The New Gay Novel Of Our Times: Luke Goebel Reviews Garth Greenwell's Incendiary New Novel

Happy New Year Autre Readers,

I want to tell you about a book that you should read in 2016. I have never written a book review before, but I’ve read a lot of them and had my own book reviewed a couple dozen times, and therefore know that I hate them—they are too long, usually, and too bombastic and too laudatory and too much too much. They either show off or get goopy or refer to too many old works or take shots at the work or as is usually the case are written by friends of the author and biased and shit.

Let’s talk about cocaine. There is hardly any of it that is real anymore. Agreed? I am sober, as in I don’t do drugs anymore, but let’s say that I did have a little taste of toot the other night, as fiction, let’s say that, and that the taste on my tongue was definitely watered down, i.e. stepped on, meth coke bullshit. It’s everywhere, right?

We don’t want our funk stepped on. If there was real coke, in the fiction, I would as a fictional character done a line, and as the Byrds sing, would offer you to take a whiff on me, which is what I will do later in this review. I’ll offer you to take a whiff on me of some real coke.

Garth Greenwell has got your coke, and I’m going to give you a little whiff of his supply, in the sense that Garth has the straight numb your face off wake up powder in the novel he is releasing this month with FSG titled, WHAT BELONGS TO YOU.

This novel, and no I don’t know Garth, was recommended by an author I admire, Alex Che, and so I asked for an ARC (advanced reader’s copy) from Grant and he agreed and sent me over a copy. I read the first page and was keenly aware that Grant has the coke. This masterpiece of his begins in a public bathroom underneath the Sofia National Palace of Culture in Bulgaria where the narrator tells us he first spied the object of his lust and desire, a hustler of charisma with a jagged tooth who is rolling a joint in a stall with another man when the narrator first pays the hustler to let him suck the hustler’s cock in the bathroom. The book goes from there with the intensity of interpersonal drama and identity that brings to mind Oscar Wilde, Fitzgerald, Plath, Nabokov, and is nothing short of our first masterpiece…there I go again doing the thing I hate, the book is a masterpiece. I’m going to give you those tastes I promised now, but as you will see, this book and the writing are something we don’t get anymore. They are a taste of real coke, only without the gasoline, murder, death, guilt, corruption that goes into cocaine. Writing like this simply doesn’t come around anymore. The majority of what we get to read from living authors is part meth at best. This is the pure shit. Enjoy. Text by Luke Goebel. We were going to include some excerpts from the Greenwell's new novel, but all the lit mags, like the Paris Review, claimed dibs, so you may as well just purchase "What Belongs To You: A Novel" here

A David Bowie Concert Diary By Hedi Slimane

This year marks the 10th year of Hedi Slimane's "Diary." With the passing of David Bowie, it is only fitting that we dig into Slimane's diary and explore some images he took of Bowie for a Stage book project in 2014. In one interview Slimane remarked, "I was literally born with a David Bowie album in my hand." Currently at the helm of Saint Laurent, Slimane is gearing up for a presentation of the label's fall 2016 collection at the Palladium in Los Angeles on February 10th. photographs by Hedi Slimane

Oscars So White: Read Spike Lee's Statement On Why He Won't Be Attending The Award Ceremony This Year

I Would Like To Thank President Cheryl Boone Isaacs And The Board Of Governors Of The Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences For Awarding Me an Honorary Oscar This Past November. I Am Most Appreciative. However My Wife, Mrs. Tonya Lewis Lee And I Will Not Be Attending The Oscar Ceremony This Coming February. We Cannot Support It And Mean No Disrespect To My Friends, Host Chris Rock and Producer Reggie Hudlin, President Isaacs And The Academy. But, How Is It Possible For The 2nd Consecutive Year All 20 Contenders Under The Actor Category Are White? And Let's Not Even Get Into The Other Branches. 40 White Actors In 2 Years And No Flava At All. We Can't Act?! WTF!! It's No Coincidence I'm Writing This As We Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday. Dr. King Said "There Comes A Time When One Must Take A Position That Is Neither Safe, Nor Politic, Nor Popular But He Must Take It Because Conscience Tells Him It's Right." For Too Many Years When The Oscars Nominations Are Revealed, My Office Phone Rings Off The Hook With The Media Asking Me My Opinion About The Lack Of African-Americans And This Year Was No Different. For Once, (Maybe) I Would Like The Media To Ask All The White Nominees And Studio Heads How They Feel About Another All White Ballot. If Someone Has Addressed This And I Missed It Then I Stand Mistaken. As I See It, The Academy Awards Is Not Where The "Real" Battle Is. It's In The Executive Office Of The Hollywood Studios And TV And Cable Networks. This Is Where The Gate Keepers Decide What Gets Made And What Gets Jettisoned To "Turnaround" Or Scrap Heap. This Is What's Important. The Gate Keepers. Those With "The Green Light" Vote. As The Great Actor Leslie Odom Jr. Sings And Dances In The Game Changing Broadway Musical HAMILTON, "I WANNA BE IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS." People, The Truth Is We Ain't In Those Rooms And Until Minorities Are, The Oscar Nominees Will Remain Lily White. Text by Spike Lee. Watch the World premiere of the new Spike Lee Joint MICHAEL JACKSON’S JOURNEY FROM MOTOWN TO OFF THE WALL at Sundance Film Festival with screenings from January 24 to January 30. The documentary will be on view on Showtime on February 5, 2016.

Politicians Are Criminals: A Special Message From Vivienne Westwood

Politicians R Criminals / COP 21 is a lie - say one thing + mean another. Business as usual will kills us. A green economy will save us.

Be Specific: Save Venice - Stop the Cruise Ships - weareherevenice.org
Be Specific: Save our Rainforest - Cool Earth - coolearth.org
Be Specific: Save our Ocean - Stop $ubsidies to Industrial Fishing - seashepherd.org
Be Specific: You - switch to Green Energy - www.ecotricity.co.uk
I like Save OUR Rain Forest
Save OUR Ocean
Who do OUR! politicians think they are? 
Who gives them the right to WRECK the Earth? 
www.climaterevoltuion
 

A Happy 70th Birthday Shoutout To Discreet Comedy Legend Michael Barrie

For the last five decades, comedy writer and ultimate gentleman Michael Barrie has penned jokes for Joan Rivers, biting barbs for comedy roasts (when they were good), and he has written the monologues for the likes of the late Johnny Carson and the recently retired David Letterman. In fact, he has been with Carson and Letterman through most of their careers. There is about a 99.9% chance that if you have watched Carson or Letterman in the last few decades, you have laughed at a joke written by Barrie. If you meet him, you would think he were a spy – he is that discreet about his legendary status in the realm of comedy. Happy birthday Michael Barrie! photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

R.I.P. Legendary Musician and Artist David Bowie Is Dead At 69

Sad day indeed, the words come in fits and starts, David Bowie's music was and is and has been the soundtrack to many of our lives. He was 69. He died peacefully. He will be eternal. His most recent album Blackstar was released on his birthday on January 8th. From the official statement: "David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief." photograph by Gijsbert Hanekroot

Punk In Translation Private View @ The Horse Hospital in London

Japanese leather initiative Leather Japan has collaborated with avant-garde brand Blackmeans to create the exhibition Punk in Translation. Produced by Harris Elliott – co-creator of the widely acclaimed Return of the Rudeboy, Punk in Translation features work from Japanese documentary photographers Yusuke Yamatani, Tatsuo Suzuki and Naoya Matsumoto. Their images document the raw community of Japanese punks, following the underground music scene;; diversified sounds, ‘live houses’, discreet characterless buildings, and Tokyo’s loyal punk youth. Punk in Translation showcases the scene’s style and attitude in its rebellious form unique to Tokyo’s surroundings, highlighting the radical Japanese interpretation of punk. The unmistakable style has been integrated with traditional Japanese festival culture, incorporating sensitivity towards detail, a natural characteristic of the Japanese. Held at The Horse Hospital, the exhibition highlights the lifestyle and culture of how the UK punk fashion and music scene has influenced, and informed a new breed of subculture. Punk In Translation will be on view until January 11, 2016 at The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London. photographs by Flo Kohl

A Glimpse At The Gorgeous Deaton Sculptured "Sleeper" House on Genesee Mountain in Colorado

The Sculptured House, also known as the Sleeper House, is a distinctive elliptical curved house built on Genesee Mountain in 1963 by architect Charles Deaton. It is featured prominently in the 1973 Woody Allen sci-fi comedy Sleeper - to this day, the original Orgasmatron is still inside (in the form of a working elevator). Architect Charles Deaton has described his inspiration for the house: "On Genesee Mountain I found a high point of land where I could stand and feel the great reaches of the Earth. I wanted the shape of it to sing an unencumbered song." photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Watch The Strange Hyper-Digital Trailer For Ryan Ridge and Mel Bosworth's Must Read Book Of Short Stories

Step into Camouflage Country and meet a nation of misfits only masquerading as such. For these up-and-comers, down-and-outs, and good-for-nothings move through Ryan Ridge’s and Mel Bosworth’s microfictions with a zealousness that obliges rockets and octopus-men, devil babies and light eaters. Yet their earnestness also submits to stories like ‘Dust Bowling,’ ‘The Power of Pie Compels You,’ and ‘Cuckolding Down the Fort,’ which reveal the collection’s swift motion across the hilarious–heartbreaking spectrum. Featuring the illustrations of Jacob Heustis, Camouflage Country is a flipbook of faces incapable of concealment—too original to be overlooked, too distinctive to be forgotten. Click here to purchase.