[.ca] Hornito: My Lie Life (ISBN 0060937106)

From Amazon.com:
Softly lit, as if by a disco ball and a vintage Lava lamp, Mike Albo's rich and funny novel hinges on his protagonist and alter ego's visit home to suburban Springfield for Labor Day weekend, where he reminisces about his standard-issue American childhood and seeks a remedy for crabs, while obsessing about an unattainable trick of his named Eric, a dancer at Freon in Manhattan: "He is a human candy bar impulse buy--moving effortlessly and beautifully up there with a king-size Snickers down his white cutoffs." There is no plot to speak of in Hornito, but a few events occur to strike off sparks of recollection. The driving force is Albo's unquenchable libido, which leads him into the sex clubs of New York and the dismal local gay hangouts of his parents' hometown, just as it led him into satin shorts and eyeliner during his warped 1980s adolescence. Among the best gay books of 2000, Hornito speaks to the geeky and emotionally hungry boy in even the coolest man. --Regina Marler

over the top novel about growing up gay:
Mike Albo's "Hornito" tries to be clever, and a good novel about a perspective that is not often talked about. Mike, the narrator, talks about his various loves, while telling us how bad "crabs" are, and the dreadful treatment of it. We see glimpses of his childhood and high school years, and we cringe. He tells of his job, which sucks. Frankly, it tries to be comic, but it is quite dull.

Youth is best left to the young:
When we're young, we all think that the experiences we're experiencing and the feelings we're feeling have never been experienced or felt before. Of course, we're wrong. But that hasn't stopped this young author from adding to the extensive catalog of young-gay-man-from-the-burbs novels. Apparently, other readers hereabouts think that the author is as clever as he obviously thinks he is. Wish I could agree, but I can't. Perhaps if you're 25, this book is a blast. Somewhat beyond that age, I found it immediately overfamiliar and wearying, and far too (would-be) clever for its own good.

Pretty darn close to "dreadful":
I haven't read the other reviews (with my luck, I'm the only one who pans this book)just so I don't lose my edge. I think I paid $1.74 (yep) plus postage so I could bring a book to book club. Would not recommend this, as the purchase price reflects the true value (minus the shipping charge). Cliche ridden (oooh! a gay guy, lives in Manhattan, has a stupid job, goes out looking for sex..now THERE's a fresh treatment!) Not funny (and definitely NOT David Sedaris funny). Not inventive (and NOT Sarah Berhnardt inventive). I want to read the book that the quotes raved about, because this was not it.

Any urban gay man's lie life:
I read the first few pages of Hornito in a local bookstore and was immediately hooked. Not so much hooked by the story, but rather by the piles of description and the absurdity of the situation that opens the book. The main character is sitting in a car in a strip-mall parking lot, waiting for his parents who he is visiting to come back, itching with crabs, but already missing the insanity of life in the city (in this case, NYC). Although the book opens in the present, the story flashes back to childhood memories. At first, I wasn't interested in reading these flashbacks, as they distracted me from the main story. I wanted to identify with the main character as an adult and see how he resolves his problems. Particularly the problem of forming a real connection with someone in an urban, every-man-for-himself, artificial, market-segment of a world. Once I got into the book a bit, the childhood and teenage memories seemed more relevant, not to mention painful and at times, embarassingly familiar. I found myself laughing aloud many times. I think the first person point-of-view and the exruciatingly detailed, brand-name description work in this story, because it is so easy to identify with the main character. The experience is universal, but I strongly identified as one who grew up in the 70's and 80's feeling different from everyone else, alone, and who moved to the city filled with romantic ideas about love and life. I give it 4 out of 5 stars (although I really enjoyed reading it), because so few of the characters really get a chance to be developed and there isn't much in the way of a "traditional" plot. However, the situations, description, and honesty deserve 5 stars.

A comfortable read:
Albo writes an easy to read story about a young gay man. The book fluctuates between his current city life and his childhood. His book is easy to identify with, for a gay man growing up in small town U.S.A. His description of "retro" products helps set the scenes and provide realism. The book is not a painting of misery. Things weren't always fun; but by and large he has a cheery outlook on life. That is such a change from so many biographies of gay men.