If gushing appreciation for your partner isn’t your thing, you might want to hit delete...

I’m going to turn 50 during the very last late days of this summer, a thought that freaks me out but also feels right. I’ve had a pretty full life so far and may have even figured out a thing or two. If that is the case, it’s probably due to the loving relationship I have had with my partner Joon for the last 15 years which has taught me so much. It’s still the best thing that ever happened to me.

That is why I’m spending this week’s newsletter talking about his extraordinary new novel, Tricyclist, available for pre-order. He won the LAMBDA Literary Prize for Gay Fiction a few years back for his first novel with Nightboat Books. Interestingly, our straight friends seemed to see themselves in that book’s characters more than our queer friends. I wonder if that will be true with the new one: it’s a devastatingly beautiful story of a slightly lost young gay man in early 2000’s San Francisco, when the city was still a powerfully earnest creative centrifuge. Joon’s writing is effervescent and prismatic, unfolding with crystalline, soft precision. Or, as his official blurb says, he writes with a “signature flamboyance”. I think it’s all true.

So, this pride month, if you want to buy something that may open the door to new ways of thinking about life and love, I highly recommend it, though I am biased. It’s a great gift for anyone who appreciates sharp, smart writing about fascinating people during a fascinating time. Fun fact: Joon and I lived on the same block in San Francisco in those years, without having ever met, though I swear I saw him at the video store a few times (he never noticed me ogling him).

Until next time,

Roddy