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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ignore the title, enjoy the book, April 21, 2006
The last book of this genre that I read had 321 pages. The first sex was on page 314. This book is 316 pages and has sex on almost every page. The difference presents a slight credibility problem: could the supposedly straight boys of Harley Hutt, a mini-fraternity house with a decidedly diverse population on the campus of a midwestern state university, really engage in all these homoerotic activities with each other? Well, that's why it's called fiction. We don't quite understand why everybody likes Augie, the central character and narrator, so much. He's self described as having "an oval pot belly" and falling-out hair. But all the other characters, save one, and this reader become attached as we follow him through his final year of college life. The story is fast-paced, sexy, witty and well-written. The title has nothing to do with the story, but the author takes the unusual (and creative) step of explaining its origin. One final credibility issue is how Victor, on the night before his big society wedding with guests from multiple continents, is free to spend the evening with Augie? But that aside, this is a most entertaining read and an auspicious first work from Matt Rauscher.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Unborn Spouse Situation by Matt Rauscher, December 28, 2010
I had contrast expectations on this novel before reading it; sometime I thought it was sad, some other that it was some of those college coming of age stories with a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll; other time I had the feeling it would have been a nice romance. After reading it, I think it's all of above and something more. August Schoenberg, Augie for his friends, is a very talented English major; he is totally gay, and he is totally into finding Mr. Right, even if he is only 22 years old and all the world around him is thinking he should have fun. At 18 years old Augie met his first Mr. Right, Mickey, and he was probably the right one, but they were young and inexperienced, and they didn't manage to pass the six months. When Mickey left, Augie thought the sea was big and with plenty of fishes, but 3 and half years later he is still single. Augie is an equal opportunity guy, every boy he has a crush on can be the right one, and so he has a crush on Michael, Ted, Josè, Tony and Victor. And then Johnny. And why not Armando? Now don't get me wrong, Augie is not a slut, it's only that he really believes in love and he really wants to find someone who likes him. The strange thing is that, I didn't have the feeling that Augie has any problem at all, not big family drama behind, not some tragic heartbroken relationship, not even some physical disability... apparenly Augie is always able to fall for the wrong guy, the one who is not interested, the one who is only a friend, the one who is in the closet, the bi-curios and the one without the courage to go against tradition. Where Augie is not good in chosing his partners, he is at least lucky; good or mostly bad, all his love experiences teach him something, and in the end they are helping in shaping the man and his chance at life; from all his experiences Augie will take a little bit of knowledge that he will pour on his screenplay, The Unborn Spouse Situation. Augie, an aspiring filmmaker at a school without a film school, will use his own life as a test field. Due to the book in a book reference, I wondered if Augie had more of the author Matt Rauscher, than simply being born in the same city, Evanston, having more or less the same age, 20 years old in the beginning of the '90, graduating from the same university, and living in the same city... well, yes, I think it's safe to say that this book has a bit of autobiographic content, and so the vivid description of the campus life takes even more shine. That is what in the end this book left me more: the vivid experience of a college guy, a gay boy at the brink of adulthood, not a perfect man, sometime acid, sometime nice, sometime a totally bitch, but someone that, in the end, was courageous enough to be true to himself; he is of course not the only one, this is not the story of Augie against all, and as I said, Augie is not always right, but that is the reason why I liked him.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Intelligent, Sexy, Compelling, Moving Novel, July 18, 2006
The best compliment I can pay this book is that I stopped reading it half-way through and started over again, re-reading my favorite passages -- just to delay the inevitable ending. (There's only one other book I remember doing that with -- Jim Grimsley's "Comfort and Joy.") This book is intelligent, compelling, sexy, moving and ultimately hopeful. It speaks with an authentic, smart, vigorous voice that effectively evokes the craziness, longing, frustration, horniness, sorrow and ecstasy of a young gay man's last college year and his first, unforgettable love. Is it perfect? No. One could nitpick about implausibilities or the rare false note. But, in the end, the novel carries you along with force of its narrative "truth," (if there's "magical realism," why not "magical eroticism?"). It makes you care -- for me, the ultimate test of any form of art -- and, in doing so, stands head and shoulders above the pedestrian dreck that occupies too much of this genre. I was very happy to read that Mr. Rauscher is busy with a new novel, which I eagerly await. As a side note, the title is derived from the common law Rule Against Perpetuities -- the bane of every law student -- which the author transforms into an idea far more interesting than the legal concept upon which it is based.
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