Wednesday is upon us, Story366!
Today Moon City Press is hosting the first of its fall virtual reading series events, fiction writer and MSU alum Liz Breazeale. I covered Breazeale’s book earlier this year and like it a lot, so I’m excited about tonight’s event. You can log in live, or not live, and see the event here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83243373874
We ended up handing the hosting/tech duties for this event to our colleague, Jen Murvin, who does these for her shop, Pagination Bookstore. Early this afternoon, we discovered that we would need premium Zoom access, and I don’t have that, so no Zoom webinar hosting for me tonight. I have an appointment to get that set up, but for tonight, thanks to Jen and Pagination for hosting. I was getting anxious about this, picturing a lot of people trying to get into the live stream and finding nothing. Someone else taking care of this is a huge relief, and instead of worrying, I can just enjoy the event.
Today I read from Mike McClelland‘s collection, Gay Zoo Day, out in 2017 from Beautiful Dreamer Press. This is my first run-in with McClelland’s work, and like always when that’s the case, I was eager to jump in and discover what he does, and then share that with you now.
The first story is “Sheffield Beach,” which I thought would take place in Chicago, but it doesn’t: That’s a beach in South Africa. This story features Max, an executive who is spending a long New Year’s Day weekend with a wealthy coworker and her friends. She wants to hook Max up with her cousin, which happens rather anticlimactically, but really, the story is about the paranoia these super-rich racist South Africans instill in Max. He’s an American from a small midwest town and they’re all white elitists in the time of apartheid. Max likes to jog, on that titular beach, and they warn him of robberies and muggings that happen there, openly using the worst slurs for the black men who are supposedly committing these crimes. Max isn’t a racist, but for some reason, when he’s out jogging, he can’t help but feel afraid, and vulnerable, that what these people have told him will come true.
“The Self-Banished” is a story told in three parts. One part takes place at a Jesus camp outside Pittsburgh, Dakota and Chris experiencing their first kiss with each other, basking in their discoveries in the shadow of a giant cross looming on the hill. The other two segments feature the two men as adults—all three storylines are interwoven, by the way, a little bit of camp, a little Dakota, then a little Chris, then repeat a few times. Dakota is married and settled down with Robby, getting set for their nuclear family, but fears Robby is having an affair, so he investigates (and still thinks of Chris all the time). Chris is working in an office when a bomb goes off, a terrorist attack, and we see him before, during and after the explosion. It’s interesting to meet two characters, the jump ahead to when they’re adults, and that’s what McClellan does here, asking us to make further connections.
The title story, “Gay Zoo Day,” is about Sam, another midwestern American living abroad. This one’s set in London and starts off with Sam and his friend, Stavros, at Gay Day at the London Zoo. There the men run into Chris and his friend, Paul, and immediately Sam and Chris lock eyes, knowing what the other wants. Chris asks Sam to his place and the two abandon their friends and head off.
Before going to the zoo, Stavros caught Sam packing condoms and ridiculed him, claiming nobody uses condoms anymore. Even if someone were to have unprotected sex, all they need to do is go to a hospital immediately after and take the AIDS morning-after pill. Sam, thinking if he met anyone that they’d come to his place, left his condoms at home.
Unfortunately, he and Chris end up at Chris’ and Chris’ attitude toward condoms is even more dissing that Stavros’. They mess around some on the first night, but for their second encounter, when Sam insists Chris wear a rubber, Chris only pretends to concede: He fakes it. Sam realizes this when he sees the condom lying on the bed next to him during the deed. He’s too flummoxed to do anything before Chris finishes, but bolts immediately afterward. Remember Stavros’ advice—to get the morning-after pill—he goes straight to a hospital, looking for treatment.
Turns out, there is no morning-after pill for HIV. There are pills he can take, but it’s a rigorous six-month regimen, the pills so strong they can screw up your liver. We get a sort of montage through the six months, Sam showing up for his meds, him worrying, him wondering if he has AIDS and if anyone else can tell.
I don’t want to reveal the ending here—i.e., Sam’s results after six months—as that seems like too much. Regardless of this outcome, Sam has a run-in with Paul, Chris’ friend from the beginning of the story, who gives him a lecture about his behavior and attitude. Part of this is stark lecturing for Sam, but it feels like McClelland is using Paul to talk to all of us here, almost a public-service announcement.
I enjoyed my time with Gay Zoo Day today, Mike McClelland’s debut collection. The subtitle of this book, by the way, is Tales of Seeking and Discovery, and it’s apt, as the protagonists in McClellan’s stories are young men who aren’t in search of an identity—they pretty much have that nailed down already—but of experiences. The author is more than capable in providing those, and I enjoyed reading how his characters act and react when put in those situations, of dealing with the consequences.
Story366 