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James Magruder

Auteur de Sugarless

8+ oeuvres 117 utilisateurs 10 critiques 1 Favoris

A propos de l'auteur

James Magruder is a fiction writer, playwright, and award-winning translator. He teaches dramaturgy at Swarthmore College and fiction at the University of Baltimore. He is also the author of a novel, Sugarless (2009).

Œuvres de James Magruder

Oeuvres associées

Le Triomphe de l'amour (1958) — Traducteur, quelques éditions50 exemplaires
Boy Crazy: Coming Out Erotica (2009) — Contributeur — 32 exemplaires

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This book is a delightful romp through the libidos of Yale graduate students living together in the Helen Hadley residential hall in the early 1980s. I was a professional student at Yale about twelve years earlier, and I remember Helen Hadley Hall, although I did not reside there. I remember it largely because its name was female. The only such name, I believe, amidst the scores of "male" Yale buildings: Harkness, Sterling, Calhoun, Morse, Silliman, Davenport, Stiles, Trumbull, ad nauseam.

The author fleshes out the mysterious Helen Hadley. He gives her a life of 56 years (1895 - 1951) and trains her in chemistry. He is quiet about her Yale connections, but informs us that the love of her life was a woman. Thus, she observes and describes same sex unions with equanimity. That is useful, because she is the narrator of these stories of the (mostly) gay and bisexual pairings of the residents of the Hall during 1983 - 1984.

The stories are funny, although during their telling the spreading "gay cancer" gets a name and is the source of increasing anxiety among the book's characters. Indeed, in a postscript, we learn that most of the male folk in the book later die of the disease.

The author knows academics well. He has a graduate degree in French from Yale and is currently an Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at Swarthmore. His writing is clever and economical, with literary and artistic references used lavishly:

"A thorough grounding in history and the history of art made Randall less susceptible than others to the mandates of Leviticus. There was nothing inherently wrong in loving another man in the manner of the Greeks, or of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, or David and Jonathan. As Randall went about his days . . . he knew he would die for Silas, if asked, but he wasn't sure, in point of fact, whether he need ever kiss him. For the time being, Silas was a Mannerist portrait: elongated, virtuoso, cool, 'in quotation marks', and unreal."

The author describes couplings - and the lustings for them - many, many times, and in many, many ways. But each description is fresh and humorous:

"Their sex he likened to atom-smashing; each blasted against the other with an annihilating carnality that created new matter. And as the air warmed with the arrival of spring, Silas, haunching around campus, tumescent with thoughts of past days and nights to come, felt like a list of the -id adjectives: Fetid, squalid, humid, turbid, turgid, rabid, rancid, lurid."

And even his non-libidinous writing is wonderful. Helen Hadley's description of the French department chair:

"[T]he department chair could have been my father or any one of my seven uncles, or my forsaken fiance. They're tall, rector-ish New Englanders, whose weedy builds, sloping slightly at the shoulders, are kept in trim by morning Grape Nuts and squash twice a week. Nathaniel Gates' russet hair was streaked with gray, and it curled a bit, as it did now, when damp. Habituated to privilege and command, yet guided by thrift and industry, a man like Nathaniel Gates is the platonic ideal of the Yankee facing ever east, a man who ventures beyond the Hudson River solely by Federal appointment."

The "platonic ideal" is later met, bound on all fours, dressed in a schoolboy's uniform and being dominated by a female student. This, just before the two of them are arrested for cocaine distribution.

Helen Hadley's clairvoyance allows the book to chronicle the amorous adventures of:

~ An American Indian scholarship student with clerical carnal knowledge in his Arizona past - the above-mentioned Silas.

~ A female Christian and mid-western music student who finds same sex love at the book's end

~ A devout Catholic boy who falls in love with Silas, but chooses an Italian monastery in which to live out his days

~ An Italian-American townie with a memorable male member, which is desired by both men and women

~ A 39-year-old mother of two who is returning to Yale for a French graduate degree and who adulterously indulges in the townie and the department chair

~ A feared female French professor who counsels, and engages in erotic fantasies with, her student Silas

~ A female French department student whose Helen Hadley Hall wedding is to a bisexual drama department functionary

. . . and many more.

In sum, the book is fun, erotic, well written and fast moving. Oh, that it describes even a small part of my New Haven days !
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
bbrad | Oct 18, 2016 |
In some ways, this should have been a YA novel and in other ways, it's clearly an adult novel. It's the story of a high school boy who is fighting a constant battle to figure out who he is. Magruder's style is engrossing, as is the tale he tells. Rick joins the speech team (after reading my favorite short story of all time, The Scarlet Ibis) and ends up falling in love. Along the way, he learns about being gay, about sex and about his family. Sugarless is far more intense than the title and cover lead you to believe and perhaps that's the point. A very good coming of age story.… (plus d'informations)
½
 
Signalé
callmecayce | 8 autres critiques | Feb 16, 2010 |
Cette critique a été écrite dans le cadre des Critiques en avant-première de LibraryThing.
A good coming-of-age book about a young gay man and his journey. The author uses high school speech competitions as the backdrop of the story - something new for the genre; it works very well. Juxtaposed with Rick's coming to terms and coming out is his mother's increasing commitment to religion. A subject that Magruder gives a bang-on description of.
All-in-all, after reading this book, one feels that the coming-out experience of gay men doesn't change very much over the years.
 
Signalé
ClifSven | 8 autres critiques | Jan 4, 2010 |
Cette critique a été écrite dans le cadre des Critiques en avant-première de LibraryThing.
This is the "coming-of-age" story of high schooler Rick Lahrem. The book lacks a clear purpose, the plot is sketchy, and characterization is shallow. It's strongest in its portrayal of Rick's passion for speech (dramatic interpretation) but falls short in building believable relationships between characters. In particular, the treatment of Rick's relationship with an older man, a DI judge and speech coach from another school, feels off. Except for a mention that Rick longs to be loved, Magruder gives readers little idea of what goes through Rick's mind as he gets involved with a man more than double his age, a situation that feels uncomfortable to say the least. Considering all the time spent on describing various character's genitals, some characterization and glimpse into Rick's thought processes would be nice. Much of the humor relies on mocking characters who lives as one-sided stereotypes, such as the zealous evangelicals and "stoner sluts." I kept waiting for the story to come together, and in the end it did, but it felt forced. Not a book I'll read again.… (plus d'informations)
1 voter
Signalé
csoki637 | 8 autres critiques | Jan 4, 2010 |

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Œuvres
8
Aussi par
2
Membres
117
Popularité
#168,597
Évaluation
½ 3.4
Critiques
10
ISBN
16
Favoris
1

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