From Publishers Weekly
The author of Fragments That Remain has written a potentially powerful gay-themed novel that is ultimately undermined by cliches and a tendency to tell rather than to show. When Sergio Gutierrez picks up African American screenwriter Dexter Baldwin in an L.A. bar, the two embark on a relationship that spirals downward to Sergio's AIDS-related bone-marrow transplant in a Baltimore hospital. (The critical 100 days immediately following the operation provide the book's title.) Unfortunately, Corbin's matter-of-fact tone and by-the-numbers explication of the affair's progress--or lack thereof--makes it difficult for readers to respond emotionally. And while Sergio's "self-inflicted homophobia" might be true-to-life in extreme cases, his increasingly obnoxious behavior toward the man he claims to love makes him a thoroughly unlikable protagonist. Stylistic lapses further weaken the story ("Sergio was talking too much, garrulously so"), and the dialogue, though occasionally charged with emotion, is more often forced and artificial. The lovers' exchanges, in particular, seldom ring true--while getting to know Dexter, Sergio poses a question that could make a seasoned interviewer cringe: "As a writer, what do you want to say through your art?"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Corbin (Fragments That Remain, Alyson, 1993) presents readers with a bittersweet story of love, AIDS, homophobia, and the relationship between two gay men-one Hispanic and one African American. This is fiction, but it reads like a personal diary, interweaving scenes from contemporary gay life in the 1990s with the story of Dexter and Sergio. While powerfully depicting Sergio's coming to terms with his sexuality and the reaction of his conservative Mexican family to his homosexuality, Corbin focuses the story line on the wretched horrors of bone marrow transplants to halt Sergio's AIDS and the unyielding caregiving by his partner, Dexter. One hundred days after the procedure the results will be known. Questions abound: Will Sergio survive the operation? Can the relationship between Dexter and Sergio ride out their stormy days in the hospital? An undeniably fresh look at relationships from a gay African American and Hispanic perspective; recommended for all public libraries.
Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Lib., Ind.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Lib., Ind.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
