Shardik, 1976 ed, Richard Adams
Sometimes a bear is just a bear…

Chapters 45-50, Epilogue

As the story approaches its climax events begin accelerating again, mostly in the “tie a bow on it all” sense. Rachel’s analysis of the Traveling Man’s crimes make it increasingly clear that Parker is the primary target of the “messages” that TM is sending, but that he appears to be becoming bolder and more spectacular in his efforts. Louis offers a contrasting view based on his own experiences, which is that TM simply enjoys killing people and wants attention. As plot threads tie up, Parker accompanies the Fontenot’s on a raid of Joe Bones compound, in retaliation for the attacks on the funeral. Bones, before being dispatched by the Fontenot’s men indicates that he has been in contact, in some form, with the Traveling Man, but refuses to tell Parker anything. Rachel, disgusted by Parker’s involvement with a targeted killing, decides to return to New York, just as someone leaks the details of the Traveling Man’s crimes to the press in New Orleans. In our final example of “chump Parker” in this book, it is obvious, from the details and the curious omission of Parker’s name from the press, that the leak came from someone within the FBI. To make matters worse, the Traveling Man kills Morphy and his wife, Parker’s contact with the local police in New Orleans, giving every authority in the area an excuse to send Parker home, as his presence is clearly making matters worse.

While being escorted out of town by Morphy’s partner, words comes of another body of a young girl found near Honey Island in a barrel. The local police, taking advantage of Woolrich and the FBI manhunt raiding the just conveniently located hiding place of their main suspect in the Traveling Man murders, agree to keep Parker on briefly and not divulge the discovery to the FBI. Through, again, a remarkable set of lucky coincidences, the new body is identified as Lisa Woolrich, the estranged daughter of the FBI agent, who allegedly ran away from home to join a cult in Mexico. Parker, finally, begins to get a clue, and his suspicions are confirmed when, meeting Woolrich after the FBI raid, he casually asks about his daughter and is told that Woolrich spoke to her recently. The enormity of this confirmation of just how long Parker has been toyed with by a sociopath overwhelms him, and Woolrich, realizing the jig is up, has time to escape, kidnapping Rachel in the process.

Parker tracks Woolrich to the home of an ex-girlfriend that Woolrich claimed moved away but, in all likelihood, was another Traveling Man victim. The actual confrontation is quite short, considering the bulk of the book beforehand, and ends in a shootout between a ketamine drugged Parker and Woolrich, with Parker shooting Woolrich to death in a room filled with jars containing the faces of Woolrich’s victims-far more than the FBI, as led by Woolrich’s investigation, suspected. Woolrich has nothing much to offer in the way of justification; his explanations hew closer to Louis’ theory that he simply enjoys killing, those his justifications for targeting Parker veer towards Rachel’s theories, particularly in his excuse that Parker became his target for “parading” his family in front of him while Woolrich could see that Parker was, at the time, no more than a drunk, taking us back to the suggestion that Parker somehow brought this on himself and others for failing to live up to someone else’s standards. The epilogue closes us out with another visit by Parker to his family’s graves as he leaves New York for the upstate area and the home of his late grandfather, with Rachel, understandably, refusing to see him.

One of the things I find useful about rereading/rewatching things I’ve enjoyed is that it allows me to take a closer, more nuanced look at the thing. I enjoy Connolly’s novels tremendously, and the world he has created for Parker is deep and fascinating, and bridges the gap between “supernatural” and detective fiction in a way that makes me wish I was more talented and had thought of the idea first. And while many of the themes that become important in later books in the series are premiered here, much of this book doesn’t quite hang together as well is it maybe should. The hints that Woolrich is really the Traveling Man very quickly pass from “foreshadowing” into “the characters are idiots for not recognizing this” territory. The Adelaide Modine subplot doesn’t quite match up with the Traveling Man story; while it mirrors it in many ways, the stories feel like two separate incidents stitched together hastily. A lot of these flaws are understandable in light of this being Connolly’s first novel and the large amount of world-building that is taking place here, and the quality of the writing and strength of characterization more than makes up for it.

The Supervillain Handbook, 2012, King Oblivion, Ph.D (Matt D. Wilson)
I’m not just telling you to buy this because Matt’s a friend and Bureau Chief…I’m telling you to buy this because if I don’t my loved ones are going to be fed to cyborg moray eels.

It’s time once again for Ken Lowery and I to take a look at a selection of trailers for film’s coming up this month, and with the official start of the summer movie season, we’re in block-buster overload, and sound engineers competing to see who can deafen the most audience members with the sounds of exploding alien robots.

May 4^th

Avengers

DW: Nope.

KL: Nah.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

DW: Well, that’s a whole bunch of actors whose collective work I enjoy a whole hell of a bunch making a movie that appears to be steeped in a whole mess of post-colonial privilege stew. I hope that it’s just a case of really bad marketing, and this isn’t another film about a bunch of white people who travel to another country and learn Important Life Lessons from the natives, whose simplicity means they’re tapped into Deeper Truths, in an explicitly condescending and borderline-racist way. Because, brother, that is exactly what it looks like so far.

KL: Oof, let’s hope it’s more about that than manifesting that, but it’s hard to say. There’s, you know, some history between England and India, history which was astonishingly not solved by Indiana Jones and Short Round. The trailer basically tells you everything that’s going to happen, complete with a music cue that shifts us from “haha rueful!” to “hey man, like, LIFE!” and at this stage in my own life I’m good with 90 seconds of that, as opposed to 90 minutes of it.

Meeting Evil

DW: Maybe I’ve become too accustomed to these things, but I will honestly be more surprised if it turns out that Samuel L. Jackson is not a figment of Luke Wilson’s imagination.

In any case (figment, charming sociopath, actual devil) it’s pretty rote ground for a thriller, so whether this is worthwhile or not is going to depend pretty strongly on the performances and the quality of the script and any wit and originality it can wring from the scenario. Jackson I’m feeling a bit burnt out on; it feels like his performances increasingly tend towards camp as a result of, as a friend puts it, the “Samuel L. Jacksploitation” factor. Wilson I’m still pretty okay with, so…maybe Netflix I guess?

KL: I’m leaning “actual devil or possibly figment,” but I sincerely doubt it’ll be clearly spelled out.

I mean, this doesn’t look bad. SLJ is toning down his Al Pacino Yelling All The Time School of Acting and leaning more on the glowering and that is, for him, a refreshing change of pace from the last 78 movies he’s made. I’m all for popular entertainment advancing the elementary (yet still controversial) truth that evil is not an “other,” but I can’t tell which way this one will shake out.

May 11^th

Dark Shadows

DW: Weirdly, this is both the last thing I expected out of a Tim Burton remake of Dark Shadows and exactly what I expected out of a Tim Burton remake of Dark Shadows.  The last thing because “brooding supernatural romance” sounds like something right up Burton’s alley, and exactly because, boy, does this look like a self-indulgent train-wreck.

As with most remakes, the question of who precisely this was for seems to come up. Doing a wacky period comedy is the sort of thing that, one supposes, would only alienate fans of the original series. And the sort of people a wacky period comedy might appeal to are likely to be alienated by having it tied to this old soap opera property they’ve maybe heard of only vaguely. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll see a bit of the Beetlejuice-era Burton here. Johnny Depp in full on ham mode, though, makes me skeptical.

KL: I am hoping this goes for the pure hilarity and some creepy imagery, because that’s a Burton we haven’t seen in a little while and because that’s the only thing that could possibly get my ass in the seat for this. I haven’t seen the show, so adherence to it isn’t really a priority for me (and in an ideal world never is; all works, even adaptations, should stand on their own.)

Um, also: Eva Green.

God Bless America

KL: It’s funny, every bit of praise I can cook up for Bobcat Goldthwait’s World’s Greatest Dad—which I outright loved—sounds very trite. “Bracing,” “fresh,” “raw,” “unflinching” – it’s hard to come up with new words for a movie that, when presented with the movie choice or the human choice, relentlessly pursues the latter.

This looks… different. Look, we all enjoy our little Falling Down fantasies. And we’ve seen nearly this exact one played out twice in recent years: in the somewhat repellant Kick-Ass (based on a way more repellant comic) and Super, which at least had the self-awareness to cast serious questions about the sanity of its protagonists.

I’m further annoyed that these stories seem to require a teenage (girl) accomplice, someone who’s smart beyond their years and just as fed up with the world. Straight up, teenagers: you don’t know shit. Shut up.

Our two heroes are whacking easy targets in the trailer – the people set up by media conglomerates for us to gawk at, bitch about, and most of all never stop watching. Taking that to the extreme of eliminationist rhetoric about what constitutes “Real America” is not just brain poison, it’s buying completely into the game and letting it own you.

I sincerely and truly hope there’s more than meets the eye here.

 DW: I’m with you on really hoping that there’s more here than simple revenge fantasies against “annoying people.” It’s a really fine line to walk between satire and just congratulating yourself for not being a “bad person” as narrowly defined by an aging comedian, and from just the trailers it’s hard to tell which side Goldthwait is falling on. And that’s even without factoring in the very good likelihood that, like Idiocracy before it, the parody goes over the heads of some viewers and they come away with the wrong message. Goldthwait’s previous work makes me hope that he’s got a handle on that, that this is more than the sum of its parts.

But, yeah, spunky teenage girl engaged in cute violence. That’s…that’s not a good sign.

May 16^th

The Dictator

DW:  I’m not a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen. I find his satirical films forced and over-reliant on “foreigners lol” types of jokes. The initial trailers didn’t do much to dissuade me from that position, but at the very least the mockumentary format was being ditched.

This new trailers make the film look something more like a pretty blatant rip-off of Coming to America. I can’t decide if that’s actually a good thing or a bad thing in terms of Cohen’s career trajectory, but it certainly doesn’t make the film any more appealing.

KL: There was a time when I championed Cohen, but that time is gone. I recognize there is a genius in what he does: zeroing in on the chinks and cracks in the polite veneers of middle class life and taking a fucking rocket launcher to them is at times spectacular to see.

So I don’t know if he got old or if I did. I like some of what I see in the trailers, but this particular brand of freaking the norms has lost a lot of its appeal – and the hints that this’ll be more of a conventionally filmed comedy give me the impression he’ll be defanged.

May 18^th

Battleship

KL: Nothing makes me feel like Sam Neill at the end of In the Mouth of Madness  quite like this movie’s marketing. This is a movie based on a plotless board game starring some Friday Night Lights guys, that True Blood guy, a swimsuit model, Rihanna, and Liam Neeson. Peter Berg at least knows how to move a camera, but everything else about this is beyond parody. “From Hasbro, the company that brought you Transformers”? That is a board game company getting the “from the producers of” spot! It’s surreal.

Also: no.

DW: This is, apparently, already a hit overseas. Now, I’m the first one to mock those who take a film’s box office success or failure as a sign of its quality, but lately I’ve seen a lot of “well, it did well overseas” explanations used to justify a film’s lackluster performance in the US, usually with a side of “US audiences just didn’t get it/deserve a film of this quality” thrown in there as well.

That this is a success in foreign markets should, I would hope, definitively illustrate that box office takes have nothing whatsoever to do with quality, because this is the stupidest thing to come from stupid town in a good long while, and Atlas Shrugged was released not too long ago. Everyone involved in the production of this should feel bad about themselves.

What To Expect When You’re Expecting

KL: I guess they’re putting a veneer of sass on this and that’s meant to update and evolve the heartwarming family thing they’ve got going on. There’s some good comedy names in here (Thomas Lennon, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Rob Huebel, Elizabeth Banks) but there’s also that friggin’ bikini model again and listen, those good comedy guys also know how to cash a check and get their name out there, so I’m not expecting anything but the PG-13iest of PG-13 takes on “what it’s really like” parenting comedies. Give me hard R or give me death.

DW: Man, Thomas Lennon is just becoming my personal bellwether of if a comedy is going to be crap or not. If he’s in there by himself, with no other members of The State to back him up? Yeah, this is going to be lousy.

This feels a lot like one of those holiday themed rom-coms, where they get like a dozen rom-com actors and throw them in there with interlinked plots that, by themselves, are too slight to support a whole film, but we’re so tickled that this film has Julia Roberts and Sarah Jessica Parker that we’ll just overlook the fact that it’s crap. Only it’s a completely bland, safe “date night” style comedy.

May 25^th

Men In Black 3

KL: I’ve never really cottoned to Barry Sonnenfield. Just about everything he’s done wears the strain of effort a little too obviously to achieve the weightless weirdness of his screwball subject matter. In short: He tries too hard.

MIB wasn’t really any different. I was about as buttered-up by hype as I possibly could be for the first movie, but it failed to meet even my lowered and sympathetic expectations. God knows why I saw the second one, but I did, and even at 88 minutes it felt too slight to exist. Josh Brolin’s Tommy Lee Jones impersonation is great but, like, I have Saturday Night Live for that.

DW: I sort of liked the first film (though, granted, I think I only ever watched it once, when it came out, so I have no idea if I would still like it), and I barely even remembered that there ever was a second film. But, no, I just can’t muster up any enthusiasm for this. Smith passed over into annoying territory a long time back, and having Brolin deadpan his way through a movie pretty much kills what charisma he has. That there doesn’t appear to be any real development in tone or style from the earlier films sends me the message that this is pretty much just an attempt to wring the last few cents out of a franchise that’s almost reached it’s sell-by date.

Chernobyl Diaries

DW: I had actually heard some intriguing advance praise for this, so I was eager to check out the trailer and see what was what. I actually liked The River, enough to make me think that I should probably check out the Paranormal Activity films despite really not liking the format they used for them.

But when I watch the trailer I’m pretty underwhelmed. Sure, there are a couple of spooky shots. But when you set your horror film in Chernobyl? I sort of expect something more original than what looks like another mutant hillbilly cannibals film. Because that is not only a trope that just needs to fucking die already, but it’s the least original sort of threat you could come up with for a film set in fucking Chernobyl.

KL: I liked Paranormal Activity, but then I’m a fan of anything that removes a camera’s omniscience and makes you very aware of how limited a camera really is.

This is another thing, and not nearly as inventive. Props for using Chernobyl for the setting (are they really there? The trailer clips seem to sync up with photos I’ve seen, but who knows) and Oren Peli can pace things out, but I sincerely doubt that will be enough.

Moonrise Kingdom

KL: I have really, really come around on most of Wes Anderson’s stuff in the past few years, though there’s some exceptions (Darjeeling Limited) to that rule.

He’s definitely got his own thing going and he’s rigidly set on following that and he enjoys success for it, so, cool. We’ve got the usual jokes about which B-side Kinks or Rolling Stones songs he’ll use in this one’s soundtrack. It all looks a little precious, but for reasons I have a hard time identifying, his particular brand of precious doesn’t offend me – maybe it’s to do with the raw need at the core of a Max Fischer, or the malaise gnawing at the core of the Tenenbaums, or how Mr. Fox’s desire to do things his own way can scare and potentially hurt his loved ones. There’s more, is what I’m saying. And I like him for that.

DW: I can’t make up my mind about Anderson. I want to like his stuff, but usually when I give him a shot I just get…bored, to be honest. The whimsey levels look to be off the charts here, and while I would usually find that sort of thing a bit forced, it feels mostly appropriate, given that this is a film about kids. I’ll accept a certain degree of self-conscious sweet oddness under those circumstances.

Which means I’m probably setting myself up for disappointment again, but oh well.

As has become my habit, here are brief reviews of (most) of this year’s selection of Free Comic Book Day books. Scheduling issues mean a few titles didn’t make it to me in time for review, so you’re on your own if you need to find out if you should pick up Voltron Force or Hypernauts.
Since many stores limit the number of titles an individual may take, I’ve made the review scale as simple as possible; stuff you should get if you can, stuff you may as well pick up if it’s offered, and stuff that should be left behind.

Anna & Froga/Moomin Valley Turns Jungle (Drawn & Quarterly)
Utterly bizarre and demented children’s comics. The art in Anna and Froga may be too primitive for most people, but the “a kid could draw this” aspect is part of the charm.
Get it

Anti/The Ride (12-Gauge)
Well, this is just utterly charmless and dire.
Avoid

Atomic Robo/NeoZoic/Bonnie Lass (Red 5 Comics)
Good, fun, well illustrated comics. You’d be a sucker to pass this up, because this sort of stuff is what comics should be about.
Get it

Avengers: Age of Ultron 0.1 (Marvel Comics)
So, rather than put out a one-off comic featuring the characters in the movie that just released, Brian Bendis wrote a story starring Spider-Woman, about Ultron, featuring a metric ton of heroes and villains, most of which are never identified by name, that sets up another storyline. Maybe, if we’re really lucky, a cross-over! As “best foot forwards” for the industry go, this is not it.
It’s free

Bad Medicine (Oni Press)
Another Oni book that reads somewhat like a pitch for a movie or television show. In this case, disgraced doctor who talks to ghost/hallucination teams up with sexy female detective to solve weird science crimes. While competently done, it feels very familiar somehow.
It’s free

Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley (Fantagraphics Books)
Nicely illustrated classic comic strips, charming in their own way, but more than a little on the dry side and pretty undynamic.
It’s free

Bongo Comics Free-For-All/Spongebob Squarepants Freestyle Funnies (Bongo Comics)
While it’s always nice to see new Sergio Aragones work, the rest of this is pretty dull. Neither the Simpsons nor Spongebob stories are particularly funny or interesting.
It’s free

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/The Guild (Dark Horse Comics)
A nerd pandering Buffy short and a Guild comic that only furthers my questions about whether the series is meant to be a mockery of these people or not. Okay if you like that sort of thing.
It’s free

Burt Ward: Boy Wonder/Wrath of the Titans (Bluewater Comics)
Nice animation style art in both of these, and while Wrath has an appealing, storybook style, the Burt Ward half of this flip-book is as incomprehensible as last year’s Adam West offering.
It’s free

The Censored Howard Cruse (Boom!)
I honestly cannot imagine how this is going to go over. It’s fantastic work, brilliant stuff, and I’ll save my rant about how any swearing or sexual images have to be censored but violent, gorey ones are apparently a-ok for another time. It’s not a great fit for Free Comic Book Day though, which is why I wonder how distribution of this will play out on the day. Still, well worth picking up.
Get it

DC Nation Super Sampler/Superman Family Adventures (DC Comics)
Too brief samples of DC’s comics adaptations of their (generally good) current animated shows, and a Bronze Age/New 52 amalgam Superman comic by the Tiny Titans creators. Fun stuff, but there’s not enough of any of it to really give a satisfying read.
It’s free

Donald Duck Family (Fantagraphics Books)
Great little selection of short Carl Barks humor strips focusing on Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. Excellent reproduction similar to their hardcover reprint line.
Get it

Finding Gossamyr/The Stuff of Legends (Th3rd World Studios)
Beautifully illustrated all-ages fantasy comics with strong, intriguing premises.
Get it

The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angels (Yen Press)
A manga adaptation of a supernatural romance young adult novel series. It’s actually quite pretty and seems like an interesting series, but suffers from the sort of lack of exposition that suggests only those familiar with the original novels should attempt to read this.
It’s free

The Intrisic (Arcana Studio)
Supernatural super-hero indie comics that tread annoyingly familiar ground, with lackluster art and a story that’s somewhat hard to follow. Somehow manages to even lack the charm of a Top Cow book.
Avoid

Jurassic Strike Force 5 (Silver Dragon Books)
Sci-fi dinosaur superhero comics, with a toy line ready to go for a hoped for media blitz. Nicely illustrated, if you can avoid asking yourself why the female dinosaur has mammalian sex characteristics.
It’s free

Lady Death: The Beginning (Boundless Comics)
Big, loud and dumb are the keywords here. It’s utterly uncomplicated and direct about being those three things, and it’s got a kind of manic tone. I sort of see why this has an appeal, but it’s still not particularly any good.
It’s free

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
Sort of fun, but mostly acts as an introduction to the character. Who has been around twenty-five years. Something with more robot fighting action would have been appreciated.
It’s free

Mouse Guard, Labyrinth and Other Stories (Archaia Entertainment)
Everything in here is perfect and wonderful. Putting all this goodness in a nice little hard-cover does a good job of telling everyone how special and worthwhile this material is, matching form with content. You need this.
Get it

My Favorite Martian (Hermes Press)
Sort of amusing, in that way old Dell/Western comics have. It certainly wins the award for “most random” title to be released as part of Free Comic Book Day.
It’s free

The New 52 (DC Comics)
Previews for upcoming comics shuffled into a semi-narrative that previews the first big “event” comic of the DC relaunch: the startlingly original idea of a bunch of super-heroes fighting each other over what is sure to be a preventable misunderstanding or difference of opinion. Of minor interest to continuity fans, but otherwise pretty forgettable.
It’s free

Overstreet’s Comic Book Marketplace (Gemstone)
Overstreet does a better job than they have in past years, putting a lot of material in here about the history of horror comics (a random but ultimately inoffensive topic), but there’s still a big push on the value of comics as collectables. Missing the point of a day where you give comics away to people to get them to read the damn things entirely.
Avoid

The Rockhead and Zinc Alloy 2-For-None (Capstone)
Kid-friendly super-hero books. Not particularly compelling, but not badly done either.
It’s free

The Smurfs and Disney Fairies (Papercutz)
Nice mix of all-ages material, all well drawn. The Tinkerbell stories are, perhaps, a bit simplistic, but the rest of the material is excellent.
Get it

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)
Sonic has his fans, mostly amongst kids and the darker corners of the internet. This is a solid adventure comic, but it doesn’t have much to recommend it apart from “well done.”
It’s free

Spider-Man: Season One (Marvel Comics)
It’s yet another updating of Spider-Man’s origin. Wasn’t this the whole point of the “Ultimate” line before that went off the rails? If you need another Spider-Man origin, this is at least pleasingly drawn and not insultingly stupid.
It’s free

Star Wars/Serenity (Dark Horse Comics)
Fabio Moon’s art in the Serenity story is nice. Otherwise, both stories here are pretty charmless and feel rote, like the properties are just being trotted out to push fan buttons.
It’s free

Top Shelf Kids Club (Top Shelf Productions)
Good mix of all ages material in a variety of styles. Most of it should be familiar if you’ve ever picked up one of Top Shelf’s samplers before.
It’s free

Transformers: Regeneration One #80.5 (IDW)
I liked Transformers as a kid, but this stuff is just utterly incomprehensible unless you’ve been steeping in it for years.
Avoid

Witchblade: Unbalanced Pieces (Image/Top Cow)
Top Cow’s universe has been around long enough now that I find their existence vaguely comforting in the same way I used to find Chaos! Comics’ existence comforting: it’s so unpretentious in its blatant exploitation and so earnest in its wrestling by way of heavy metal album covers plots that the appeal is evident.
Doesn’t mean I think it’s any good, though.
It’s free

Worlds of Aspen 2012 (Aspen Comics)
A sample of story intros and pin-ups that, well…is representative of the sort of material we expect to see out of a pin-up art company that’s still stuck in 90s storytelling styles.
Avoid

Worlds Most Dangerous Animals (Silver Dragon Books)
This may be of interest to children with morbid interests in animal attacks on humans. They’ll eat it up, everyone else will probably be bored.
It’s free

Yo Gabba Gabba! (Oni Press)
An entertaining mix of alt-comic and indie creators doing comics based on a tv show for preschoolers. I can’t quite tell if this is for kids, or for those adults who watch a show for preschoolers. Fun stuff, in any case.
Get it

Valiant 2012 (Valiant Entertainment)
A company that largely existed to feed off comics speculators is back, trying to pitch itself as the interconnected, story-driven super-hero universe that isn’t Marvel and DC, because historically those have done well…
Avoid

Zombie Kid (Antarctic Press)
No.
Avoid

So, given how pandery this project looks to be, and given how any nuance at all in the question of whether or not Ozymandias is meant to be gay has been handled by, well…everyone, post initial publication, I have zero expectations that this won’t be problematic at best.

Meanwhile, in the “why” category at DC…

Even though He-Man made lots of little boys in the 80s gay, I’m utterly baffled as to what a James Robinson scripted version will be like.
Other than gratuitously violent with the deaths of several supporting characters, I mean.

As Marvel continues to be needlessly coy over this whole Northstar marriage thing, the cynical part of me wonders if there’s some sort of internal conflict over the people who want to milk the “gay superhero wedding” publicity for all its worth and the people who desperately want to avoid the “comics corrupting our nation’s youth” publicity.

If I had the temperament to write a more scholarly-style blog, I’d unpack the signifiers contained in a cover featuring a retro-superhero design for a gay character.
But I don’t, so I won’t.

I admit, I am morbidly curious to see how Bluewater handles a contemporary adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s gayest novel.