Customer Reviews

In Search of Pretty Young Black Men: A Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"A lust-laced hallelujah."

That's how G. B. Mann described the steamy novel, In Search of Pretty Young Black Men by award-winning filmmaker and playwright Stanley Bennett Clay. The quote, by the author of Low-Hanging Fruit, is on the back cover of the dust-jacket. I made a skeptical little sound at the magnificent, though extremely `authorly' quip-one carefully crafted to be repeated, and therefore, somewhat self-serving.

Why am I repeating it? Because after reading the book, I realize that Mr. Mann's four little words can't be bested. He hit the nail with this one ... dead center.

I took the provocatively titled tome on my birthday cruise and between peaceful moments staring at the sea, I was enraptured by this tale of Dorian Moore, "... a mysterious and seductive young man who provides comfort to the moneyed, the neglected, the lost, and the lonely in an elegant hilltop community in Southern California."

It was the title that drew me in, and I ordered it from Amazon without knowing a thing about Stanley Bennett Clay. Maybe because I've resigned myself to the fact that, in a way, my life has been a search for pretty young black men ever since I WAS one ... and also that, until the day I die, they'll have the heart-stopping ability to bring a smile to my face, a tingle to my nether-region, and make me play the biggest fool. Yeah. The good ones can.

As J and I sun-bathed and enjoyed the pleasant rocking of the ship (he was reading the hip debut by Blaire R. Poole ... Breathe), I peeked over my shades at the most pleasant sight. A real, live, pretty young black man (who'd only been old enough to drink for ten minutes, tops) sauntered by looking edible, dangerous and darkly Brazilian in his Speedo. My elbow nudged J and we both watched him set up a deck chair opposite us ... and then put on a seductive show involving languid application of oil, and a few choice stretches.

`Oh ... my ... God.' J muttered, expressing his appreciation for my heads-up.

I thought of Stanley Bennett Clay's character, Dorian Moore-who drove some residents of the exclusively rich black enclave of Baldwin Hills to lascivious and tragic distraction-and I had to admit that lust for such heavenly creatures ... can do exactly that.

Stanley Bennett Clay grabs you by the nuts, and slowly squeezes. In Search of Pretty Young Black Men made me question the objectification of the pretty young `anythings' of the world, and ponder society's ideas (and my own) about lust and morality. And reading it was kinda like being ravaged by a pretty young black man. Well ... almost. ~ Taylor Siluwé, author of Dancing With The Devil

"In Search of Pretty Young Black Men" depicts black bourgeois life in the factitious Los Angeles suburb of Baldwin Hills. As the story unfolds we learn of Maggie's marriage to Dr. Lamont Lester-Allegro. Lamont is the son of the most powerful man in Baldwin Hills. After a near fatal accident, Maggie is nursed back to health by Dr. Lester-Allegro. During Maggie's recovery, doctor and patient develop a mutual attraction; "The small scars had healed surreptitiously and the only telltale sign of her hospital stay was here obvious schoolgirl's crush on her handsome and ever attentive physician. And as if designed by romantic oracles with sweet-ending stories, young Doctor Lamont Lester-Allegro found himself equally enchanted by his patient." Soon after Maggie's recovery, the two are married and learn shortly thereafter that Maggie is pregnant with her former boyfriend's child. The timing of the pregnancy is one aspect of the novel that seems somewhat contrived given that Maggie would have to have been pregnant while in the hospital and you'd think during her recovery someone at the hospital would have discovered the gestation. Pressured by her husband's anger with the pregnancy and the smear that it would cause to the Lester-Allegro family reputation, Maggie decides to secretly put her child up for adoption. Maggie and Lamont attempt to start their marriage anew unaware of the future ramifications of the adoption. They are able to ignite a small flame under their marriage but over time the union deteriorates, leaving both Maggie and Lester open to explore sexual gratification elsewhere.

Center stage in the novel is Dorian Moore, the object of everyone's desires. Dorian is an escort who services the wealthy women and men of Baldwin Hills. Elaine, Maggie's best friend and Dorian's pimp, arrange a hookup between the two. Throughout the novel, Maggie reminisces about her sole encounter with Dorian. The early scenes - within the first 30 pages - depicting their encounter represent some of the most subtle and imagistic writing in the novel. Unfortunately, the author's writing style looses some of its grace as the novel moves on. At times the story nearly collapses under the weight of lazy writing and mistrust of the reader's abilities and sensibilities. Multiple usages of certain adjectives - "beautiful", "stern-handsome", "black-as-midnight" - and repetitive descriptors - "mumbling, mumbling, mumbling", "back and forth, back and forth, forth and back", and "beautiful, beautiful" - adds an element of corniness to the story. Abrupt shifts in setting were quite disruptive to the flow of the novel. Awkward sentences preceded and followed creatively written ones. Overtly decadent and vulgar scenes are followed by wonderfully subtle sexy ones. Despite what I believe to be poor editing (the novel could have been a few pages shorter), the author is able to hold the story together.

Overall, "In Search of Pretty Black Men", survives despite the bumps and stumblings of the narrative. It's a brief story with enough twists and sex to keep you interested and the author manages to weave tidbits of significant historical events into the narrative as well. It's worth the read but take heed to the author's (through one of his characters) warning: "Hey lookahere Brothaman I have to write what I'm feeling and if what I'm writing is too much for them to digest well then maybe they need to find something more suitable to they digestive system like chicken see `cause I write chittlin' and a lot of people don't like chittlin' and that's okay `cause for the people that like chittlin' they read my [****] stand up and slap they mamma but for the otha ones [**** ] `em and feed `em chicken."

This book is James Baldwin transported to bourgeois, black LA society. It's a courageous book to write in our times and it deals with many themes that contemporary black fiction tends to avoid. You don't find too many novels whose centerpiece is an angelic male prostitute whose dazzling attractiveness overwhelms male and female characters alike in this powerful novel. Clay's novel shares James Baldwin's willingness to explore the psychological challenges of blackness in their erotic context. The unrealistic expectations and the naive perfectionism of black elite expectations guilt the main characters of this novel into destructive decisions as they wrestle with their own identity and past failures that they seek deny and suppress.

If you're thinking about buying this novel, do check out about ten to twenty pages of the prose first. I can see how many readers have a love hate relationship with this book. Some readers will be alienated by a narrative style that interweaves past and present events and the poetic prose. Others will applaud this author for taking some risks with a style that deviates from standard black contemporary fiction.

I was moved by the story and I'll recommend it, although I advise readers to consider this more a dark erotic exploration of gender and identity than the steamy novel being advertised in the book reviews on the cover.

3.5 stars

--SD

What an incredible plot! The author kept me spellbound. It was a fun read. The very great difficulty for me was following the past and the present in this novel. Somewhat disjointed! The characters developments were all too shallow and brief. None the less. The story title was brillant. The story was brillant. The decriptive scenes were evocative. This writer had some writing difficulties, but these are easily overcome. This man will become a very famous writer. He has the right stuff! I can't wait to read more from him.

There are so many posibilities with the premise of this story but the writer just didn't take advantage of them. Too busy hurling shock phrases and filth. Luckily the book is only 163 pages. I'm at 124 and don't see the point in finishing. Female voices don't ring true at all. Too much "piss elegance" finger snapping and references to "Ross". There are so many mentions made of the diva I thought maybe she'd written this book. All of the female characters were without dimension. The only true voices were the interactions between Lamont and Dorian, but the scene was too short. Maybe the next book will be about male relationships of the heart and not the organ. The writer's style is dramatic and I was looking forward to a good story. I'm still looking for it.

Baldwin Hills is the nouveau rich black person's enclave just as Beverly Hills is the white's prestigious addresses in 1989. Maggie Lester Allegro trapped in a bittersweet loveless marriage, drinks and plays cards to ease her emotional pain. Her marriage never had a chance because on her honeymoon, she was pregnant with another man's child. With her husband's assent, she gave the baby up for adoption but the marriage disintegrated anyway.

Enter Dorian Moore, a young black stud who she has a one night stand with, a hunk who has women pay him for sex. She never forgets him and when she learns who he really is, she does something drastic. Maggie's husband Lamont is a closet gay and he knew that when he married his wife; he abstained from giving in to his urges, because he didn't want to disobey God's law but when he met Dorian Moore, he fell in love with him and wanted an exclusive relationship with him. Dorian never wanted that. When Dorian was killed Lamont broke down and was institutionalized. When he comes out, he also comes out of the closet and has a second chance at love.

Stanley Bennett Clay, author of Diva has written a characters study about blacks who have it all yet feel they have nothing. Lamont has to hide his true self in the1980's or face being ostracized and Maggie gave up the love of her life's child and found him again in very ugly circumstances. THE SECRET OF PRETTY BLACK MEN is a fascinating reading experience due to Dorian an enigmatic man who feels his calling is to satisfy the sexual needs of Baldwin Hills rich blacks.

Harriet Klausner

While the writing of this book can be a tad bit overbearing, i still found it to be a good read. i enjoyed how the Stanley Bennett showed that there is a thin line between the rich that live on the hill and the middle class that live in the valley. it was interesting to see how the secrets of Maggie and Lamont Lester-Allegro came full circle. the world really is a small place. ONELOVE

Stanley Bennett Clay is one fine writer! Not only does he have the ability to create an intensely fascinating story, he does so within an arena of Black culture that has neither been tapped or portrayed with such insight as in this revelation of a book seductively and successfully titled IN SEARCH OF PRETTY YOUNG BLACK MEN. From the cover jacket art to the rollercoaster ending, this short novel is on fire with passion, lust, pansexuality, atmosphere, mystery and just plain superb interaction of story and technique that may just be the crowning example of 'new Black literature', while simultaneously standing strongly on its own as simply exquisite contemporary writing without the need of the sobriquet of 'Black literature'.

Though woven like a fine loom of dazzling threads that ultimately bind together the lives of every character depicted in this story, the main character is one Pretty Young Black Man named Dorian Moore who lives among the wealthy Black community of the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles and makes the most of his inordinately perfect physical charms by providing sexual pleasure for both men and women. The setting is 1989 and for the first half of the book we see the exploits of Dorian through the eyes of a disillusioned housewife Maggie Lester-Allegro and her quartet of friends, one of whom is a 'Madame' who sets Dorian up with her clients (including Maggie), promising these rich ladies of the suburbs the perfect joys Dorian always delivers. Maggie's husband Lamont Lester-Allegro is distant emotionally but provides Maggie with the accoutrements of superficial happiness while tending to his own diverse needs elsewhere. Events unfold revealing secrets and crimes that bind this section into a cohesive and fascinating series of twists and turns.

The second half of the novel is devoted to Lamont Lester-Allegro
and how his relationship to the proper family expectations governed by his powerful father contrast to his own inner life secrets: Lamont, too, has fallen under the spell of Dorian Moore. Again, Lamont's story takes as many twist and turns as Maggie's and while it is obvious that the common denominator of these life altering experiences is the ubiquitous Dorian Moore, the core of the story reveals just how compounded are the vagaries of fate.

Clay's means of relating this tightly cohesive drama is the poetry that is his gift. He is at once able to integrate the cultural idiosyncrasies of Black phraseology with this perspective of the moneyed Black community in a way that updates Faulkner and Baldwin. He is able to write as through a woman's sensory perceptions as easily as he is able to describe the wholeness of the male sensory responses to both women and men. If ever there was a writer who could define bisexuality, Clay is the man. Here is some of the most erotic writing available and its presence has poetic significance to drive this unique story to an unrivalled conclusion. This is simply great story telling by a man with a secure future in literature. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, January 2005

With an economy of beautifully chosen words, Clay weaves a story that ultimately shows that openness is the only way to live. His repressed characters lead tragic, unfulfilled lives. But through all this, Clay manages to show a light at the end of the tunnel: if we can be open and honest with our relationships, then we can be happy. Along the way, Clay spices his story with some very graphic sex scenes, which may be offputting for some readers but are gloriously illustrative of his point, that love trumps sex every time!

You can see glimpses of Clay's talent in some very poetic passages - but they are too rare and far between to save this book. The sexual descriptions are graphic, but unnecessarily so. This is a man who either doesn't know women, only hangs with shallow women, or hates them. The women do not ring true and are simply pathetic. According to Clay, EVERY man is gay and/or enjoys sexual experiences with men. In this brother's world, heterosexual men do not exist, which would explain why the women are so extra'd out, stereotypical, and more like characitures of females than actual, believealbe people. The plot twists cease to be compelling after the initial shocker, which is just absurd. The whole book is rather absurd and ridiculous. Women killing themselves and a women actually finding sexual pleasure in doing so is just pathetic. My entire book club hated this book and others had seen Clay's work before so were very disappointed. If you like grahpic sex - read it. But if you also like tightly woven plots, realistic characters, sensible story progression, or deep and true exploration - DON'T read this book. The only deep character was (surprise!) a gay man who lived his life in the closet and only his relationship with his father seemed to be a good story - the rest was crap.