Books-n-Bars Book Club: June 2024

*If Zuni West Brewery is not open, we will hold this meeting at Tully’s

For those who like to imbibe in books, beverages or both!

Please join us at Zuni West Brewery in CB South at 5:30 pm on Thursday, June 27 for the next meeting of the Books-n-Bars. We will be discussing:

“In Tongues” by Thomas Grattan

A young gay man grows from a life of “reckless impulses” into a reflective adult in this affecting novel.

Queer fiction is studded with vaguely amoral, menacing protagonists, characters who know they’re bad and relish it, tossing right back at the world the anomie thrust at them just for being queer. Gordon is 24, raised in Minneapolis by working-class parents who don’t like each other. It’s 2001, before the 9/11 attacks, when he lights out for New York City after having been dumped by his boyfriend—with the help of $200 he stole from said boyfriend. Eventually, he finds work as a dog walker for wealthy art gallery owners Philip and Nicola. They soon ask him to become their personal assistant; that’s when Grattan lets loose his piercing observations of how the rich exercise their power. Nicola is catty and resentful of Gordon’s presence while Philip, patrician and aloof, is kinder. Gordon has a lot to learn in order to maneuver the intricacies of their refined lives—until he makes a mistake that will sever the deep relationship among the three of them. Impish and careless for much of the novel, Gordon grows into someone whose badness diminishes, though his memory of it still pricks like a thorn in his side. It was a wise choice to have Gordon narrate the novel, and he has a memorable voice: funny, dark, and eventually chastened. The novel builds on the self-involved, sometimes cruel protagonists of Edmund White’s early work, though Gordon learns to rein himself in instead of committing more mayhem.

This story of a miscreant who grows up will stick with you long after the last page.

This group *typically* meets every 4th Thursday of the month from 5:30-7 pm at local watering holes. They read mainly contemporary fiction, with a few non-fiction titles every once in a while. Copies of books are placed on hold for book club participants and are available to check out at the library. Titles for the next month’s meeting are announced a month before. They will also be available in e-edition, audiobook, large print, etc.