They Change the Subject [Paperback]

Douglas A. Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2005

Treacherously comic and poignant, the autobiographical stories in They Change the Subject follow a young man’s quest for identity through love and desire. Sustained by a single voice, the stories simultaneously offer a fractured novel and stand, powerfully, on their own. At the center of each tale is the heightened, visceral possibility of unexpected emotional encounters—from an escort’s dates in Manhattan hotels to a photo shoot that doubles as seduction. Always pushing toward a bigger shiver of passion, Martin’s young-man-on-the-make learns how to adapt his persona to suit his lovers’ needs and tries to embrace his own experience—and his self—by becoming the purest object of desire.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In this cycle of startling short stories, the youthful narrator, who has just started college, relates a series of homosexual encounters. His recollections of anonymous pickups and intended long-term commitments, which are at once graphic and dreamlike, nonlinear yet concrete, bring to the surface his own problems with both kinds of situations. The spiky, spare language, which distills every sex-love experience, observation, and reaction of the narrator to its most heartfelt as well as glandular essence, gives a particular poignancy to his wistfulness, his yearning for, but misdirection in, finding connection, acceptance, and a working self-definition. The danger of a sensitive person leaving himself vulnerable arises from every story, but never in a pathetic manner, for the narrator is certainly sympathetic, even though the reader wants both to protect him from harm and slap him across the face for his mistakes in leaving himself open to physical as well as emotional danger. Not for every reader, due to the sexual frankness; but appreciators of the short story will marvel at Martin's dexterous use of it. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Douglas Martin is a polished, inventive, soulful writer, and this collection is a short, sweet, full contemplation of desire and love.”—Mack Friedman, author of Strapped for Cash

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (June 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299214745
• ISBN-13: 978-0299214746
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,928,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars more interesting takes, August 21, 2005

By 

NYU Student - See all my reviews

This review is from: They Change the Subject (Paperback)

I guess this story collection could be seen as a "novel," or a novel-in-stories, but like Martin's first full-length "fiction" (Outline of my Lover), I think Martin continues to play with audience expectation, he seems to be pretty intent on subverting categories. I think he doesn't want you to know quite what to make of him, or his books, because he wants people to not be so quick to judge. It's like deciding to be in love, it's a leap of faith.

Unfortunately, each of the unnamed narrators of these stories (who could easily be the same boy, or easily be Martin himself) finds himself trapped a bit by what others want to make out of him. Each boy seems to be looking for that thing he can't quite find. Commitment and stability seem to be two concerns, but I think he also wants someone who could look into his mind and want him even more because of what they found there.

Admittedly, I am a fan of short, concise, and carefully crafted stories that can feel as quiet as meditative poems. Rather than a stream-of-whatever, I'd characterize Martin's prose style as spare and deceptively simple. Martin seems as equally unconcerned with easy answers or redemption or glamorizing hustler culture here as he seemed to be with counting syllables or the season in his contributions to another book, a group effort, The Haiku Year. I find him a writer of honesty before anything else.

63 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Joyce, Not Woo(l)f, Not Soft-Core Porn, August 15, 2005

By 

just another author (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: They Change the Subject (Paperback)

This book was bound to find itself between a rock and a hard place--as they say down SOUTH. If you want to unproblematically turn "the other" (ie--not you; different from you; someone you can separate out from you and turn into a scapegoat for your own insecurities/inadequacies--afraid you might be boring if it's not getting you off?), this book might just slow you down. Might ask you to think. Might question you. Might not deliever everything directly to you. Just what do "we" expect to be in a date/trick? If you own a coffee table, and can afford to endlessly supply it, to keep yourself unwittingly entertained, you might not quite get just exactly where the money-shot has gone sometimes. Guess what happens when one pretends to be turned on? What if your eye candy actually had some thoughts about you you had to hear? One begins to think one might be more than that. The profound might just be what goes unsaid. Does everything have to keep being spelled OUT constantly?

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Instant Classic, June 24, 2006

By 

Joseph Bernardo "TavishD" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: They Change the Subject (Paperback)

I read this in one sitting. Unsentinemntal, sympathetic, emotional, honest, sparse, and evocative. Martin is a great writer, early in his career, and I think that this one bodes very well for what he might produce in the future. Certainly, it transcends genre, and sexuality. Maybe not for everyone, but for anyone who likes to think and be challenged by an author who's not afraid to leave the extraneous details out. I like to think that shows the rarest of qualities in modern fiction - respect for his reader.