Review: I Promised I Wouldn't, But...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
I promised I wouldn't review another Z. A. Maxfield book for a while, because I was starting to sound (even to myself), like an indiscriminate, blushing fanboy.But, sorry. I lied.I had put off reading this book because, while I adore gay rock star fiction (Daron's Guitar Chronicles, anyone?), I'm not quite so enamored of -aging- gay rock star fiction.But I was running low on Maxfield books as I came to the end of a ten-day Maxfield binge-reading episode, so I bit the bullet and bought this one.I'm so glad I did. "Gasp!" is not so much about a world-famous, about-to-turn-40 rock star and the lovely young Jeff - a veteran of three tours in Afghanistan - finding each other, as it is about finding themselves, home and family.It starts out over-the-top funny and outrageous as Nigel Gasp tries to evade and annoy Jeff, his erstwhile babysitter, who'd been hired by his lesbian sister (Nigel's manager) to keep Nigel out of trouble while she gives birth to her first child. It gets more serious when they start sharing a bed, and Nigel goes out on the town in drag (as both a convincing and hot woman!) to elude the Paparazzi and fans with Jeff on his arm. And, as they expose their hearts and histories to each other, the two, of course, fall in love. This is, after all, a Gay Romance.What sits beneath all of this is a rather unusual angst for gay fiction - Nigel had already decided to kill himself before he could become an aging, embarrassing, ex-rocker. But Jeff and the baby he sired with Jeff's sister through in vitro fertilization give Nigel a reason to live, and a way to find himself as he prepares for his life's second act.In outline, it sounds like bad melodarama, but at the hands of an author as talented, as brilliant as Ms. Maxfield, it all works.I laughed, I cried. I defy anyone with a human heart to read with a dry eye when Nigel sings his encore ballad at the end of the book.The book has its flaws - in the second half it tended to skip large chunks of time to drive to its stirring conclusion, but what book doesn't have flaws? I've yet to read the perfect book.I'd love to read more about these engaging characters, this emerging family. In fact, I'd love to read pretty much anything this author writes. Thank you, Ms. Maxfield, for the pure reading pleasure you've so generously given me over the last week or so - and for your deep understanding of the beauty and importance of the families that gay people create to shelter them and share their love.