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1-879194-74-0
Click Here to read summaries of each
short story.
Reviewers' Comments:
Byrd Roberts has been called the "Voice of Virginia" ;
Commonwealth Chronicles is the second of his books devoted
to erotic stories about the men of this region. What is perhaps more remarkable
about the lascivious yarns Roberts weaves is that they smack of reality
(something of a rarity in erotic fiction).
In "Infection," Carey meets the man of his dreams, Ken.
In spite of all the warning signs, Carey is in love. In no time at all the
two are living together. Ken is somewhat rough to look at and prone to drinking
and freeloading---but the spark is there. The story follows the couple through
their drama of dysfunction until they part company---supposedly so that Ken
can pursue a job lead. Carey spirals into loneliness without his
amour, while one of his old friends becomes ill with AIDS---the two
console and nurse each other. Then Ken returns suddenly, and Carey cannot
turn him away...or can he?...once the most unfortunate truth about Ken's
life emerges.
"Unit," the next tale, follows 51-year-old Howard who
is injured in an accident and is aided by chivalrous young Wade, a cab driver.
Howard is shocked when the younger man volunteers to stay with him at the
emergency room and then basically moves into the house as a caretaker. As
the two get to know each other, Howard learns of Wade's dream to be a lawyer,
and how it has been virtually drowned in a sea of personal losses. As these
two men's lives start to commingle, Howard heals. Once he is doing better,
Howard decides it is his turn to repay the debt he owes to his love.
Another strangely uplifting piece is "Sunshine in Your
Soul." Horace starts to believe the preaching he sees on Christian television.
He vows to stop having sex with his live-in lover, Matthew. As a result,
Matthew starts taking trips to Richmond alone (possibly for sex). Boone,
a young stranger Horace is smitten with, visits one stormy night while Matthew
is away. Boone and Horace spend a considerable time talking about such things
as sin and the nature of love. When Matthew returns, both he and Horace have
confessions to make---but not the ones we might expect.
The darkest of the works is "The Wrestler." The narrator
recalls his job at The Creston Hotel and his infatuation with the wrestler,
Scotty Manning, who stayed there with his boyfriend. As the story moves along,
it becomes one of convoluted sex and love triangles---the sort that cause
bitter jealousies and spawn violence. Jack Goswick is Scott's aggressive
and inflammable pro-wrestling partner, and also his lover. When Scott decides
to move to Miami with an ex, it sets in motion a chain of events that
will forever alter the lives of everyone concerned.
Other themes in Commonwealth Chronicles
range from the romantic to the bittersweet to the truly bizarre.
Roberts avoids fetish, cliche, or idealization, which certainly makes his
work worthy of a thoughtful examination. Commonwealth
Chronicles is also available in part or whole online at
www.glbpubs.com.
-- Bron Thorson, X-Factor (Phoenix)
------------------------------
Byrd Roberts is becoming a "Voice of Virginia"
(I guess that should be "gay Virginia") , now with Commonwealth
Chronicles to follow his popular novel, Between Trash and Tramp.
He also contributed a collection of short stories that struck some gay bells,
called The Duskouri Tales set on a fog-bound, undiscovered island
somewhere. But there's no denying that his favorite locale is the Norfolk,
Virginia area, historically the playground of randy sailors, but most people
in Norfolk don't play those games; some of them are making up and breaking
up, or selecting their special china pattern with that someone special, and
then other guys are into wrestlers—therein lies a special tale (my favorite
of the collection) which Byrd Roberts does best...
— Bill Lee (author of Different Slopes [GLB Publishers])
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Short Stories of Virginia by
Byrd
Roberts
