Dirty Havana Trilogy
by Pedro Juan Gutierrez

I'm like a newly converted Christian studying the bible as I read Dirty Havana Trilogy.  You should see all the markings and notes I've made in this book.

Page 81 sums up the theme of the book well, "...the tropical heat, my Latin blood, and my crazy mixed heritage all conspired, tightening around me like a net, to make me unfit for solitude."

This book is Cuba's answer to Hunger by Knut Hamsun.  Pedro deals with the collapse of the economy, the loss of his job and living in a country that's on the brink of dementia from its physical hunger. 

Pedro's adventures in trying to stay alive and engage in as much raw sex as possible will put a goofy smile on your face as you read it in the cafe.  You may even feel more sexually self confident and proposition the sexy mexican at the table by the window.

Some have compared Gutierrez to Henry Miller and Charles Bukowski.  That's very close to the truth.

Thanks to Mark Haskell Smith for turning me onto this great writer.

Have a great new year and make it a resolution to read more and embrace literature.

Tony DuShane

also recommended:

godspeed
by Lynn Breedlove

Jim, a dyke bike messenger wrestles with drugs, love and identity. 

Breedlove shows her literary genius by creating a character that we really shouldn't like....we just do anyway.  Godspeed is seriously up there with Kerouac's On the Road.  A poetic love story of self discovery and self destruction.

Page 38, "She don't love me no more.  If she did it would be forever and no matter what, but it's always IF I don't steal her money and IF I don't go out and get high, and IF she doesn't catch me runnin' with no other hoes.  That's...what is it.....conditional love, isn't it."

RE/Search Real Conversations #1
Interviews by V. Vale

In depth and inspirational interviews with Henry Rollins, Billy Childish, Jello Biafra and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Billy Childish muses, "The quest for originality stops people from moving, so I just don't bother with originality."

The Ice Storm
by Rick Moody

"She could see his erection in the tan corduroys, straining like the kid in Math who always had the answer." page 40.

That phrase alone would make the book worth reading.  Moody captures the vibe of 1973 as well as the frustrations of an all American family.

On page 148 he gives a bit more insight into his characters by describing their penises, "The world average was five and seven-eighths inches long and one and one-half inches in diameter when engorged with blood.  Dwayne's was seven inches long and two and one-eighth inches in diameter when engorged with blood.  Dwayne's son Bunny had a penis that was exactly average.  Kilgoree Trout had a penis seven inches long but only one and on-quarter inches in diameter.  Harry LeSabre, Dwayne's sales manager, had a penis five inches long and two and one-eight inches in diameter."  And it goes on.

End Notes:

Man, it's been a great literature reading month for me as you can see.  I keep wanting to add PIMP by Iceberg Slim to the "also recommended" list, but I need to give it a re-read.  If you read all the above this month, then read PIMP and be one step ahead of me.