simply great story telling by a man with a secure future in literature. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, January 2005
Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: This book kept me spellbound from the first page to the last. A very deep book that you won't put down until you have read the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read!
Review: This was a good, fast read. I love the way he told the story. The author is a very gifted writer.
Rating: 
Summary: a thin line.......
Review: While the writing of this book can be a tad bit overbearing, i still found it to be a good read. i enjoyed how the Stanley Bennett showed that there is a thin line between the rich that live on the hill and the middle class that live in the valley. it was interesting to see how the secrets of Maggie and Lamont Lester-Allegro came full circle. the world really is a small place. ONELOVE
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