The Substance of God: A Spiritual Thriller [Paperback]

Perry Brass (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2003

What would you do with the Substance of God, a constantly regenerating, "self-cloning" material originating from Creation? The Substance can bring the dead back to life, but has a willful "mind" of its own. Dr. Leonard Miller, a gay bio-researcher secretly addicted to "kinky" sex, learned this after he was found mysteriously murdered in his laboratory while working alone on the Substance. Once brought back to life, Miller must find out who infiltrated his lab to kill him, how long will he have to live again—and, exactly, where does life end and any Hereafter begin?

Miller’s story takes him from the underground sex scenes of New York to the steamy all-male baths of Istanbul. It will deal with the longing for God in a techno-driven world; with the deep, persistent attractions of religious fundamentalism; and with the fundamentals of "outsider" sexuality, as both spiritual ritual and cosmic release. And Miller, the unbelieving, hard-core scientist, will be driven himself to ask one more question: Is our often-censored urge towards sex and our great, undeniable urge towards a union with God . . . the same urge?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brass has produced a book that blends sexuality and spirituality in a way seldom done in our literature . . . bold, surprising." -- White Crane Review, Issue #60, Spring 2004

From the Author

Like Dr. Leonard Miller, I had been going through my own "states," psychic moments of intense spiritual feeling, for years. And, like Miller, I did not know where to "place" them: although I believe in the deep powers of Spirit, I am not a religious person and see a huge amount of hogwash in much of the "spirituality" washing over people today. I also believe very much in the liberating aspects of sexuality, something I share with D.H. Lawrence. It took about five years for the book and concepts within it to "jell." One of the joys—and problems—of "Substance" was that "Dr. Len" is so much smarter than I am and I started to realize that very few writers create characters who are smarter, bigger, and more profound than they are. Shakespeare did it in "Hamlet," and I wanted Dr. Miller to be a Hamletian character, doomed by his own actions, insights, and destiny. I would love to see him as the "gay Hamlet," though Hamlet is so huge a character that he is, of course, "gay," too. There is almost nothing that is outside of the Prince’s sphere of feelings, and I feel that his purest love is for his friend Horatio. Likewise, Leonard Miller finds his deepest affection in an unlikely place. Actually, he finds it in more than one unlikely place, because his own character is so alive, so open, that love becomes this environment that he finds himself walking into often.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Belhue Press (November 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892149044
• ISBN-13: 978-1892149046
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,118,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Originally from Savannah, Georgia, Perry Brass grew up, in the nineteen fifties and sixties, in equal parts Southern, Jewish, economically impoverished, and very much gay. To escape the South's violent homophobia, he hitchhiked at age 17 from Savannah to San Francisco--an adventure, he recalls, that was "like Mark Twain with drag queens." As a young man he worked as a male artist's model, on the floor of an aircraft factory, and, in the "Mad Men" period of anything-goes-advertising, in Madison Avenue art departments.
He's published 15 books and been a finalist six times in 3 categories (poetry; gay science fiction and fantasy; spirituality and religion) for Lambda Literary Awards, as well as winning numerous awards for his poetry, plays, fiction, and other writings. His work is unique in that it combines frank depictions of human sexuality, deep spiritual values, political acumen and insight, and often outrageous humor. This has given him a small but devoted readership that doesn't pigeonhole itself or his writing.
He has been involved in the gay rights movement since November of 1969, soon after the Stonewall Rebellion, when he co-edited "Come Out!," the world's first gay liberation newspaper.
Later, in 1972, with two friends he started the Gay Men's Health Project Clinic, the first clinic for gay men on the East Coast, still surviving as New York's Callen-Lourde Clinic. In 1984, his play "Night Chills," one of the first plays to deal with the AIDS crisis, won a Jane Chambers International Gay Playwriting Award.
As a poet, Brass's collaborations with composers include the words for the much-performed "All the Way Through Evening," a haunting cycle of five songs evoking the tragedies of the AIDS epidemic, set by the late young Chris DeBlasio; "The Angel Voices of Men" set by Ricky Ian Gordon, commissioned by the Dick Cable Fund for the New York City Gay Men's Chorus which premiered it at Carnegie Hall and featured it on its "Gay Century Songbook" CD; "Three Brass Songs," with famed composer-pianist Fred Hersch; and "The Restless Yearning Towards My Self," with New York City Opera composer Paula Kimper.
He is currently treasurer of the Greater New York Independent Publishers Association, and Co-Director of New York's Rainbow Book Fair, the only book fair and cultural conference in the U.S. solely devoted to the books of LGBT authors and publishers. He directs the publication of books through Belhue Press, an independent gay press.

Perry Brass is an accomplished reader and an internationally recognized voice on gender subjects, gay relationships, and the history and literature of the movement towards glbt equality. He lives in the Riverdale section of "da Bronx" with his partner of 28 years, but can cross bridges to other parts of America without a passport.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Adventure, Erotica and the Supernatural, February 11, 2004

By 

RICHARD MANDRACHIO - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Substance of God: A Spiritual Thriller (Paperback)

The reason I choose to read this author is usually because I'm seeking something other than that which fits neatly into any particular niche. Science fiction has its superstar writers and GLBT literature, erotic or otherwise, has it own community of talent. It's refreshing to have access to fiction that combines seemingly disparate elements such as The Substance of God does. True it requires at least as much suspension of disbelief as some high fantasy or soft sci-fi, but it's worth the price of admission. Brass puts forth some interesting theories on the existence, or at least the interpretation of the concept of godhead. The plot is a fast-paced adventure with a number of unexpected twists and turns even when the requisite sex scenes occur. All of this and a generous share of international intrigue included as well. The protagonist struggles with his own internal conflicts especially with regard to the nature of death and to the definition of spirituality, themes which are not exactly abundant in gay or lesbian erotica. Although I would have preferred a more explicit conclusion, the aforementioned issues resonated enough to hold my interest throughout the book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Such a Stretch, August 28, 2010

By 

Milton E Ford "Milt" (Grand Rapids, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Substance of God: A Spiritual Thriller (Paperback)

In its combining the themes of gay sex and religious concerns, Perry Brass's spiritual thriller is much less a "stretch" now than it was when it was just a few years ago when it was first published. It contributes to a growing movement of looking at religious topics through a queer lens, extending into popular, genre literature the work of those who study and write about scriptures from a queer perspective.

The Substance of God is about sex, spirit, religion, marriage, life, death, and, oh yes, science, all in nearly equal portions. That is an enormous thematic undertaking, but, for me, Brass pulls it off with room to spare. Each of these themes could easily sustain extensive examination, but for the artistic tension of Brass's novel, the important thing is how they play against and into each other to populate and set into action the fictive world he creates.

The sex is graphic and gay, mostly. And that plays out in different ways for the main characters, examples being the scientist, Dr. Leonard Miller, the main character who uses kinky sex as an escape from the lab and a religious man, Ted Richards, a pivotal character introduced half-way into the novel, who resists being attracted to gay sex but who seems to be drawn to it all the more powerfully because of that resistance.

The spiritual realm is present throughout in terms of the plot driver, the mysterious substance, which gives the novel its name. There is also Biblical interest, both historical and in the life experience (both positive and negative) of the characters. But it is "the substance" that brings together the sexual and spiritual interest in the novel.

And because of a major theme in my own writing and interest, I paid close attention to role of an apparent heterosexual marriage between a straight woman and a man, Ted, who wants to be straight but whose actions indicate that he is fighting a losing battle. Strongly to the credit of Perry Brass, like every other feature of the novel, this relationship and struggle is essential to the development of the plot.

Some books are simply fun to read at the time and others play in my mind after I've finished the reading. For me, Perry Brass's The Substance of God is both. It is billed as a spiritual thriller. As with any good thriller, the pages seemed to turn themselves, and when I was ready to put the book down, I just had read a few more pages. But for me a lot more was going on than interest in what was going to happen next. The Substance of God is certainly successful as a thriller, but just as certainly, it is a whole lot more. Its important themes (and combination of themes) linger in my mind long after the thriller part drew me eagerly to the end of the novel.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Capacino Jamarz, August 10, 2009

By 

Cap "Capacino" (BNY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Substance of God: A Spiritual Thriller (Paperback)

" I loved the book, the author's storytelling is off the hook and out of this world. I have alot of respect for Mr. Bass he kept me in suspense even until the last page. I like when the book leaves you in awe and wonder and this one took me there and back, I feel diffrent about God. I feel closer knowing that as long as I breathe, he loves me.