Joining the Other Book Club in Town
Posted by: Nick DiMartino
I’ve just come home from being a member of another book club.
I’d been waiting for the third Saturday of the month to make my two-bus pilgrimage up to Capitol Hill to attend a meeting of the “other” gay book club in Seattle, Q-Squared Book Group. The #49 bus dropped me off on Broadway a block away from the refreshingly airy, sunlit Capitol Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library. I got there early, sat at a table by the windows, and enjoyed reading a dozen pages in the sun before glancing at my watch, seeing it was 12:50 p.m. and realizing it was time to head upstairs to the meeting room.
Another man was there ahead of me, a mature man with short salt-and-pepper hair and beard named Glenn who spoke with a charming Southern accent. This was Glenn’s second meeting. He was quickly followed in by Troy, a tanned young man with a Kindle and sullen good looks, who was at his first Q-Squared meeting, just like me. For a while we were the only three, and then the others poured in all at once, Kevin, Steve, Alex, Michael. Soon we had too many for one table, and instead made a circle of chairs for the eight of us.
I had intended to stay incognito, but as we started going around the room introducing ourselves, the fellow ahead of me mentioned the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Book Club. When my turn came, there was no fair way to say anything other than, “I host that club.” I was made to feel very welcome.
How are they different from us?
Well, for one thing, they are men only. They did, however, discuss the possibility of reading a novel about women.
A second difference, they nominate and vote on the books they read. This, to me, looks like a very limited success. The fellow who suggested both this month’s book and next month’s book didn’t even come to the meeting. And when they voted on their May title, what won unfortunately was a book called Hero, about a gay super-hero. There is little in the known universe that interests me less than super-powers.
How was the conversation? They were all smart men, and all contributed. It wasn’t very host-driven. Their rule is that the book’s original chooser opens the discussion with the first question, but Rick wasn’t there. They managed fine without him.
We were discussing the disturbing novel of UFOs and sexual abuse, Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim. Though most of the first half of the meeting was spent in admiration, by the second half one by one the members confessed to the burden of negativity in the book, the killing of the turtle, the animal abuse, the rape scene, the firecracker rockets in the retarded boy’s mouth. A more important objection was made regarding the similarity of the narrative styles, considering the book had so many first-person narrators. Brian’s narrative rang true. Neil didn’t sound rough and tough, he sounded like Brian. In fact, everyone sounded like Brian.
Their April title, to my great amusement, will be I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell, the very book our club will be having our fourth and final meeting discussing this Wednesday. By the end of the meeting, I was perfectly willing to agree to return on the third Saturday of April and see how Q-Squared discusses the book. And as I was walking out the door, the Q-Squared host, Michael, said he’d be visiting Dunshee House this Wednesday for our last meeting on their next selection.
Yike, just when I thought we’d discussed the book to death. Looks like I’ll have to do some creative thinking to keep the conversation going for one more week.
