Introductions at book events tend to be pretty similar, based on whatever official bio is on the writer's book jacket or website. A presenter who takes the time to write something personal and original about their reaction to the book makes a big difference, setting a tone for what follows. M. Graham Smith, theater director, friend and avid reader, was the presenter at a recent Army of Lovers book event, and his words touched me deeply and were, I thought, worth remembering and sharing.
On Fri. April 14, 2023, at the Lost Art Salon in San Francisco, a group of about 30 people who'd read Army of Lovers gathered for what I called an all-spoilers Readers Salon. Graham started off the night with these words (edited a bit for space), which I'm incredibly grateful for.
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"Army of Lovers is many things, including a time machine that took me back to some personal memories of 1980s and 90s NYC. I imagined making a Spotify playlist of the songs dropped into the pages of the novel, a map of the locations the book situates us in, businesses that are long gone but where the buildings still remain. There is something about how NYC accumulates memory, even as the signs and names change. The church bells that poet Frank O’Hara wrote about hearing from his Tompkins Square apartment in the 1950s are still ringing today.
The book makes vivid the complicated web of memories that are made and traded from one generation to the next. I found I recognized my own arrival in the City by the Bay in Paul’s description of arriving in San Francisco for the very first time as a young person and the magic and wonder that it seemed to hold in its streets and skies. (“A retirement home for young people,” as one of the characters quips.) This is such a beautiful novel about a young person in the act of becoming, a portrait of the artist/activist as a young man, and also – in the act of looking back from 2022 – in his formative years, years that MADE Paul who he is today.
As he reflects on the events of his life in his early twenties, we taste the immortality that one feels when one is young and engaged in a serious revolution. But that immortality is certainly complicated by the fact that the revolution is occurring in the face of – and because of – the painful truth that AIDS is decimating the Gay community. As we read, we are asked to think through the rigorous debates that swirl around Paul about what the gay community’s response should be, in activism, and art, and how it might instruct a young person to organize and understand their life’s choices.
Army of Lovers feels like a novel that is taking a look at one generation of young queer people and how they did things in the ’80s, recognizing that another generation of young queer people in 2022 is grappling with similar but distinctly different challenges as our community is once again targeted by forces of hatred and ignorance.
It’s a novel that is both a Howl and a Kaddish, in the Ginsbergian formulation, both an Anthem resounding with Pride in rejecting the status quo and a Memorial to honor the Dead and the memories of a different era, when the future we now live in was just an idea some were brave enough to dream about."