Customer Reviews

Now Is the Hour (.)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fans of Tom Spanbauer, and I trust the number is growing, will not be disappointed by his latest novel. A couple of years ago, after he discovered he had AIDS, Spanbauer said in an interview that he might not write another novel after "In the City of Shy Hunters." I'm happy to report that, not only did he change his mind, but the result is "Now is the Hour," a worthy successor to his three earlier books. "Hour" may not be a masterpiece on the order of "The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon" (what novel is?), but it is a beautifully conceived and lovingly textured work, with yet another one of Spanbauer's patented queer-boy heroes, Rigby John Klusener, a seventeen-year-old who, like his predecessors, Jacob Joseph Webber in "Faraway Places" and William Parker in "Shy Hunters," must escape the nets of family, religion, and general dysfunction in order to find his true self. Once again the backdrop is Spanbauer's favorite stomping grounds, Bannock County, or Pocatello, Idaho, where Judy Garland was born in a trunk and where there's something emphatically gay in the water. But this time, I'm pleased to report that Rigby John is not straddling the bi-sexual fence; his best friend may be gal-pal Billy Cody, but the love of his life is George Seranto, aka Georgy Girl, who is half Native-American (his father was half- Shoshone and half-Apache) and half-Italian on his mother's side. And George is all man.

There are so many pleasures to be mined in a Tom Spanbauer novel, that it would be ungrateful to complain about the similarity of this novel to earlier works, especially when its author provides us with such a loveable variation on the standard Spanbauer hero as John Rigby, who relates his story in flashback as he walks down Highway 93, "a flower in my hair," hitching to San Francisco in the Summer of Love, 1967. There are several set-pieces of the sort we've come to expect from the author (who could forget the hilarious Fresh Fruit Truman Compotee of "Shy Hunters" or the killdeer and "Hairy Moon Man" excursuses of "The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon"?), including a detour into the world of jitterbugging and a meditation on Thunderbird, the Native American spirit of wind and thunder. My favorite scene in the novel, however, is when Rigby John seeks out George at his underground club, the Back Door, and finally submits to his emotions as they dance to a Billie Holiday tune and become "solitary warriors of love."

Does the novel end happily for George and Rigby John? Read for yourself, and find out. One thing's for certain, in matters of love, Spanbauer always finds a unique way to express the inexpressible (e.g. "having a very good parade"). This is a long and rambling novel that requires a little patience in the beginning as it finds its focus. It also just happens to be pure magic, another guaranteed winner from one of the best writers, along with Annie Proulx and Denis Johnson, of prose fiction in America.

The time is 1967. The place is Pocatello, Idaho. Rigby John Klusener is seventeen and leaving home to go to San Francisco. Tom Spanbauer's amazing fourth novel is the story of how this young man got to this place in his life. It has to do with his discovering his sexual feelings for men, the repressive Catholic church and his sad, harsh parents: his mother who spends far too much time on her knees in the local Catholic Church and a father, described as a "dry drunk" who only once in Rigby John's life has told him that he is proud of him. His only friends are Billie Cody with the Simone Signoret voice and a body far too voluptuous for rural Idaho 1967 standards and two Mexicans, Flaco and Acho, who work for his father. Then he meets George Serano, an Indian who lives in a log cabin with his grandmother not far from the Klusener property; and nothing is ever the same again.

I can probably count on one hand-- certainly there are fewer than ten-- the novels that have moved me to tears. Tom Spanbauer's NOW IS THE HOUR is one of them. I read no farther than page 32 of this long novel-- but like the road to a friend's home, a good novel is never long-- before my eyes were burning. Rigby John (the story is told from his point of view) recalls a happier time before his brother, Russell, who was born with a handicap and only lived 100 days, died: "When my mother's eyes were the only show in town, almond-shaped and hazel. . . Mom's hazel eyes were gold when she was happy. When her eyes were gold I could find myself inside them." Later in a particularly nasty scene between Rigby John and his mother, when she tries to stop him from going to a party and rips the iron cord from the wall, he says her eyes were not hazel but an ugly gray. Throughout the novel, he is obsessed with eyes. "Maybe it was just the sun, but for a moment, there was a big bright shine in his eyes. Gold in Dad's eyes, the way Mom's eyes get. I've looked for it ever since, but that gold shine in my father's eyes has been a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence." (Judy Collins ["My Father"] watched the Paris sun set in her father's eyes.) Rigby John, in a beautiful scene from the novel when he and George smoke the same Camel cigarette, sees gold bars in George's dark eyes, "Jesus in George's eyes."

Mr. Spanbauer gets just about everything right in this wondrous book: the plot-- there are surprises along the way-- the characters, the attention to detail that makes rural Idaho in the 60's come alive, from Old Spice and English Leather to Snickers candy bars to S & H Green Stamps to Campbell's mushroom soup. Then there is the music of the times: "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Eleanor Rigby," "Georgy Girl," "Monday Monday," "To Love Somebody," "Light My Fire," "All You Need Is Love" and of course "Now Is The Hour," to name a few.

This rich novel is about so much that is wrong with the world-- hypocrisy, racism, homophobia. But it is also about hope and love and possibilities. As I finished this novel, I kept hearing the words from a Flirtations song, "everything is possible."

It hardly seems fair that one writer should have so much talent. On the other hand, we can rejoice that Mr. Spanbauer has given the world this outrageously wonderful novel.

Okay, if you're already a Spanbauer fan, you should know that much of the material in here echoes that of Faraway Places, especially in the relationship with the father. For newbies, I can say a couple things. If you're a fan of rural fiction, like that of Kent Haruf (Plainsong) or James Galvin (the Meadow) this would be a great book for you. It's as much about small town America as anything. For those of you who found SPanbauer through his protoge, Chuck Palahniuk, I would advise you start with In the City of Shy Hunters as it's more like one of Palahniuk's.

In NOW IS THE HOUR the time is 1967. The place is Pocatello Idaho. The author (Tom Spanbauer) is one of my favorite writers, so the expectation is high. I wasn't let down,...by the end. The author writes a lovely tale here about a young man that starts to learn of his mysterious feelings in a life filled with religious manipulations, racial bigotry, and forget about sexual freedom. His folks are like so many shut-down, emotionally void people of the mid-west (for me it was like reading about everyone I grew up around, except my parents were not religious) and sloooowly dealing with the embarrassments and pitfalls of coming out amid such adversities was a bit arduous...especially if you `are' a gay man.....have dealt with your own issues, and have read more then 5 gay books in your history; you've probably read a similar tale.
THAT ASIDE: Tom Spanbauer's `voice' is singular, heart-breaking, quirky as usual, and laugh-out-loud funny at times.
His second book and masterpiece The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon read to me much more like a fable. His first book Faraway Places was a tiny book which just whets the appetite for more. In The City Of Shy Hunters, his third novel was a wild ride thru the lives of friends right at the brink of the AIDS crisis in NYC in the early 80's. This is an over-wrought beauty all it's own.
For NOW IS THE HOUR, TS gives us some styles not all of which I enjoyed. For instance he spent 3 pages screaming out in the voice of an adolescent ALL the various ways to employ the word `F%&K', and this just felt insulting to me. I mean here we have so much beauty, and then to storm off to this place to such an extent was over-kill in a written form. I do understand and relate to the urge to expound like this from my own experience at that age, however, I almost stopped reading at that point. I am not, mind you, opposed to such language, when it is appropriate, in fact I use the word(s) appropriately quite often.
His device of repeating `list-like', certain personal descriptions (ie, his mother's rough red farm wife hands with the nails cut to the quick) seems to be a trade-mark of his that appears in all his works....and this works for me....it feels familiar and comfortable to be reminded of these focal points. TS also finds new ways of bringing us into the mind of our character
(ie, as he deals with his family in various circumstances `in the kitchen' he counts off different colored tiles and each characters placement on which tile as the drama unfolds.....much like a kid that doesn't want to be where he is and will find `anything' to focus on rather than the drama at hand) We meet a whole new wonderful cast of players here and like others in his books we are in love with many of them it seems despite and thru their flaws. TS has that gift, the one that makes us all worthy of love, and what a pleasure it is to know that a gay man is out there dazzling the world with his sensitive narrative. A voice for those that are most often in places like Idaho....or Illinois (in my case)....cast aside. For this we love you Tom Spanbauer.

Captivating, tender and sharp. Overall a wonderful read! Tom Spanbauer writes from the heart. I was enthralled with the story, the characters, the feelings, the descriptions...the way he pulls you in close. I have now purchased all of Tom's books and am looking forward to immersing myself in his fiction that is so revealing and human.

I read "The man who fell in love with the moon" first and enjoyed it alot. This was a painful and humorous insight into the 1960's-early 70's deep country coming out process. God !! religion can be such a blind and damaging tool. Some might find parts a bit tediously slow as I did because of his stream of consciousness dialogue.

This is simply one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. The prose is spectacular, the characters wonderful and alive, and I am a better person for having read it. I can't recommend it more. It's wonderful.

It has been a long time, a very long time since i read a book which so impressed me. i had not read anything by spanbauer and found my initiation an intense experience, and well-worth the time. others have told what the story is, so i won't repeat. i will say that rigby john kleusner is perhaps one of the most wonderful character ever to flow out of a pen--or word processor--of any american writer. i am amazed and so glad i read this book.

A lovely, gentle, heartbreaking, uplifting story about figuring out who you are. Beautiful, complicated characters, interesting cultural insights, and more heart packed into each page than anything I've read in a long time.
Slightly quirky stream-of-consciousness writing style takes a bit of getting used to, but doesn't feel gimmick-y or slick to this reader...
A lovely and moving book.

It was in pretty great condition and was delivered well within the time period. I recommend buying it on here instead of at an expensive bookstore.