Customer Reviews

Gay Haiku

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A great, fun, quick read and/or gift (terrific text, but it's beautifully produced too -- and won't break the bank). And by the way, if you're straight (I am), don't be put off by the title -- love is love is love; whatever your orientation, you'll relate to the take on romance (the good, the bittersweet, the downright awful).

I picked up this book in Barnes & Noble because it looked cute and I thought it might have some fun stuff in it. It turned out to be terrific! I laughed almost the whole way through. I went back to get another copy as a present for a friend but they were sold out so I ordered it from amazon. I'd definitely recommend this book to people looking for something smart and funny to read or to give as a gift.

This little book of haiku with gay themes had the potential to be a cutesy "impulse" sort of purchase, but it ended up truly delighting me on many levels. Each little three-line poem, alone on its page, evokes a complete narrative--possibly even an epic novel--condensed into seventeen syllables. The quick hit of each poem, usually a wry laugh, blends into the pleasure of recognition . . . and finally, your mind is forced to provide some sort of context for the unfolding scene it is forced to imagine. I had to keep flipping back to to the author's photograph on the back cover to see the face of the person who could come up with such things. Highly recommended.

OK, maybe it's the only Gay Haiku book ever, but this book is fantastic. It's laugh out loud funny, clever, and incredibly sharp and insightful. It's also often surprisingly poignant. Highly recommended.

But I really enjoyed this book. Funny story, I was actually trapped in a BN during a rainstorm when my girlfriend plucked it off the shelf, just on a whim. We read it from cover to cover, laughing non-stop at the author's wealth of wit in economy of word. There are passages in this book that in only syllables had us at once laughing and crying, which personally, is an occurrence too infrequent with contemporary literature these days. The truest tesatment to his book though, isn't so much the thorughly enjoyable read, but that I had no idea my connection with the author until I finished it and saw his picture on the back flap. "Oh yeah..." I thought. Four out of five dentists agree: Gay Haiku - not just a novelty. Get it. Love it. Share it with your mom.

Go out and buy five copies; it will never be returned if you lend it to friends.

-- HX, April 29, 2005

This is too true. My copy has been "on loan" since a month after I bought it in 2006. Now I need to buy another copy, because I really can't not have it at home forever.

I picked up Joel Derfner's "Gay Haiku," because it looked like it would be an amusing collection of short gags. I was shocked to discover how brilliantly biting and insightful it actually is. In short (as is only fitting for this collection of poems), this is the most accurate depiction of the sometimes maddening world of gay dating I've read yet. I related to each and every one of these haiku. In each 17-syllable gem, he manages to capture a moment perfectly, such that he concisely says what other books and people have taken paragraphs, if not full chapters, to convey, and with even more depth due to its brevity. I don't think there's a gay man out there who wouldn't be able to relate to at least some, if not all, of what Derfner has to say. If you're a gay man, I couldn't recommend this to you highly enough.

The haiku in this book is mediocre at best. But what's offensive are the the subject matters. Themes of all these poems are so typical of what gays are supposed to do and think--shopping, vicious gossip, etc. There is no depth, no sophistication. Half way through (and I read the whole book) I was exhausted by the usual queer bitchiness. Don't buy this book.

This tawdry collection of stereotypes receives two stars because the author bothered to make them into actual Haiku.
There are some barley clever ones (maybe 2), but after shelling out the money, I said to myself "what the hell am I going to do with this now?"
Save your money.

I actually picked this book up at a bookstore as an impulse gift for my boyfriend. I am in the habilt of writing love haikus to him and thought seeing this book was kismit. Well, I made the mistake of giving it to him without reading some of the haikus. Instead of sweet, loving poems, it was filled with bitter ascerbic "break up" haikus that gave both of us a queezy feeling. It really was a downer for our blossoming relationship. I asked for, and was granted, an indugence to take back the gift, which I returned to the bookstore. My haikus will have to do.