The Age of Cities

A SUBLIME READ Grubisic, Brett Josef, "The Age of Cities". Arsenal Pulp Press, 2006 Amos Lassen and Literary Pride The Age of Innocence returns in "The Age of Cities", a wonderful new novel by Brett Josef Grubisic. When a manuscript is found in an old economics textbook, we are suddenly returned to a period in history when everything was quite different. The found document tells the story of a librarian from small town Canada who moves to the metropolis at the height of the Cold War in 1959. Having finally managed to escape the mentality of a small town, he is enraptured being able to be in a pace where he can be who he really is. He no longer has to hide his sexual identity and he is like a kid in a candy store. But of course it is not that easy. The new gay subculture that he finds himself a part of leads him to adventure that he never dreamed of and a crisis that he has trouble dealing with. To say much more about the plot would be to give away the wonderful story. Grubisic has written a book which is quite literally perfect. Everything fits perfectly, the prose is exciting and literate, the detail is fascinating and most of all, the plot is quite simply amazing. The author shows great insight into the gay mind that I found it painful at times but what beautiful pain it was. The only problem I had was identifying with the Canadian backdrop. A read like thus does not come along very often. It is always a pleasure to be able to so completely lose yourself in a novel that at the time you are reading, nothing else matters ans you are aso engrossed that you do not here the phone ring and you ignore the dog's pleas to go out. Because of the way I feel about thi book, my review is very short in hopes that I have piqued the interest of some of you who will go out now and read it. Those of us that lived through that period will have our memories rekindled. For me it was an experience I will not soon forget.