Uncle Max [Hardcover]

Chris Kenry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2002

Nerdy, fourteen-year-old Dillon is facing a gruelling summer in Bible Camp after his mother happens across his stash of empty wine bottles and underwear catalogues featuring scantily clad males. Fortunately for Dillon salvation of another kind comes in the form of his uncle - shirtless and smoking a French cigarette. Perpetually on the lam, Uncle Max is on the run and in need of a place to lay low. But the flamboyant francophile can't seem to shake off his entourage that includes his parole officer, mountaineer boyfriend, and Jane, his partner in crime. Sprung from the proverbial closet, Dillon finds himself under Max's supervision for the summer. Swiftly graduating from shoplifting to art heists Dillon becomes the third member of Max and Jane's notorious "Balzac Bunch", who specialise in befriending the blue-blooded, and then relieving them of their priceless antiques. One thing's for sure - after this summer nothing will ever be the same for Dillon again.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A wacky, long-lost relative instructs a nerdy Denver teenager on gay life, love, rock-climbing and larceny in Kenry's zippy second addition (after Can't Buy Me Love) to gay fiction's fluff shelf. Clarinet-playing Dillon, "an awkward, ugly, all-too-ordinary suburban adolescent," has his hands full fending off the school bully and dealing with Lana, his boozy, floozy mother. Less-than-divine Christian intervention produces a sobered-up, born-again Lana, who wants Dillon to attend Bible school at the advice of her boyfriend, Wayne, the assistant pastor at church. Dillon, however, is more interested in the men's underwear section of the Sears catalogue and the contents of Lana's wine cellar. Found drunk in band class, he's suspended. A sudden hailstorm signals the arrival of flamboyant, shifty con artist Uncle Max, fresh out of prison, followed closely by his parole officer and Serge, his rock-climbing boyfriend. Needy Dillon quickly becomes entangled in Max's shoplifting jaunts, which escalate to elaborate insurance scams and several home robberies, assisted by antiques dealer and partner-in-crime Jane Nguyen. Still, Max finds time to counsel his nephew on clothes, men and his blossoming homosexuality, and Dillon grows increasingly enamored with his uncle. Dillon's days of thievery become "almost narcotic" until a narrow escape while robbing a million-dollar mansion forces him to reconsider his life of crime. Kenry has a knack for spinning clich‚d, banal material into endearingly comical, featherweight entertainment. The great leap to more substantial literary terrain feels but a book or two away for this talented author.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Zippy... endearingly comical" - Publishers Weekly on Uncle Max "With his clever comic observations and rapid-fire dialogue, Chris Kenry is a smart and funny writer" - The Advocate on Can't Buy Me Love --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 293 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books; First Printing edition (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575668475
• ISBN-13: 978-1575668475
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,557,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Read From Chris Kenry, May 8, 2002

By 

"jeffnwill" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Uncle Max (Hardcover)

I must get something off my chest...I'm so fed up with critics who dismiss books simply because they aren't "serious" fiction. If a book is fun to read, they write it off as fluff or catagorize it as a good "beach read". Just how many dreary coming out stories and AIDS novels does a gay boy have to read anyway? I really enjoyed this book. It was fun to read, imagine that! If you enjoyed Can't Buy Me Love, then you'll like Uncle Max. Both books share the theme of wacky scheming that gets the lead characters into lots of trouble. The uncle Max of the title is like a gay male version of Auntie Mame, but with a darker edge. Max spends the summer teaching his nephew the finer points of rock climbing, shoplifting, Balzac, and burglery. It didn't end quite like I expected, but life doesn't always go acording to plan, I learned that from uncle Max.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXPECTED AN UNCLE MAME, BUT GOT OLIVER TWISTED INSTEAD!, May 24, 2002

By 

Robert Edler "Master Of Mystery" (Saint Louis, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncle Max (Hardcover)

Before I say anything about this fine book which really earned my five stars, I have to express one complaint about the publisher and the dust jacket illustrator. Both should have read the book before plopping an illustration on the cover, which not only has nothing to with the book's theme but also creates an entirely different impression of what the book is about.

In other words, it is not the totally "FAB" gay summer romp the jacket suggests. Instead, it tells the coming out story of fourteen-year old Dillion who happens to be named for the lake where by accident he was conceived. A product of a multiply broken home, an alcoholic abusive mother, a junior high school system out to get him, and his own budding sexual inclinations, Dillion seems to be heading toward depression and alcoholism (and/or bible camp and military school) all on his own.

Just when everything looks as bleak as possible, Uncle Max (black sheep, ex-con, and would be Fagan) appears in the wine cellar to save the day (?) for Dillion. He then proceeds to introduce him to shoplifting, Balzac, cat burglary, mountain (and wall) climbing and eventually life itself.

Fortunately, Kenry's witty and expert story telling skills save the book from being as depressing as it might sound. Uncle Max is a hard character to love - you want to, but he's so ... self-indulgently Uncle Max. Dillion, on the other hand, you can't help but love. You know that no matter how the book ends, he'll find some way to be a winner.

While UNCLE MAX is a notch below Chris Kenry's outstanding first book CAN'T BUY ME LOVE, it still is very enjoyable reading, and I recommend it to you all.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wolf In Beach Book Clothing, February 2, 2005

By 

Chris with Getbooked.com (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Uncle Max (Paperback)

Before I begin actually reviewing this book, I have a confession to make. I just finished a search on the rest of Mr. Chris Kenry's work. I would honestly read (With out being paid or commanded by the people that cut my pay check) another of his books. To read a book a few years after it was released, and see that the author hasn't fallen off the face of the earth is exciting. If I enjoyed this book that was written in 2002, imagine how great at his craft he as become in the subsequent years.

"Uncle Max" is a tricky book. Like the guy that says he wants a relationship but is actually only after a one night stand, the book poses to be one thing and actually is another. "Uncle Max" unabashedly bills itself as a comedy. It wants you to believe you're supposed to read it under a glorious beach umbrella while your friends play football on the beach spanning in front of you. It wants you to believe you're supposed to read little paragraphs from it to your friends over lunch so you can all comment on how witty it is. Let remind you that this is what the book WANTS you to believe.

This "fluff" perspective the book has of itself is very limiting. Sure, parts of Dillon's story about the end of his adolescence and his entrance into adulthood are humorous, but not in the casual beach manner the book wants you to think. It's a very black humor, as we are supposed to find most of the humor in his interactions with his alcoholic, newly religious mother and his criminal, pedophile uncle. (Insert laughter here.)

Dillon's life, for a 14 year old, is about on par with the normal dysfunction the average American family seems to attract these days. His mother decides, after two failed marriages and years of massive anger displacement towards Dillon, to "discover" religion and give up alcohol. Just as Dillon is preparing for his baptism and all the religious glory that comes with it, he finds the alcohol his mother left behind. One thing leads to another, and his ever loving mom decides the best thing to do with the problem child is to send him away to a Nazi-err...Church Camp. Enter Uncle Max.

Instead of getting a fairy godmother interjecting and fixing his life, Dillon gets Max. A former drug dealer and convict, Max will seduce anything that gets in his way. Man. Woman. Nephew. Whatever it takes. A real go-getter, it's not long before Max seduces Dillon into a web of crime and deception. In the end, we are left alone with Dillon and a mountain of question marks, BEGGING for a sequel.

Chris Kenry's characters reminded me of Mr. Chuck Palahniuk's characters ("Fight Club," "Invisible Monsters"), and I mean that in the most complimentary way. There was never a moment in all of the character's misadventures where they acknowledged that they were horrible people doing horrible things. Aside from Dillon's 14-year-old flexible sense of right and wrong, none of the supporting cast has a sense of morality. Everyone has their share of flaws, and everyone follows the rules of living in a glass house. No one wants to throw the stone that sends the glass house tumbling down.

So, we have mayhem. Robbery. Incest. Religion. Alcoholism. A virtual how-to guide for shoplifters. Drugs. Divorce. Insurance fraud. A cast of characters that marvel in their wicked smuttiness. Not to mention the coming of age story that glues all these themes together.

Yep, it's clearly the perfect book for your casual day at the beach.

Fortunately for me, morality bores me. I hope the rest of your work mirrors this one Mr. Kenry. If so, you have a fan.