Funny, tightly plotted, and just two shades darker than burnt coffee. Henry Flesh has crafted a fine and disturbing novel. Massage has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the category of best title from a Small Press. Randy, an erotic masseur, becomes involved with a client, Graham Mason, a famous, dying writer. Although it has been hailed as a masterpiece by writers as disparate as David Sedaris and Kaylie Jones, Massage will no doubt be assailed as politically incorrect because of its chilling view of a New York ravaged by AIDS, anger, homophobia, and addiction.
Massage succeeds precisely because it lies close to unexplored terrain.
Jr. Henry Flesh dropped out of Yale in the sixties and moved to Manhattan, where he became immersed in speed and in the vibrant downtown culture. He spent a great deal of time abroad, including sojourns in London during the height of the glam rock era in the seventies, and in Morocco and Crete. Mr. Flesh currently lives in New York City's East Village, and works as a book and magazine editor. He has just completed a novel about the end of the world.