The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

I know some of us have covered this book in our conversations - but I couldn't find them. I just finished it, and I had to think a lot before I decided that, in the end, I liked it because of Stagg's character's complexity. I am rapidly deciding that too many good writers waste too much time on the erotic side of their books, because there are so many interesting, strong gay characters who get not enough attention in the mainstream (even mainstream gay) literary world because the sex parts pigeonhole them into something "lesser" in literary eyes. Not fair. So many of my favorite m/m writers are just good writers... But here we go:

Lear is a good writer - tough and lean in a macho sort of way. I found myself grumbling about the book as I was reading - and enjoying - it, and then realized that my grumbling was my own damn fault.

Lear writes gay erotic fiction. Not romance. Dan Stagg, his ex-marine anti-hero, is sort of an ass. A horny, damaged, sort of butch-er, less-suave version of James Bond. He has sex with any guy he wants to at whatever moment seems convenient. He actually seems rather less competent at his paramilitary skills than at his casual sexual hookup skills - which is, I realized, sort of endearing.

And yet.

Stagg is a pretty complicated guy. Below the tough guy is a very broken guy. And it's that broken guy that kept my interest, as his own emotions grew more and more conflicted and he struggled to understand what was happening inside his own heart and head. His relationship with Jody (aka Stirling) is just as confusing for the reader as it is for the protagonist - and that is one of the chief pleasures of Lear's narrative. Stagg isn't a man unsure of his sexuality - he's pissed that his orientation screwed up his career and he's been cast aside by the country to whom he gave everything to serve. He believes that he has no right to happiness, and yet won't quite abandon his search for something beyond the sex he's so good at finding.

Having been annoyed on and off throughout the book, I ended up feeling both emotionally attached to Stagg, and really wanting to know what happens in the next book (this is #1 in the Dan Stagg series). This is not my usual fare, and yet it was, ultimately, a pleasure.

Ulysses wrote: "I know some of us have covered this book in our conversations - but I couldn't find them. I just finished it, and I had to think a lot before I decided that, in the end, I liked it because of Stagg..."

Agree with you, Ulysses. Coincidently, today I read John D'Emilio's essay "My Changing Sex Life" in The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture which kind of sheds some light on Stagg's attitude, if out of time. Can book 2 live up to this one if Jody is still in the picture?

Ulysses wrote: "I know some of us have covered this book in our conversations - but I couldn't find them. I just finished it, and I had to think a lot before I decided that, in the end, I liked it because of Stagg..."

I tend to agree with you Ulysses; however, I was aware of the author's other writing before reading this, so I was not as surprised; This is what I wrote upon completing the novel:

http://www.jonmichaelsen.net/?p=1313

I've noticed the same example in A Casual Weekend Thing; excellent thriller, but with lots of sex...

So, this is a "series" review - of James Lear's "Straight Up," a sequel to "The Hardest Thing."

I reviewed this first for the Prism Book Alliance, and commented at that point that my handlers for Prism (hey Beverley, hey Brandilyn) have been having fun with me; sending me books that push all my buttons. Or, I suppose I should say, hit all my triggers.

James Lear’s “Straight Up” seems to be the finale of a two-part series about Dan Stagg, a major in the marines who gave his all for his country and then got pushed out of the service on the wrong side of DADT. He’s a little bitter about that, for several reasons, and has every right to be.

Lear doesn’t give you romance. He’s a great writer. Terse, correct, smart and salted with just enough wry humor to keep it from getting grim. His characters are intense and vivid, particularly his star, Dan Stagg. Lear writes sexy sex. No nonsense, no blather, but not porn or dull repetition either. He’s really good at this. Stagg is arrogant, but broken; sure of his sexuality but unable to really grapple with love. He is sure that any straight man can be had.

And there’s the rub: Dan Stagg is a macho bastard who cheats on his fey, fashion-student lover (without an open relationship). He encourages closeted gay men to cheat on their wives. He taps anything that catches his eye and has made seducing supposedly straight boys an art at which he excels.

Dan Stagg is young enough to be my son, and he’s the kind of gay man for whom I have no respect, the kind of gay man I’ve spent my life as a gay man avoiding. His sacrifice in the marines is no excuse, nor is his mistreatment at the hands of our government. He behaves badly and at moments makes me ashamed of being gay.

And yet, as with Lear’s first Stagg novel, “The Hardest Thing,” I liked Dan Stagg. A lot. This is Lear’s gift as an author. He’s good at wringing every bit of inner, self-critical good out of Dan Stagg. For all my dislike of what he does and the way he lives, Dan Stagg earns my sympathy. His internalized pain and loss, his intense feelings of self-disgust, his guilt at his cheating and dislike of closeted gays who marry to hide; somehow the honesty of his thoughts mitigates the dishonesty of his actions.

“They were guaranteed to fail. And that was what I wanted, because that’s what I thought I’d deserved. That’s what I deserve.”

He doesn’t quite forgive himself for who he is, which makes it possible for me to forgive him, just a little.

The mystery plot is anxiety inducing and tense, and Stagg is heroic and brave in all the ways you’d expect a marine (or James Bond) to be. At the end of the book, I wished him well, and hoped for a future that was brighter than the life he’d lived up to then.

The ending of the book felt like an ending. It didn’t seem to suggest a third episode in the Dan Stagg mysteries – but maybe James Lear will surprise me again. Maybe I’ll even read it.