Cody

by Keith Hale

Paperback, 1987

Status

Available

Call number

PS3558.A3569 C63

Collection

Publication

Alyson Publications Inc (1987), Edition: First Edition, Paperback, 180 pages

Description

By turns funny, romantic, erotic, and sad, this evocative novel brilliantly recreates the landscape of late adolescence, when friendships seem eternal and loves reincarnate. Set in Arkansas but first published in Amsterdam under the title Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada, Cody quickly won praise from reviewers and readers across Europe and North America. So beautiful, brave, and ahead of its time that William S. Burroughs was an early fan, Cody remains remarkably current and continues to be unique in coming of age literature.

User reviews

LibraryThing member starlight70
Clicking Beat on the Brick of Nada is a cleverly written novel, contained some intense dialogues about ideologies, religions and theories. These were discussed between Trotsky and his male crush, Cody, as well as some sharing from Trotsky's mother, an Economics professor. I would have appreciated
Show More
them if I was prepared for them. I was not because I thought I was sitting down to read about the coming of age experience of a teen guy, falling for his straight friend. I was ready to read about the hardship, silly crushes and infatuation of Trotsky and not some adult conversation.

Somewhere halfway through the novel I was asking myself where this book was heading to. I had no interest in the side activities the characters - Trotsky, Cody, Christian, Flipping, Sarah, Freddy (Trotsky's brother) and Mark were doing. I did not even feel the significance of the involvement of Christian, Flipping and Sarah in the storyline. However, this was redeemed by the few chapters at the end of the book. Somehow, the story-telling picked up the pace when Trotsky's mother was sacked from her university and Cody began to explore further his interest in Trotsky.

If only somewhere in the beginning where it was hinted clearly that Cody was straight (instead of the insistence that there should be no label on sexual orientation), perhaps I could understand the story better, as to why there was hardly any sexual tension when the two boys were together.

Would I recommend this book to others? Well, only if they have gone through the other gay themed novels and are looking for more, or looking for something different. This is a good book, but not exactly what I had in mind when I first bought the book.
Show Less

Language

Original publication date

1983

Physical description

180 p.; 8.3 inches

ISBN

1555831052 / 9781555831059

Local notes

OCLC = 75
0 local

Similar in this library

Page: 0.2269 seconds