Customer Reviews

Let's Shut Out the World

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

 

 

Kevin Bentley grew up in El Paso Texas during the late sixties and early seventies. In1977 he fled his dysfunctional family to make a life for himself in the gay Mecca of San Francisco. Bentley has been HIV positive since 1982, but remains asymptomatic due to two defective or variant genes that appear to delay the progression of HIV. Over the years he's experimented with drugs, thugs and straight boys, had more sex than any five people might expect, lost two lovers to AIDS, found marginal success in the literary world, and discovered martial bliss with his HIV negative partner of eight years, Paul.

LET'S SHUT OUT THE WORLD is a series of striking vignettes that create a beautifully textured portrait of Bentley's life so far. Through it all the author has remained skeptically optimistic, and steadfastly determined to see where life will lead him. His sense of humor, even in the face of unforgiving tragedy, remains sharp and wildly entertaining, while his grasp of life's ironies will keep his readers riveted to every page. Clearly, Bentley has seen it all, and lived to tell the tale. His is a story that many of us in our late forties and early fifties can relate to. We are survivors and this book is a strong testament to survival. Bentley's memoir is a no-holds-barred look back at gay life over the last thirty years, and provides the next generation of gay explorers with an engrossing history of hedonistic life after Stonewall.

I too am from El Paso, and I knew Kevin Bentley quite well back in the early seventies. In fact, I'd be willing to bet the farm that I am the character known as Art Zelinsky, briefly mentioned in the chapter titled, "Servo-Robots in Bondage." I have to admit, Bentley savagely captures the essence of the screaming little queen I was at the time. I lost touch with Kevin after he moved to San Francisco, but after completing his fascinating book, I feel as if I've re-discovered an old and long-lost friend. If you read one book this year, let it be Kevin Bentley's, LET'S SHUT OUT THE WORLD. It is most definitely a five (*****) star experience.

Autobiographical memoirs in roughly-chronological essay form, Kevin Bentley's "Let's Shut Out The Wor;d" dealves into various periods in the author's life, from his childhood (where a group of eight grade bullies taunted him with "Fag!" and he had to go through a school day with his hair covered in spit) to looking back from his current middle-age perspective at his wild youth. Some explicit sexual content, but am told it is less so than in his first memoir, "Wild Animals I Have Known", which dealt mostly with the San Francisco gay sexual scene of the 1970's and shortly thereafter. Readers of that book may enjoy this sequel to get a better perspective on the author's reactions to that "kid in a candy store"-time in his life.

Bentley is both witty and poignant in his memoirs, with an overall effect the same as if you were sitting around with a friend talking about episodes in your past life. He honestly discusses his HIV status (positive, but blessed with a genetic abnormality that keeps him asymptomatic), having buried two lovers lost to AIDS, and gives an interesting perspective on his mixed feelings of guilt and joy at having been spared. One chapter talks about an old lesbian couple that he and his lover befriended, the relationship having ended when the survivor of that couple shunned Kevin's partner when it was revealed he was HIV+. There are tongue-in-cheek recollections of a couple of visits to Santa Fe to get a mission church's "holy dirt" (reputed to be health-restoring, but revealed to have been carted in from somewhere else), an AIDS hospice worker with a reputation as a "widow chaser" (tries to hook up with his patients' partners), battles with monogamy, fond recollections of his (many) trips to a now defunct San Francisco VD clinic known as "My Clementia", stories of his college years spent mostly stoned and lusting over "straight" classmates, and - something many of us can relate to - stories of dealing with his boyfriends' crazy families. A good light beach or vacation read, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

These stories flesh out the life of the author, providing glimpses into his El Paso childhood and later years. A great read.

Read this book to gain beautiful insight into Kevin Bentley's life. The poignant stories of his early years helped me in understanding an important area in Kevin's journey; along with, showing me how little I actually knew about my own brother's journey into an alternative way of living and loving. The stories go beyond those troublesome younger days into young adulthood and not-so-young adulthood ... and includes wonderful conversation and thoughts about relationships which initially promise to be about 'Just You and Me' - an idea so many of us have experienced (I know I have).

This is still my favorite Kevin Bentley book. My favorite part is when he talks about his mother standing at the kitchen sink, looking out the window, and tells us that this is how he's left her. When I read this part, I take in a deep breath and cry.

I have to give this one five stars because not since Andrew Holleran have I ever read a book where I found a piece of myself on every page. Kevin Bentley writes with the "snap your finger" attitude of Kirk Read and the "slap your face" brutal honesty of Paul Russell.

"Coming of Age" novels are usually over-the-top or too predictable because most gay males have lived those stories and know what to expect. We can easily distinguish fact from fiction because we've either lived it or lied it at some point in our life. Bentley has done both.

Bentley experiments with drugs and lovers, all the while trying to discover what kind of person he wants to become. But it is these stories, these people, who end up shaping him into that person whether it's what he wanted or not. And all to often while reading this book, I kept saying to myself, "This is me!"

Experimenting with your friends in school, hitting the bars in college, living with lovers or roommates (or both), it is the stories between the sheets and out of them that honestly make you keep reading. Bentley points out specific times and places where he was in life, but the stories also let you know what kind of person he was at the time and how the events shaped him. I could totally relate!

Near the end, he dips into the AIDS pool and explores the effects the disease has had on him and his lovers. He counts his friends, his acquaintances...the ones that are still here and the ones that are gone and how time snuck up on them. Definitely a fresh perspective on an old bell that's been rung too many times.

One of the most provocative and absorbing "gay" anthologies I've read in a long time!

I picked up the book this evening and couldn't put it down until I finished. This is the second of Kevin Bentley's books that I've read in as many weeks (I have since bought them all on Amazon). I enjoyed this book so much more than his earlier, "Wild Animals I Have Known," which I liked, but not quite as well. The difference between the two being this book has heart. It's not just a chronology of 80's San Francisco trick logs. It's an easy read but a thoughtful one.