9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Right Read, November 27, 2007
This review is from: Right Side of the Wrong Bed (Paperback)
Kenny Kane is a grounded, professional university student affairs coordinator in Los Angeles where he's trying to find a life after DaVon, his hunky firefighter ex-boyfriend who couldn't keep his hose in pants and fathered some babies while dating Kenny.
At 33, Kenny is lonely and frustrated as a newly single man but he has his mother and his bestfriends Ricky and Carlos, a confident and happy couple, to lean on for support and guidance.
While out one night to celebrate one of their birthdays, Kenny's eye catches a dapper Daddy Yankee-type named Jeremy Lopez.
But Jeremy is straight-up trouble. He's 21, works at another college part-time and loves to party with his keeping-it-real, too-cool posse.
What begins as a casual meeting unfolds into a fun and emotional ride in "The Right Side of the Wrong Bed.''
In his second novel, Fred Smith writes about the struggles of one interracial couple trying to make their relationship work despite their cultural differences. Kenny is black from Ohio while Jeremy (JLO if you will) is Mexican and Dominican.
But that's just the skin of the book. Throughout the novel, Smith explores the power and the importance of relationships in our lives. There's Kenny and his tell-it-like-it-is mother who dispenses common-sense insights as easy as she gambles. Kenny's mom always warns him of "the white lady laws'' and how they work against guys like him in the real corporate world.
There's Kenny and his bestfriend Carlos, office workers who lean on each other in time of need and have heart-to-hearts about what's good and bad professionally and personally.
There's Kenny and his ex-DaVon, trying to redefine their friendship and establish new boundaries after their break-up.
Like a lot of gay men, Kenny gives Jeremy one too many second chances and the benefit of the doubt, even though he arrives with more baggage than a Sears catalog. Kenny's character wants some love/lust in his life, now that his most recent relationship has failed. He wants something that sticks, permanently, like the relationships of his straight sisters.
Despite his issues and differences with Jeremy, Kenny spends the rest of the story wrestling with the book's theme: whether being on the right side of the wrong bed is really worth it. As he and Jeremy try to make a go of their rocky relationship, they get a reality check, worthy of a Friday afternoon cliffhanger from The Young and The Restless.
Smith writes in a stream-of-conciousness style, the characters' thoughts and inner dialogues pouring on the pages. This made the reading very easy and enjoyable.
Smith also has a nice touch with his turn of phrases such as "Bling for days,'' and "Down Low in Reverse,'' and describing the sense of nirvana when Kenny realizes Jeremy may never be the person he hopes for him to be.
Smith also writes a gay novel without resorting to profanity or graphic sex, which is refreshing and rare in today's publishing world.
But more importantly, he gives the reader a sincere insider's view of what it's like to be gay, black/Latino and single today and the challenges of dating someone outside your culture, something this reader is not very familar with.
The Right Side of the Wrong Bed is an engaging read.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fate brings together a couple that common sense says won't work., December 20, 2007
This review is from: Right Side of the Wrong Bed (Paperback)
Kenny Kane is a 33 yr old gay man who is slowly recovering from the end of a sevem year relationship with a cheating partner. On a night out with his best friend, Carlos, Kenny bumps into 21 yr old Jeremy Lopez, who seems to be everything that Kenny is not. While Kenny is a responsible and relatively conservative African American college administrator from an upper-middle-class family, Jeremy is a "if it feels good, do it!" party animal, a student at a local community college, dabbles in drugs (and possibly other illegal activities) and comes from a big fairly dysfunctional big Mexican/Dominican family in the East L.A. ghetto.
But, faster than you can say "Opposites attract," Kenny is hooked on the younger man, and ignores the warnings of his friends and ex who point out the age difference and the fact that Jeremy secretive nature isn't conducive to honesty and is likely to result in Kenny being hurt. It's much more than sexual chemistry, and defies any theories that Kenny's attraction is based mostly on his need, after the failed relationship, to be desired by a man who turns heads wherever they go. When they go to one of Jeremy's fraternity parties, which is later raided by the police, and Kenny meets the young man's ex, who contradicts what he had been told about their relationship, Kenny begins to doubt his feelings, and has a background check done on the boy. But Jeremy charisma and considerable charms keep Kenny from even reading the results of the investigation, as he tries to justify staying with the young man despite his own common sense starting to agree with his friends that it is a bad idea.
"Right Side of the Wrong Bed" is an apt title for this captivating, somewhat lyrical story, a character study of two complete opposites which fate decides to bring together, which provides surprising insights into why we often feel strongly about relationships in all defiance of our comon sense dictating otherwise. The novel is sprinkled with a significant amount of "street slang" language, but not to the point where the average reader would have problems understanding what is going on. I give it four stars out of five.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A DELECTABLE TREAT..., December 25, 2007
This review is from: Right Side of the Wrong Bed (Paperback)
Fred Smith has done it again. This new book "Right Side of the Wrong Bed" explores human life in its rawness and doesn't hold any punches. It explores the things that we do for love and the lack of self awareness that we don't have when we are trying to make things work in our lives. It gives into the things that we all want, and definitely at the end of the day don't need.
This boook is so delicious. I ate every bit of it and am full...You truly have a gift and I pray that everyone that could possible read it, will and enjoy it as much as I have. The story and the characters are so real and I am telling everyone that I come in contact about it. You care about Kenny and sometimes Jeremy because Fred crafts them so well and makes them so believable.
If there is one book that you have to read in '08, make it this one. It will give you everything that you need and there is no stopping once you begin. The ending is satisfying and leaves with questions as to what we all want out of life and questions are we truly satisfied with the way that it is going and never taking life for granted.
V.A.
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