Endangered Species: A Novel
Nick Broome has the first biological clock by Timex: it takes a  licking and keeps on ticking. In this queer twist on the new genre of  reproductive comedy, a single gay Washingtonian in his 30s realizes  that although he has a brother and a sister--both healthy, successful  adults--no one in his family has made a move toward having children. The  Broome genes are being swept into oblivion. Nick's brother Greg tries to  compensate for the unspoken loss by arranging a dreaded annual dinner for  the siblings in an ugly roadside restaurant. Even Nick's mother, who has  never asked for a grandchild, remarks that there's not much point in having  a big Christmas tree every year. With sudden clarity and a fetching image  of Atlantic herring dropping their eggs and semen in unison, then swimming  on, Nick decides to take matters into his own hands.  Rejected by every  sperm bank he can find, he looks in vain for a lesbian coparent, then a  straight coparent, then a surrogate mother, meeting a wonderfully weird  collection of similarly needy people in the process, and incidentally  coming across a gorgeous bartender named Joe. Although funny, this astute and  occasionally surprising second novel offers far more than a good laugh and  manages to avoid almost every stereotype of gay life.--Regina  Marler