Customer Reviews

Andrew And Joey

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The first novel was Samuel Richardson's PAMELA. It told its story in letters that were exchanged among the participants. Jamie James has updated this technique by having the characters correspond via email. The difficulty with this "gimmick" is that the author must create a different syle for each of the correspondants. James does just that! (He is even able to capture the pain of a young boy's first love.) Like the other reviewer on this page, I expected a piece of "beach reading". It is not! The only thing it has in common with a "beach-read" is that it can be read quickly. Nor, is it one of the plethora of "gay-cute" books. In Joey, James has created a tragic character that corresponds to Aristotle's dictum. He is a true tragic figure because he knows that he, and he alone, is responsible for his fate. (This is where you missed out, Arthur Miller!) Now in case you get the impression that this is a dreary, gloomy work, let me assure you it isn't. There is much humor here. There is sharp satire here. You will become involved with these people; you will care about these people. You will laugh, you will cry, (and if you have a heart) you will love this book.

This story has it all for the PC gay metrosexual. Biracial gay couple. Tearjerking breakup. Dysfunctional relationships. Chickenhawking. World travel. Set in New York, San Francisco, and Indonesia, it is an easy read. One warning: the entire book, cover to cover, is formatted as a series of email exchanges. The first chapter is difficult because the email format is not conducive to character development, but eventually you'll figure out who all the players are.

Joey is a choreographer and dancer living in New York City with his Chinese-American boyfriend Andrew. Joey wins a grant that will fund a year of study in Bali, so the two go there. Andrew makes the best of it by focusing on creating a home for the both of them, but Joey throws himself into creating his dance routine and slowly drifts from his lover of fifteen years. Andrew is shattered when Joey reveals that he's involved with a 19-year old dancer and that he wants to shack up with the kid. Andrew flies back to the States and slowly rebuilds his life. Joey takes his edgy dance and his new lover back to New York, but ultimately things fall apart and eventually Joey is left without the sense of stability he once had. What saved this book for me was the modern epistolary form, a series of email between various characters in the story. This gives it a gossipy, fast-paced feel that salvages this melodramatic story from being the tepid gay pop fiction cliche that it could've been. I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did, and that it wasn't as bad as I expected.

This suburban grandmother loved this book! The epistolary style particularly complements these characters... And what a cast of characters! I could not stop laughing as I read the entries made by the hilarious Tante Phyllis.Alarmed by the surprising behavior of long time friends, she spins off some of the funniest (and toughest) lines in the book. Phylllis is what we all want our best friend to be- funny, loving and brutally honest.
The love story that unfolds has all of the right moves as well. Set in Bali,interlaced with the drama of dance, the story covers it all. One does not have to be a gay man to feel Andrew's pain, or to feel the pull that youth and raw sexuality have on Joey. The story is a classic one, with a different twist. It's a good read- far away places, real characters, and a clever , clever format.

I read this in about an hour ...(Sorry!). It's a reasonably intelligent, moderately amusing, and fairly witty read. Not one for the ages, but I suppose it's a kind of Maee Bincy or Terry McMillan for gay men. The epistolary form (here rendered in email messages) is an interesting change of pace, though the voices get a little repetitive at times. Also, without being tiresomely politically correct, I do wonder about the depiction of gay Asian men here (I'm white). True, Andrew is a wealthy, somewhat independent gay Asian (with daddy's money), but the others are depicted as childish or primitve--and Joey's fascination with them seems a little uncomfortable. I'd wait for the paperback, but it would be a fun beach or cruise read

I like the premise of a novel written in the form of correspondences between the characters, and the premise worked well here. But I was disappointed in that it seemed to be slow in the first half, where it was not clear where the story was headed. Things picked up in the last part of the book a bit. The best part really was the ending, because it did not end up going down the predictable road I was expecting. I did not find it funny; indeed, all the humor seemed to depend on a stereotypical "old queen", whose cultural references were sometimes too obscure to generate a laugh. Also, I did not really care too much about most of the characters and found myself just wanting to get to the end to be done with it. If you want a good gay romance with this correspondence-exchange format, read "Almost Like Being In Love" by Steve Kluger.Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel

Jamie James' "Andrew and Joey" was a great read. Funny, engaging, and a style unlike any I've read before. Thinking it was a light vacation read, that's where I took it. Surprisingly, the characters were deep and I really became connected with them and their stories. Pick it up, you won't be able to put it down!

This book was a real snooze. Predictable characters, pseudo-amusing, "clever" and "wise" campy lines from the tired old queen who presides over the whole debacle, and a remarkably dull plot line. The author should have kept the manuscript in the desk drawer.

if you enjoy honkin' pipe, you'll love this!!!

If you're ready for a great peice of fluff, this is the one for you. The character's are pretty blase, predictable and after a while uninventive. Long term partners move to Bali to follow the dreams of one and ignore those of the other. Yeah, you know what's going to happen next. But, you don't. Joey falls for a south-east-asian twink and ends his 15 year relationship because "Chicken McNuggets" is hittin' all the corners. Talk about adventures in pedarasty.
The only well thought out, well developed, likable, stable character is the dumped lovers brother, Eric (The man of any of our dreams). I guess there's a reason so many of us go after straight guys. It gets increasing boring from the break-up through the end of the tale, where it just falls off without the necessary storyline resolutions. I'm sorry, but someone would of had to have wound up bloodied or bruised if this were real life.
The Andrew character finally comes through into his own at the very end. Hhowever, the story line of his blossoming romance with carpenter man is almost identical to the current story line on Ally McBeal. Has D.E. Kelly gone out and gotten himself a nom de plume here or what?