Surprising Myself

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A fresh tone, exuberance and light-handed humor mark this first novel about a homosexual's coming of age in Manhattan. We meet Joel Scherzenlieb at Boy Scout camp, where his CIA agent father has left him to work as a counselor for the summer. Joel doesn't yet know the nature of his sexuality, nor does he find out at camp, since his father soon whisks him off to live at his mother's farm in Virginia. With no money for college, Joel works the farm with his mother, maternal grandmother and sister Liza. Later, he runs into Corey, his only friend from camp days; finding their way to bed, they begin the relationship that's the heart of the book. At the same time, Liza is pursued by another former counselor, Bob. Eventually, Joel and Corey move to New York, where Joel begins to cruise the Village gay bars. One night Liza, who has left Bob, appears at their apartment with her baby; she turns to Joel and Corey for help and to confirm her belief in stable relationships. An irate Bob soon follows, precipitating the story's funny, riveting resolution, involving blackmail, issues of loyalty and considerable conversation about the nature and lastingness of love. Bram's novel is candid (often explicit), wise, humorous and affirmative, with compelling characters who are engagingly human first, and only then straight or gay. First serial to Christopher Street; paperback rights to Holt/Owl; major ad/promo; author tour. (May)

Library Journal

At the beginning, this story of two boys who meet and fall in love at summer camp has the feel of a teen ``problem novel.'' However, the evolution of Joel Scherzenlieb's personality soon emerges as the book's driving force. From a family he describes as a ``collection of solitaires''his father a spy, mother a back-to-the-earth nut, sister a failed feminist in a bad marriageJoel has few emotional resources and much training in both self-indulgence and self-criticism. In his feelings of inadequacy and aimlessness, Joel comes up against his lover Corey's seeming success and complacency; we leave the two just as they are learning to build off their differences. Joel is a character without particular talent or ambition made memorable through the skilled depiction of his coming of wisdom. This refreshingly unclaustrophobic gay novel is a mature first effort. Rob Schmieder, Boston