John Weir's book, What I Did Wrong, tells the story of a single day in the life of an unattached college professor. Although the professor is gay, he is obsessed with the straight male students who take his class in New York City's Bronx neighborhood. He remains close with his best friend from high school, also a straight man, who offered him some protection during his youth. The professor accompanies his friend to a local bar to meet his first online date. While the two prepare for the date, the professor has a series of flashbacks about another close friend who died several years earlier from AIDS.

Throughout the novel the narrator tends to drop brand names along with references to current or hip music and film. It is possible to become more universal by becoming more specific, but a novel that does this risks becoming dated. One of my favorite movies has a character refer to the day Echo and the Bunnymen broke up. I was probably one of the few people in the audience who understood the reference back in the 1980's. How many people would get it now?

The book's narrative structure is problematic. The story of the friends death from AIDS is compelling, and how it haunts the narrator for years is interesting. So tell that story. The plot line about the straight friend's first online date did not add much to the novel. I did care enough about the characters to finish the book, and there is probably a set of readers out there who will identify with them and love them. Unfortunatley, I'm not a part of that set. ( )