Hot off the Presses: A Novel
''This is the way gay novels used to be written: big, smart, sexy, funny-- with important themes, great characters, and the tainted heart of a big city at its core.'' --Felice Picano''A high-profile young, black lad on the down-low, a world-class Olympic gymnast committed to his closet, an evangelical black mayor deep into African-American AIDS denial, a crusading queer journalist coping with the hang-ups of the wealthy straight couple who inherited the gay Atlanta newspaper their dead son founded: Mackle's meaty novel packs in a lot of provocative plot. Central to the story is crusading editor Henry Thompson, who has shied away from commitment since the AIDS-related death of his lover, until a bathhouse hookup with a Games-bound muscle god develops romantic overtones, even though the athlete lives with a fiancee. Though it s set around the time of the 1996 Olympics which Mackle covered for theAtlanta Journal-Constitutionthe story's several potent themes remain relevant. Homophobia in both the black and the jock communities is addressed; so too is the sometimes vexing question of how the queer press ought to cover the queer community's own foibles and failings. Mackle tackles these topics with a delicious mix of wisdom and wit and with titillating dashes of sex and romance.'' --Richard Labonte, Book Marks