Looking for it [Hardcover]

Michael T. Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

The sweeping new novel from the Lambda award-winning author of "Last Summer". A local bar in a small New York town is the focal point for the lives of its gay community: a hub to which a diverse group of men gravitate to play out their dreams and desires...Mike Monaghan is the bartender at the Engine Room, a meeting place for the small but thriving community of gay men in Cold Falls, New York. As Mike pours beer, wipes glasses and hears everything, he is witness to the men who come through his doors looking for what they need: sex; direction; friendship; spiritual fulfilment; and love. People like: Stephen Darby - as an accountant, he knows many secrets. But Stephen has his own secret - one he has never been able to share with anyone close to him. Pete Thayer - playing it straight, Pete takes out his frustrations on transmissions and engines during the day and spends his nights trying to quench his needs through anonymous sex. John and Russell - the golden couple in town with the ideal relationship everyone wants. But behind the scenes their storybook marriage is on the verge of facing some explosive trials. Father Thomas Dunn - more and more the gentle priest is feeling a need to express the secret desires that conflict with his devotion to the church. His faith in tailspin, he is beginning to question what he really wants from life. Simon Bird - a fixture in town, an old queen everyone finds amusing and entertaining. Still mourning the loss of his longtime lover, Simon yearns to find love and a place in a culture that worships youth and beauty.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Cold Falls, N.Y., smalltown rules are changing as Ford's seven gay protagonists make lives for themselves far from big-city gay havens. This entertaining if overstuffed sophomore effort follows Russell and John, who decide to take a break from their sterile, suffocating seven-year relationship; Mike, a handsome bartender at the Engine Room, a cozy gay bar; Episcopal priest Thomas Dunn, who harbors a burgeoning crisis of faith; Stephen, a tax accountant who lives next door to his parents with only chat room fantasies for entertainment; and lonely, mid-60s Simon, whose longtime lover died a year ago. Affectionate Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner gatherings are an excuse for discussions about family ties, religion, gay marriage and the allure of country life. Meanwhile, the friends are pairing off: love blossoms between Mike and Father Thomas, and Russell and John try to fix Stephen up with their friend Greg. Wary Stephen, however, runs off to an adult cinema and gets violently pummeled by a self-loathing closeted mechanic named Pete, who later nearly kills Greg after a bad Internet hookup. Ford (Last Summer) handles his broad, diverse cast with aplomb, and his knowing sense of humor and emphasis on the positive make this novel as warm and inviting as a group hug.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The first, unseasonably early snowfall brings a season of hope, yearning, and change in this tale of gay life in upstate New York. Ford has artfully entwined the lives of the gay men of tiny Cold Falls, who gather in the Engine Room, the only gay bar for miles. John and Russell, a longtime couple that bartender Mike cannot comprehend, are having difficulties understanding themselves and each other. Then there's Greg and shy, closeted Stephen Darby, an accountant who lives next door to his parents. Simon, an older man grieving the loss of his longtime partner, bellies up to the Engine Room bar, too, while Mike, heading home from work in the wee hours on snow-slicked roads, almost hits the local priest, who is stranded on the road without gas. So it goes in this engaging page-turner of lives within lives, an insightful and entertaining read about what we seek, and what answers we find within and without. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books; Second Printing edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758204078
• ISBN-13: 978-0758204073
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books in genres ranging from humor to horror, literary fiction to nonfiction. His work for adult readers includes the best-selling novels What We Remember, Changing Tides, Full Circle, Looking for It and Last Summer, and his five essay collections in the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. As a writer for young adults he is the author of Suicide Notes and Z (forthcoming in 2010), and under the name Isobel Bird he wrote the popular "Circle of Three" series. In 2009 he signed a 3-book deal with Random House for a series featuring Jane Austen as a modern-day vampire. The first book in the series, Jane Bites Back, will be published in January, 2010. His work has been nominated for 11 Lambda Literary Awards, twice winning for Best Humor Book and twice for Best Romance Novel. He was also nominated for a Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award (for his novel The Dollhouse That Time Forgot) and a Gaylactic Spectrum Award (for his short story "Night of the Werepuss").

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, dark in spots, but realistic for a small town., August 8, 2004

By 

Bob Lind "camelwest" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Looking for it (Hardcover)

Except for his other novel, "Last Summer," Michael Thomas Ford is known primarily for his compilations of his humorous essays, such as "My Big Fat Queer Life" and "That's MR. Faggot to You!" Perhaps looking to distance himself further from his humor essays, his second novel, "Looking for It" comes off as rather dark in spots, though overall realistic and with a positive message.

The novel tells us about a group of gay men in a small upstate NY town. The main character is Mike, bartender at The Engine Room, the only gay bar in about a two hour radius; Mike is kind of a free spirit who has no long term plans or any conscious desire to settle down. On the other end of the spectrum is Stephen, a closeted accountant whose sex life is solely imaginary with online partners, and Thomas, a closeted Episcopal priest dealing with feelings he had thought were successfully repressed. Add in a mature gay couple whose relationship is trying to survive the "seven year itch," and a wise old queen named Simon who has resogned himself to be alone since the death of his longtime partner, and you have most of the characters for the novel's coverage of developments in their lives between Halloween and New Years of a recent year. There are some steps forward, some steps backward, and some tough decisions that could affect their makers for many years to come. The "dark" part of the story comes mostly from the involvement of an additional character, a self-hating "straight" men using violence to deal with his homosexual urges, preying upon the insecurity of gay men he encountered at a porn cinema and via the internet.

I thought the story was somewhat predictable, though the characters were original, portrayed well and put in realistic situations for small town living. The overall message is a positive one, of "community" and entended families, although it also seems to suggest that gay men, at least in small towns such as this, really don't know what they want out of life, even if it is in front of their eyes. I give this one four stars out of five, including extra credit for recognizing all gay men don't live in big cities or gay "meccas" like P-Town and WeHo.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Keep looking for it..., October 28, 2004

By 

David S. Burnett "pdxdavidb" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Looking for it (Hardcover)

I've enjoyed Michael Thomas Ford's writing in the past, but this story is poorly written, poorly edited and extremely shallow. I couldn't help but think that Ford was just cranking out a story to meet a deadline. There's no depth of character in any of the main figures. The story line seems to serve no purpose other than to connect the over abundant and graphic sex scenes, some of which are extremely brutal. If your looking for a good story with believable characters...keep looking for it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Book by Michael Thomas Ford, September 19, 2004

By 

Joshua L. Vandyne (Fort Wayne, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Looking for it (Hardcover)

I really liked this book. I found it an intense and page turning drama. Michael Thomas Ford seems to have a knack for writing drama's that have large casts and mutiple storylines and he blends them together magically. This is the story of John and Russell a couple who decides to split after seven years, Simon an older man dealing with the death of his long term lover and moving on, Thomas a priest dealing with his sexuality and his future in the church, last but definitely not least Mike a bartender who is looking for love and possibly a career change. Throw into the mix Pete a mechanic who has some anger management issues, a man who enjoys sex with men but who is adamently not gay. This book is very dark compared to 'Last Summer' and the authors humorous essays, and that is what I liked about this book. I loved the fact that it was dark and not merely a light fluffy romance, it had romance but it also had a sadistic violent edge that kept me up late into the night reading to discover what is going to happen next. I really liked 'Last Summer' but felt that this book is much better and I am anxiously looking for to Michael Thomas Ford's next fiction effort.