Michael Thomas Ford wrote a lot of columns long ago, and he assembled those columns into a series of four books. Prior to this assignment, I read two of the books and enjoyed them. Alas, almost half of this book was repeat material. Nevertheless, I found myself laughing all over again at stories I had already read. Ford is a great comic writer when his limit is column length. If you have none of the books, then I highly recommend this collection.
I’ll list what’s new in case you are considering this book and already own the series. Each story from the series is prefaced by a paragraph that explains some of the circumstances that led to the story and/or some follow-up. One particularly dark story has a big preface, but most are a sentence or two. Also, there are seven new stories in the collection; these are easy to find because they have no preface and each is named for one of the Seven Dwarves. These are well-written and fit nicely. Is all of this sufficient to warrant a purchase? For me, no.
There was one particular paragraph in the story “Just One of the Girls” that I’d like to reprint. It’s an example of the normally funny Ford pausing on a serious soapbox for just a moment, something that Ford does beautifully.
I suppose there were some women at the dance that night who objected to my being there. But if there were, they were kind enough not to let me know. Unlike other “community” events I have been to, the criteria for belonging were not physical beauty, political correctness, or a well-honed ability to make other people feel less than acceptable. Rather, the people at this dance were all there because we wanted to celebrate together what we spend so much of our time fighting for—the ability to be lesbian and gay people without having to live up to other people’s standards.
I’d love to say more, but I cannot. Last month, I was assigned two books but was only able to review one. I’d like to take a moment to correct that. The book is Howtown by Michael Nava, book 3 of 7 in the Henry Rios Mystery series. I had reviewed The Hidden Law last month, book 4.
Two things that I can say so far: This series is worth owning, and it’s worth reading in order. It was a bit jarring to go from the Josh of book 4 to the Josh of book 3, but I must admit that I liked both Josh’s, so it didn’t matter. Still, this appears to be quite an evolutionary tale. Hopefully I will be able to review books 1 and 2 in 2005.
Howtown is a story about pederasty (although Nava never uses that more precise term, instead using “pedophilia”). Much more than that, it is a glimpse into the simultaneously beautiful and stifling world of preliminary hearings, writs, motions, and the complex world inside the courtroom. And even more than that, it is a story of characters, richly developed and worthy of you caring about them. Nava splendidly weaves parallel storylines that provide the mechanism by which the mysteries are solved. And think for a moment after you read the final page...if you got goose pimples, then you got Nava. What a fitting finish for such a complex subject, huh?