Circles: A Novel [Paperback]

Perry Brass (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1993

Like a wet dream hitchhiking through a nightmare -Circles is the phenomenal sequel to Perry Brass' groundbreaking gay science fiction thriller Mirage. Consider this: You're closeted Nick Lawrence, happily married to a wealthy woman in Beverly Hills.
Suddenly your life has been taken over by an alien force--and the secret you've worked so hard to maintain is exploding in your face. Your only ally is a strange old man from a distant planet, who threatens to kill you. What's next?
You're the young, blue-eyed Republican vice president of the United States secretly trying to win over the hidden wealth and power of gay America, while promoting your own agenda of "family values." Whom will you enlist for help?
You're a gay Russian mathematician who's discovered an organic substance that can pass through time, space, and other beings. What do you do when you discover that this substance has taken over you?
Circles returns to tiny Ki, a primitive, violent planet where Same-Sex love is a part of the balance of life. There Enkidu, once the promised mate of the ambitious hunter Greeland, has become the most hunted man on the planet. His only way out is to escape to Earth, alone, and there in a riot-scarred Los Angeles, take on the identity and body of another man. There he will find a partner who will do anything for him, including kill--and there he will attempt to save the lives of those he loves, including the tortured, handsome man whose body and fate he now owns.
Circles is both graphic and mystical. It brings to life some of the most unforgettable characters ever put into a contemporary novel. Advancing the chronicles of the extraordinary planet Ki, Circles will also advance the cause of gay fiction out of its narrow focus and into the world-embracing landscape of our era. Circles will become a powerful key to the evolution of gender studies and the expanding gay consciousness of the 21st Century, whose effects are already being seen, culturally and politically, today.
Says author Perry Brass, "Circles is one of my favorite books, and one of the favorite books of all of my readers. In it, gay men are seen for the first time in the heroic, brave role they will later take in life, when the challenges of the AIDS crisis, the romantic will toward gay marriage, and world-wide appeal of lgbt equality have crystalized into focus. Circles was a groundbreaking book when it appeared in 1993, but its real story, that of two men in passionate love, is seen every day in our lives. Belhue Press is pleased to be able to bring Circles back to the book-buying public after it disappeared for several years."

Editorial Reviews

Review

(Entitled: "Brothers From Another Planet") In Circles, the sequel to last year's scifi charmer Mirage, Brass introduces us to the mysterious planet Ki, where the differences between gay men, lesbians, and straights are a tad more obvious than here. Brass's prose slides gracefully from down-to-earth plain talk to a richly metaphored language that recalls his roots as a poet, one of the first to emerge during the Stonewall-era flowering of proud "out" gay culture. His style and attitude is just as fresh now as it was twenty-five years ago, and the world he has created with Mirage and its sequel rivals, in complexity and wonder, the fantasy creations of such greats as C.S. Lewis or Ursula LeGuin. -- Mandate Magazine, New York, NY, January, 1994

Got your head in the cluds? Can't think of what to get your gay buddies who are into science fiction? Pick up the novel Circles by Perry Brass. Same-sex love on the planet Ki enters you into a queer new galaxy-and check out Circles' predecessor Mirage while you're at it. -- Next Magazine, New York, NY, November 29, 1993

Pervasively sexual and always political, Perry Brass's Circles emphasizes the importance of unification and inner strength, as well as the threat of ill-used power. A tiny planet named Ki provides the facinating backdrop for this colorful science fiction epic of sex, violence and separatism gone awry. Poor planet Earth, on the other hand, provides the more mundane milieu for the counterpoint subplot. Such dualities indicate the major elements of this cautionary tale of the dangers of a fractured, schizophrenic existence, whether within an individual or a society. Brass skillfully uses the science fiction format to present extraordinary homosexual men in a fantastic universe defined by their inner resources and personal sense of power, dignity, and nobility. He also creates disparate, schizoid characters and social structures which become viable only when made whole: male and female; gay and straight; rich and poor; Russians and Americans; Same-Sexers, Off-Sexers and the Sisters of Ki. All are united through the efforts of Enkidu. And with unification comes greater strength-a lesson all Earth's separate communities will hopefully someday learn. --Tom Wl Kelly in Lambda Book Report, Sept/Oct. issue, 1993.

From the Publisher

Circles, the sequel to the gay science fiction thriller Mirage, returns to primitive planet Ki, where Same-Sex love is normal to life. Enkidu, the cast off mate of the ambitious hunter Greeland, is now hunted himself. Escaping to Earth, alone, in a riot-scarred Los Angeles, he takes on the identity and body of married, closeted Nick Lawrence, and as Nick finds a new partner who will do anything for him-including kill. On Earth, Enkidu must save the lives of all those he loves, especially the tortured Nick, whose handsome face and turbulent fate he now inhabits. We thought the plot elements to Circles were even more exciting than those in Mirage. It is one of those examples of a sequel being even more exciting than the original, because the characters have had time to develop. Besides the inner turmoils so constant in Perry Brass's books, we also witness the increasing tension between Enkidu and Greeland, and the development of Enkidu's new love interest on Ki, Greedu, who is both enraptured with Enkidu and terrified of the consequences of their love. On Earth, Brass gives us another wonderful assortment of characters, most especially the confused, schizophrenic Nick Lawrence, whose body Enkidu takes over, and Reuvuer Svoizhe-both a brilliant Russian mathematician and a diehard Tom Cruise fan-who becomes even crazier about Nick. In the middle of all this is vampire-esque Woosh, the "monkey man," the sinister wizard who controls the clan of the Blue Monkeys. Woosh arranges Enkidu's second escape to Earth, then tries to destroy Enkidu, Nick, and, of course, Greeland. We will not give you the outcome of the story, but just say that if you want the plot action and sexuality in your fiction to be hot, heavy, and WAY over the top, then Circles is a must read for you. Again, as with reading Mirage, you don't have to start the story at the beginning, but once you read any of the Mirage books, you will want to read them all.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 215 pages
• Publisher: Belhue Press; 1 edition (May 7, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962712337
• ISBN-13: 978-0962712333
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,851,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Originally from Savannah, Georgia, Perry Brass grew up, in the nineteen fifties and sixties, in equal parts Southern, Jewish, economically impoverished, and very much gay. To escape the South's violent homophobia, he hitchhiked at age 17 from Savannah to San Francisco--an adventure, he recalls, that was "like Mark Twain with drag queens." As a young man he worked as a male artist's model, on the floor of an aircraft factory, and, in the "Mad Men" period of anything-goes-advertising, in Madison Avenue art departments.
He's published 15 books and been a finalist six times in 3 categories (poetry; gay science fiction and fantasy; spirituality and religion) for Lambda Literary Awards, as well as winning numerous awards for his poetry, plays, fiction, and other writings. His work is unique in that it combines frank depictions of human sexuality, deep spiritual values, political acumen and insight, and often outrageous humor. This has given him a small but devoted readership that doesn't pigeonhole itself or his writing.
He has been involved in the gay rights movement since November of 1969, soon after the Stonewall Rebellion, when he co-edited "Come Out!," the world's first gay liberation newspaper.
Later, in 1972, with two friends he started the Gay Men's Health Project Clinic, the first clinic for gay men on the East Coast, still surviving as New York's Callen-Lourde Clinic. In 1984, his play "Night Chills," one of the first plays to deal with the AIDS crisis, won a Jane Chambers International Gay Playwriting Award.
As a poet, Brass's collaborations with composers include the words for the much-performed "All the Way Through Evening," a haunting cycle of five songs evoking the tragedies of the AIDS epidemic, set by the late young Chris DeBlasio; "The Angel Voices of Men" set by Ricky Ian Gordon, commissioned by the Dick Cable Fund for the New York City Gay Men's Chorus which premiered it at Carnegie Hall and featured it on its "Gay Century Songbook" CD; "Three Brass Songs," with famed composer-pianist Fred Hersch; and "The Restless Yearning Towards My Self," with New York City Opera composer Paula Kimper.
He is currently treasurer of the Greater New York Independent Publishers Association, and Co-Director of New York's Rainbow Book Fair, the only book fair and cultural conference in the U.S. solely devoted to the books of LGBT authors and publishers. He directs the publication of books through Belhue Press, an independent gay press.

Perry Brass is an accomplished reader and an internationally recognized voice on gender subjects, gay relationships, and the history and literature of the movement towards glbt equality. He lives in the Riverdale section of "da Bronx" with his partner of 28 years, but can cross bridges to other parts of America without a passport.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perry Brass, July 12, 2008

By 

Rainbow Guy "Oregon Rainbow Guy" (North Bend, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Circles: A Novel (Paperback)

Perry Brass is one of today's better gay science fiction authors. "Circle" is a good example and I recommend it.