Scary Kisses

I love that book, "Scary Kisses", Brad Gooch's early sortie into writing fiction and getting it published. It seems to me to be "high camp", making much ado, with tongue in cheek, about the world of fashion. Certainly Todd, the central male character, initially finds too much of his self-value dependent upon his ability to please the eye physically in fancy duds. He craves fame, even if it is in what for most of the public is the domain of seldom named fashion models. Todd pleases even more when he is buck-naked or very nearly so, variously, as he finds the "fashionistas" themselves best like him! Gooch depicts Todd's sexual ambiguity and longings very touchingly, albeit through his rather dry-eyed approach to such matters of the heart. Todd craves Frank, the guy who has been facilitating Todd's initial break into fashion modelling, first in the U.S. and then in Europe. Not long after Todd's arrival in Milan, he and Frank are rooming together. Frank soon seduces and sexually penetrates Todd as the lad blissfully climaxes too, Todd simultaneously spurting his generative and genital love-juices, onto the bedding beneath him, but Todd never succeeds in making Frank his boyfriend. Yet Todd also has an on-again, off-again strong relationship, on all levels, with Lucy (as Frank does also, much to Todd's chagrin), who has been Todd's girlfriend since their college days together. The trite fashion chatter and the punchy phrasing help to summon up the high-energy but rather ruthlessly cynical world in which Todd has elected, for a time, to live and move. This is not a failure of style, by any means. Critics of the book so often miss the whole point of how Gooch tells his tale! In truth, the literary style that Gooch chooses for this book masterfully fits the subject. I have read and re-read this book in whole or in part numerous times. I even have followed Todd's scrap-booking hobby, in my own playful way (rather than in Todd does so with artistic aims), by cutting out images from various places (mostly magasines and commercial flyers), then finding places in the book's action to glue them in, adding narrative detail on typed slips, which I fit into the available space between the book's text and the images that I add, which "read between the lines" (really or mockingly) to expand upon the story and its characters, even coming up with whole new narratives about these persons, their foibles, sexiness, character, sex liaisons (even a lot that author Gooch does not recount at all!) including some for those only mentioned briefly in passing in the book. Fun! And reading the book as Gooch himself wrote it is fun, too!

I love that novel, "Scary Kisses", Brad Gooch's early sortie into writing fiction and getting it published. It seems to me to be "high camp", making much ado, with tongue in cheek, about the fashion world. Certainly Todd, the central male character, initially finds too much of his self-value dependent upon his ability to please the eye physically in fancy duds. He craves fame, even if it is in what for most of the public is the domain of seldom named fashion models. Todd pleases even more when he is buck-naked or very nearly so, variously, as he finds the "fashionistas" themselves best like him! Gooch depicts Todd's sexual ambiguity and longings very touchingly, albeit through his rather dry-eyed approach to such matters of the heart. Todd craves Frank, the guy who facilitates Todd's initial break into fashion modelling and who, not long after having done so, seduces and sexually penetrates Todd as the lad blissfully climaxes too, Todd's generative and genital love-juices spurting, onto the bedding beneath him, but Todd never succeeds in making Frank his boyfriend. Yet Todd also has an on-again, off-again strong relationship, on all levels, with Lucy (as Frank does also, much to Todd's chagrin), who has been Todd's girlfriend since their college days. The trite fashion-chatter and the punchy phrasing help to summon up the high-energy but rather ruthlessly cynical world in which Todd has elected, for a time, to live and move and which, at the end of the novel, he abandons; this is not a failure of style, by any means. Critics of the book so often miss the whole point of it! In truth, the literary style that Gooch chooses for this book masterfully fits the subject. I have read and re-read this book in whole or in part numerous times. I even have followed Todd's scrap-booking hobby (in my own playful way rather than as Todd does so with more artistic aims) by cutting out images from various places (mostly from magasines and commercial flyers), then finding a place in the book's action to glue them on blank page space, adding narrative detail on typed slips, which I fit into the available space between the published text and the images which I add, that "read between the lines" (really or mockingly) to expand upon the story and its characters, even coming up with whole new narratives about these persons, their foibles, sexiness, character, sexual liaisons (including a lot that I invent which author Gooch does not recount!), even for those only mentioned briefly in passing in the book. Fun! And reading the book as Gooch himself wrote it is fun, too!