Customer Reviews

Only the Good Parts

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The most amazing and saddest thing about this really fine novel is that apparently few people know about it. That is a real tragedy since ONLY THE GOOD PARTS has everything going for it. The complex characters are completely fleshed out; and unlike so many novels published today, this one has a plot that grabs you and won't let go of you. (Mr. Curzon is always one step ahead of the reader.) Additionally the subject matter has not been done to death either and the author is not afraid of wading into deep water.

Mr. Curzon has created some really awful characters, both male and female; but there are others, flawed as they may be, whom you really care about and root for: Marc, for instance.He is a gay man in his 40's, a little thick in the waist with grey cropping up in his beard. A professor in less than a first rate college, he is quite a decent person. "I believe that people are basically decent, if given a chance, so I think most gay-bashing would stop if the bashers got to know gays as they are. (Aren't we essentially nice?) If every closeted gay/lesbian came out, the world would soon realize how many splendid gays they already know." That quotation could almost have been spoken by Harvey Milk. Marc's lover, Gordon, however, has precious little going for him. We probably would not be very upset if he stepped in front of a San Francisco street car. Marc decides to become a sperm donor for Sandra, a Lesbian separatist, described by another character as making "Atilla the Hun seem like Mr. Rogers," whose partner is the troubled but sympathetic Kayo.

While it is difficult to say much about this four-hundred-plus-page novel that practically turns its pages for you without giving the plot away, Mr. Curzon tackles homophobia, the horror of being falsely accused of child molestation (the Salem witch-trials come to mind), family values--can two people of the same sex raise an emotionally healhy child or not, or at least as healthy as one reared by heterosexual parents?-- parental love and the absurdity of fanaticism over causes. "Why does every good social movement descend into a travesty of itself?

Mr. Curzon uses a device as old as the Eighteenth Century novel PAMELA, that of letters, along with, of course, modern day e-mails and an occasional journal entry, to tell his story which has the feel of the best of Nineteenth Century novels. While the author is probably best known for his satiric comedies which often appeal to the intellect, he demonstrates, however, in THE GOOD PARTS, which is not lacking in braininess-- Marc, as you would expect from an English professor, often peppers his letters with literary quotations, refers to Henry James ("the secretly homosexual") and is doing research on Hugh Walpole- that he can write beautifully about the most tender and emotional of subjects: a lonely man dying of HIV, relationships that become stale and the overwhelming, all consuming love of a parent for his child. Finally surely the ending will move even the most jaded of readers.

I have read a half dozen of Mr. Curzon's works of fiction since the early 1980's. ONLY THE GOOD PARTS is by far the best one yet as this writer is at the top of his craft here. Speaking of sixes, I can think of that many novelists who write about the gay experience and apparently sell more books than he-- at least I see their novels all over bookstores--who do not write nearly as well as he.

I was familiar with Dan Curzon's writing, beginning way back with "Something You Do in the Dark". He has improved with age and "Only the Good Parts" is among his most engaging work. I just finished the Steig Larsson trilogy, ready to sink my teeth into another another page turner and hit the jackpot with this book,a rare amalgam of comedy,tragedy,intrigue and pure excitement. It picks up momentum as it goes along until it's roaring along with such intensity you cannot put it down. Mr. Curzon outdoes himself drawing his characters sharply with icy clarity and wit using only written correspondance between the characters as the vehicle to move the plot. "Marc" is the (sweet and somewhat ineffectual)sperm donor for a Lesbian couple. As time goes on, his wish to establish a relationship with his son increases. Seemingly insurmountable hurdles stand in his way at every turn, not the least of which is his mostly absent long time partner. The plot is an exciting race to the finish. This is an entertaining novel, a story told in a refreshing, unique style that in the end, demands that the reader take a look at himself and the quality of personal life progression. A must read to my thinking.

Excerpt from a review at GayScribe.com: The unique subject matter -- a gay man having a baby with a lesbian couple -- is only one of things that makes the book unique. Curzon wrote the book as a series of letters, emails and faxes between the main characters rather than in the more traditional narrative style. While this style seems in some places to be a device that is rather cumbersome to maintain -- like when characters must write journal entries to help us understand emotions they are not revealing to others -- in other places, it seems to work fairly well. Unique in every way.