Customer Reviews

Got 'Til It's Gone

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

 

 

I've been a Larry Duplechan fan since his homage to the Louisiana town his parents grew up in - the short-story Zazoo, about a quirky little boy I felt sure was me. Despite that instant connection and love, at least fifteen years passed before I read anything else by Duplechan. Only recently did I discover the character Johnny Ray Rousseau in Got `Til It's Gone.

However, Johnnie Ray is not so new. I've since discovered he's a recurring character in at least three Duplechan works thus far. First appearing in his second novel, Blackbird, with Johnny Ray in a coming of age tale unlike any other at its release in `86 because the protagonist wrestling with his sexuality was black. Johnny Ray, Larry Duplechan's oft' described alter-ego, reappears in Tangled Up In Blue, grown up and dealing with grown up issues, such as the arrival of the AIDS epidemic. However, this book, my first taste of Rousseau finds him approaching fifty with all the angst that goes along with that plateau, a dying mother, a porn star love interest half his age, and, yes, all the angst that goes along with those things as well.

Got `Til It's Gone gives it to the reader straight-up, no chaser, as exemplified in the opening chapter by "Johnnie Ray Rousseau's Theory of Urban Gay Male Aging" - a breakdown that's alternately insightful, poignant and hilarious, possibly to a fault. That unforgettable scene - with Johnnie Ray's acid wit and wisdom delivered during a card game with a straight couple while fending off the advances of their adorable and very gay teenage son - may set a false cozy expectation, from which the book quickly veers away. But maybe that's the point; because life can change direction on a dime, just like Johnnie Ray's did.

Now, for those just discovering this fascinating character in Got `Til It's Gone, begins the backward journey through Rousseau's life, back to what the Advocate described as the novel "we have all been waiting for", back to the beginning - Blackbird. Anticipate a delightful trip. ~

Taylor Siluwé, Features Editor, Out IN Jersey Magazine, author of Dancing With The Devil

Johnnie Ray Rousseau is a handsome, gay man of Louisiana Creole ancestry, two years away from his 50th birthday, a landmark that has encouraged him to return to the gym and change his diet. The results turn many heads, whether he is out with friends, at church, or at an intimate cabaret where he sings occasionally. He realizes, at this stage in his life, that his dream of becoming a famous singer likely won't happen, but he still enjoys these gigs, while working as a legal secretary to pay his bills. The only thing still missing from his life is a partner to share it with, but Johnnie still isn't ready for that, although many years have passed since losing his last boyfriend to complications from AIDS. His online hook-up ad gets the attention of a 31 year old twink-ish former porn star with considerable Daddy issues. Johnnie is instantly smitten, but all this comes at a time when he is preoccupied with his mother's recent cancer diagnosis, as well as the death of several friends, and a sudden cold shoulder from his best friend, Dre.

Duplechan originally introduced Johnnie at age 17 in his landmark mid-1980's coming-out novel "Blackbird," and also featured him in two sequels in that same decade. This is Duplechan's first novel in 15 years, and it's clear he hasn't lost any of his touch at spinning an interesting, realistic story painted by wonderful characters you want to know. He deals with real-life issues, such as gay teens, aging, intergenerational relationships, gay/straight friendships, gay-friendly churches, and modern gay dating. Whether or not you read any of the earlier works, you must read "Got 'Til It's Gone," and you'll know why this man is one of my favorite authors of all times. Five spectacular shooting stars out of five!

In GOT TIL IT'S GONE, we revisit Johnnie Ray Rousseau who is a central character in three previous works by Duplechan. He is now 48 years old, a legal secretary and experiencing a fear of growing old. He develops a workout regimen and diet to stave off the effects of father time, and from the reaction of much younger men, it seems to be working. When Johnnie meets a young model with a colorful past, a relationship develops which Johnnie has not opened himself to since the death of his spouse. While he's basking in that joy, he also deals with his mother's battle with cancer.

GOT TIL IT'S GONE told from the first person point of view, deftly portrays the character's wittiness, his love for family and friends and his eagerness to find a love of his own. The novel is fast-paced and Duplechan's writing style is refreshing with vivid accounts and colorful characters. Johnnie Rousseau is so endearing as an openly gay African-American male who offers no excuses or apologies for who he is and whom he loves.

Reviewed by Paula Henderson
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers

Johnnie Ray Rousseau, the character Larry Duplechan introduced to us in 1986 in the novel BLACKBIRD is back. Both the writer's old fans and those readers not famiiar with his works until now, who are sure to join the ranks of new fans, will be grateful. Johnnie is now 48 and acutely aware of his own mortality. He does not believe, for instance, that 50 is now the new 40. Fifty is middle-age only if you live to be a hundred. With a steady diet of health foods and visits to his local California gym, Johnnie fights the good fight against gravity so that he will fit into what he calls the daddy category for gay men over 50, rather than the other two groups that he labels aunties and trolls.

If his rapid journey towards 50 isn't enough to remind him of the brevity of life, his beloved mother is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and three of his friends die in rapid succession. And our hero falls heavily, hopelessly in love with an actor/porn star/hustler model, seventeen years his junior-- the exact difference in ages between his mother and her younger Caucasian Jewish husband-- whose behind is the most beautiful Johnnie has ever laid eyes on.

GOT 'TIL IT'S GONE-- from the song by Joni Mitchell, that says "that you don't know what you've got til it's gone"-- is chock full of graphic hot sex, is at times terribly funny and will make you laugh. Take, for example, the scene where Johnnie is making one of his many visits to his mother Clara's home and describes how turned on he is by her humpy husband: "As usual, I heard Daniel's voice before I realized he's entered the room, once again in T-shirt and jeans and no shoes. I couldn't help noticing his big beautiful feet: high arches, long toes. Yeah--I like feet--sue me." Or the writer on the First Assembly of Love Church, where Johnnie, recently brought back to the church by reaching forty and watching Joseph Campbell on Bill Moyers'"The Power of Myth" series, serves as a deacon. He describes the church, where everyone is welcome, is gayer than "Cher tickets and a bottle of silicon-based lube," that split off from the Metropolitan Community Church in the mid-1980's, over "some dispute over inclusive language or fabric swatches or something," where the minister wears leather motorcycle pants and steel-toed boots under his white robe. (I confess to having seen a church official at a local service of Integrity the other year similarly dressed.)

But just as quickly Mr. Duplechan can decribe an event that will make your eyes burn. His account of Johnnie not being able to weep as he sings at the funeral of a friend is too, too familiar and just one of many poignant passages: "Which meant that some time later, a week, a month, maybe more--I'd be blindsided by the grief I was currenty forced to swallow back, like a throatful of bile: I'd be at the office taking a phone message for Harold {his boss}, or watching a movie on DVD, or a song would pop up on my iPod in shuffle mode, and suddenly, I'd be crying myself hoarse. This I knew from experience. I'd been there."

Mr. Duplechan's novel was certainly worth the wait and will make every list of best gay-themed novels of the year.