4.3..»-

., Oliver Button IS a Star!  
" -A Story for All Familieswith
"Tomie DePaola,' Ann Bancroft’, ’
Kevyn: Aucoin and Bill "T; Jones.
‘raised on Tomie Defiaolaisibook
 _..,_f‘O,_l:iver Butto'riIis‘a Sissy” ,
 »   [ Music l5eff0rmed’bY >
The Tvyin.Cities- Gay Men's _Chorus

1.. :-

28 ' OlTl"l november 2001.‘ ARTS

All-evvtoxfive Fevl-Elli’)?

A Review of Endangered Species

 

BY JOEL NICHOLS

Louis Bayard’s Endangered Species, published
by Alyson Publications this year, is his second
novel.‘ It is a tight story centered on a man in his
mid-,30’s who, in the midst of a colorless family
get—together, decides that he must beget a child
before the end of the year. Nick, the father to be,
does not seem like the best candidate of the
Broome children to have kids: his brother is a
straight and married doctor, his sister has a serious
boyfriend, but Nick is gay. The plot winds through
Nick Broome’s journeys to sperm-banks, the
search for a surrogate mother and egg donor, and
his involvement with a shady “broker” who tries to
"help him through it all. ‘

Except for Nick and his parents, the characters
remain flat. The brother and sister seem to come
either from an Edward Hopper painting — isolated
and sad — while their mates are straight out of a
John Waters’ film. Nick’s sister-in—law drops to the
floor after dinner to keep her abdominal muscles
in shape and his sister’s boyfriend, a middle—aged
dentist, has a lengthy conversation about gay sex
and HIV transmission with Nick’s mother. The
conversation starts after dinner when Larry says

to Nick, “And the sex? My understanding is you

guys are mostly oral these days.” Nick mumbles
and getslost in thought about his current love
interest, a man he spent the niglfit cuddling, with-
out sex. Larry continues: “Maybe 2-1, oral—to—anal
 Or 3-1.”

Nick’s mother steps through the kitchen door, a
tray of coffee cups balanced against her chest, ’
and says, “Hard to say  you know, there’s still
quite a bit of anal  of course, bare-backing car-

I - riesa much higher risk of HIV transmission, but
. there are documented instances of  strictly_oral

transmission. Which makes me a little concerned
about these bathhouses  "where they have just
the oral sex, over and over again.“ ’

I include such a long quote from the text for two
reasons. First of all, it’s hilarious. The images, of
the 41-year old straight dentist with a marine hair-
cut and big ears, speculating on the amount of
butt-sex with this PFLAG mom are indicative of
Bayard’s wit, which marks the book throughout,
with a strange, surreal quality. Secondly, I find it

    
  
 
  
 
  
  
  
 

  

 

 

Attend,irig"-'l:'E‘:r}.§'<l:;=mliere will be

S copyof the film
_ ,,déo@aol.com '

‘ an interesting commentary on the transfor-

_ mous donor. If the desire for a youngster

,  Sneak.Pre'vi‘ew-‘Benefit f_o'r_the_ i
'.AilD$ Project of Southern‘_\’lerrnb‘nt:§'
Sunday; November 18th,‘ 2pm .
.  ', Landmark'Co|lege
"l2utn,ey, VT (info: ,802'-‘254-'82‘6(3) '

 PBS Broadcast in December
 ‘ (check local listings),

Scagliotti (local Guilford resident)
Hunt/Sgeagliotti Productioins '

mation of discourse about gay sex and
AIDS. These two straight people talk about
oral and anal sex in a detached way that
on the one hand shows a level of aware-
ness about queer issues, but on the other
reduce the lives and struggles to a clinical
level. Then the mother beams to her
daughter’s dentist boyfriend, “Did Celia tell
youshejs never had a cavity?” Again,
equating a cavity to AIDS shows the odd
way Bayard structures reality.

Within this funny, alternate world, the plot
itself is interesting, unpredictable, and
pleasing. I do want to criticize the inconsis-
tency in Nick’s quest.’He starts wanting just
to throw his genes into the human pool to
keep his family going, but then his mission
shifts as he imagines the daughter he could
have. He sees her romping around on fam-
ily holidays and playing in the park. If he
wanted to have a kid, he would not just
head off to a sperm bank as an anony-

were strong enough, as his recurring fan-
tasies imply, he would adopt, not caring if
the baby was genetically his. It is not that
big of a flaw, but I would have liked to see
Bayard resolve the issue of genetic babies
versus adopted babies, instead of just using
it as a plot device to get his main character
to visit a sperm bank run by Christians.
The ]esus—loVing fertility staff is funny and a great
part of Bayard’s alternative Washington D.C.,
though, so I can easily forgive him.

Parts of Endangered Species disturbed me in a
fundamental way, like the people Nick, meets on
his quest for a surrogate mother; they allow
Bayard to present a number of very sad cases of
human beings — from someone controlled in a
cult-like way to wannabe mail-order brides, the
visceral reactions provoked by each of these

A characters is a comment on modern America. I

do not want to dwell on these aspects, because
they are balanced by a great love story involving
Nickand his parents’ loving interactions.

Bayard’s style is dreamy but precise. He has a
great way of describing Nick’s thoughts and feel-
ings and tries to illustrate his fantasy world. One

 

Goldenboy/ How Town)

by Ricardo J. Brown

9. ONYX by Felice Picano

_'1. THE"-TRUTH IS... My Life in Love and Music by Melissa Etheridge
2. Michael Nava Triangle Classic 3-in-1 Edition (The Little Death/

3. ANDY WARHOL by Wayne Koestenbaum
4. THE MARBLE QUILT by David Leavitt

5. BOOKED FOR MURDER by Val MCDermld:
6. THE EVENING CROWD AT K|RMSER”S: A Gay Life in the 19405

7. THE SILK ROAD by Jane Summer
8. JEREMY THRANE by Kate Christensen

10. METES AND BOUNDS by Jay Quinn

E r r {cl 1: (I

louis bayard

example comes early; when Nick tries to get
aroused to give a sample in the fertility clinic. He

sits there with his penis in hand, unable to get -an -
erection. Looking around the room, he realizes it is ‘

just anxiety and tries to calm down. He notices the
pictures on the wall, tries to talk himself down, and
begins to feel comfortable in the clinical room,

‘ reminding himself that there was no one waiting,

and no pressure. This last part, that no one is wait-
ing, letsa Nick fantasize ‘about the doctor waiting
outside the door. Just a few erotically charged sec-
onds later and he is in a full-blown sex fantasy.
Bayard employs this semi-stream of consciousness

often in Endangered Species, much to the benefit ‘

of the reader.

joel NicboLs studies German at Wesleyan
University in Connecticut. He grew up in
Brandon, Vt.