Massage [Paperback]

Henry Flesh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 1999

Fiction. Although it has been hailed as a masterpiece by writers as disparate as David Sedaris and Kaylie Jones, MASSAGE will no doubt be assailed as politically incorrect because of its chilling view of a New York ravaged by AIDS, anger, homophobia, and addiction. The action takes place in grungy East Village clubs such as The Scrotum, where safe sex is an oxymoron. Randy inhabits a gay underworld of lower Manhattan, peopled with such characters as his amoral pimp, Jake; feuding drag queens Fay Ray and Stella Dallas; prowling literary figures Dakota Montaya and Denise Lamour (My friends may be avaricious, backbiting cunts, says Graham, but they do know how to work a room); and wasted hustlers like Haircut, the coke-addled prostitute with a plastic septum who finds the answer in AA. Massage succeeds precisely because it lies close to unexplored terrain. As John Wynne, author of The Other World, writes: We step through a savage looking glass to confront a world so real and honestly depicted th

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

An X-rated debut novel depicting life at the bottom of New Yorks homosexual subculture, written vividly by a Manhattan book editor. Like most whores, Randy wasnt brought up for the profession, exactly, although he was quite adequately prepared for it. Having lost his mother at an early age, he was raised as a boy in a godforsaken midwestern town by his drunken, abusive father, who at one time took ten-year-old Randy to the house of Mr. Hewitt (Dads boss), who wasted no time in raping him. For years thereafter, Randy functioned more or less as Hewitts sex slave, receiving nice clothes and Caribbean vacations in exchange for the oral sex at which he became increasingly adept. When Hewitt eventually tired of him and found a new boy, Randy left town and headed for New York, where he set himself up as a full-service masseur. One of his clients is Graham, a successful West Village novelist who quickly becomes a regular but somewhere along the line ceases to be a customer in the strict sense of the word. Much as Hewitt had brought the boy his first taste of life among the upper classes, Graham introduces Randy (who has begun to write a novel based on his childhood) to literary circles. But Graham also brings Randy deeper and deeper into New Yorks sadomasochistic netherworldin which, not surprisingly, he assumes the submissive role and gladly becomes an object of abuse. Set in the 1990s, with the specter of AIDS a constant guest at every party, Randys descent into hell holds little hope of redemption at the end. Can he find some kind of hope along the way? The question becomes more pressing as he proceeds. Courageous and honest: not to everyones taste, to be sure, but a vivid portrait for those with the stomach to take it. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"Funny, tightly plotted, and just two shades darker than burnt coffee. Henry Flesh has crafted a fine and disturbing novel." -- David Sedaris, author of Naked

"Henry Flesh has written a brutally honest, searing novel about sexual obsession. His uncompromising insights into the nature of sado-masochistic relationships are shocking and thought-provoking. He must be lauded for his courage as well as his talent." -- Kaylie Jones, author of A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

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Product Details

• Paperback: 383 pages
• Publisher: Akashic Books (May 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888451068
• ISBN-13: 978-1888451061
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,656,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy and Read This Book!!!, July 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Massage (Paperback)

Take a trip into the wonderful world of Randy. Henry Flesh allows the reader to experience the life of Randy, a gay erotic masseur who is drawn to abusive men. The reader is introduced, in amazingly haunting detail, to Randy's lovers past and present. Even Randy's memories of the evil pedophile Mr.Hewitt is so interesting that one finds it hard to put the book down. Randy's client Graham Mason is a deliciously demonic and skillfull torturer. We see Randy in the worlds of his youth, drugged insanity, hanging with the drag queens, AIDS (described by Flesh as "the sweetness") and even (Surprise!) sobriety. I took this book everywhere I went until I had finished it. I felt as if I were experiencing Randy's life and living in New York City's East Village. "Massage" is extremely well written, Flesh has a way of making the most despicable characters some of your favorites and Randy is just plain loveable - I couldn't help wanting to just give him a hug.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What lies beyond superficiality?...you must read this book!, June 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Massage (Paperback)

As do the stories of Salinger, Steinbeck, and the plays of Tennessee Williams, Flesh's Massage speaks through its ability to enable the reader to identify deeply with lost innocence, with corruption and with that which remains incorruptible, to open doors wide to illusions, to that place we see but cannot penetrate. Although Massage is set in an underworld that is fascinating and richly detailed in and of itself, even down to the subtleties of speech of very odd, though familiar characters...we are drawn into this world to understand what is missing...not simply to revel in the bizarre, the fascinating, the richness of "oddity" (which would be a more obvious, though hardly insignificant accomplishment) but to see beyond into emptiness, into what is longed for. That, to me, is what makes it worth it. Yes, this book is all that!

The beauty and simplicity of Randy's yearning mixed with his unsettling passivity, his pathology, draws us into Massage from the start. In the end, we are disturbed and unsettled by his journey...but richer for having gone there, for having clearly understood that what can seem foreign is only so on the surface, and is really quite familiar to all from a certain point of view, startlingly so. The characters, ranging from the horrifying to the hilarious, seem oddly connected with each other, as if a projection of Randy's, Holden Caulfield-like. I came away feeling like a "fly on the wall" as the characters tried to relate through a profound sense of alienation, overcoming pain by eroticizing it or "making it feel 'good'"...drawing out a sweet, even "innocent" connection at best and bitter emotional violence at worst. Even so, the deluded, "lost" feeling of this world engendered a sense of muted anxiety, a dreamlike quality to the day-to-day existence which allowed the richness of perception found in dreams to creep in and underpin the events. The narrative style has an angelic, Cheever-like presence. I was constantly reminded of 19th century novels, particularly of Dostoevsky's, where one is reassured by the narrator's voice of some sweetness, an unidentifiable, subtle presence...trust, a reassurance found in tone. This is not to say that the whole thing doesn't have a dark sensibility...the ending is quite shocking!

Massage is unexpected in many ways and deceptive in that it delivers on many levels. Overall, it is enjoyable, challenging, frustrating, shocking, amusing, moving, reassuring and unsettling. I recommend it highly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A sharp, sexy portrayal of inner city "grunge" life, January 4, 2000

By 

Michael Leonard - See all my reviews

This review is from: Massage (Paperback)

Massage is an incisive, raw, edgy and very gritty novel. Flesh never compromises his characters actions or the sexual relations that exist between them. The novel is full of larger than life, colourful and controversial characters - gym boys, drag queens etc. all helping paint a startling picture of life in inner city Manhattan and also helping to present an incredibly compassionate portrait of the lower east side gay community.

Although at times the dialogue appears stiff and stilted, don't let this detract you from reading this novel. The issues raised here are what are important: Flesh raises the question of what constitutes socially deviant behaviour and the consequences of the casting off of ones sexual repression. Don't let the sexual explicitness put you off reading this novel either because the central character Randy takes us on an interesting journey. We witness his growth and are with him as he battles the interior demons of his past and comes to term with his situation in life.

Often funny and incredibly heart rendering, Massage is certainly not the best novel I've read about gay Manhattan and the individual's voyage of self discovery. However, it is certainly one of the most frank and honest accounts to be published recently.