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Powell's Q&A, Q&A | December 10, 2009

Sam Stephenson: IMG Powell's Q&A: Sam Stephenson

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Describe your latest book/project/work. I've been studying the life and work of photographer W. Eugene Smith for 13 years. My first book (Dream... Continue »
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    The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957-1965

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3 Local Warehouse Gay and Lesbian- Gay Fiction
2 Remote Warehouse Erotica- General

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Looker

by Stanley Bennett Clay

Looker Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

SOMETIMES LOVE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

Brando Haywood is a handsome, popular, and successful entertainment lawyer who seems to have everything but passion. Two years celibate and a prisoner of his routine, he goes through life quietly on the sidelines while his promiscuous best friend, Omar Stevens, thrashes through life and love with all the ups and downs Brando barely realizes he longs for.

Brando's life takes a dramatic turn when he is asked to defend a female friend who has killed her rapist. The sensational and controversial trial that follows not only ignites Brando's fervor for his career but also helps him discover his passion and a true love that had been staring him in the face all along.

Looker firmly establishes Stanley Bennett Clay's reputation as a writer who spins brilliant erotic entertainment even as he challenges his readers' sensibilities.

Review:

"Clay charts the affairs of L.A.'s gay black upper crust in his tawdry third novel (after In Search of Pretty Young Black Men). Brando Heywood and Omar Stevens have been best friends since high school. Now in their forties, Omar, a celebrity journalist, juggles boy-toy liaisons and hanging in Griffith Park while celibate Brando concentrates on his career as a highly-respected entertainment lawyer. But when one of his client's lesbian partner kills a man after he rapes her, he takes the headline-stealing case. The trial holds together a series of mini-dramas, including the discovery of a steamy secret video of Brando and Omar's and Brando's barely below-the-surface feelings for one another. Readers who can keep their disbelief deeply buried will enjoy this erotic, high-stakes romp." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"An engaging novel...The erotic scenes are as steamy as they come!" — Zane

Review:

"An engaging novel...The erotic scenes are as steamy as they come!"

— Zane

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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Grady Harp, April 11, 2007 (view all comments by Grady Harp)
LOOKER: The Title Suggests a Kaleidoscope of Meanings in this Enthralling Novel

Stanley Bennett Clay takes chances: he knows he takes them and unlike Captain Scott's diaries from 1912 as he lay dying in the Antarctic in which he admits the chances turned out against him, the chances Clay takes work very much in his favor. Now with this third novel Stanley Bennett Clay shows a maturity of style and focus without a loss of the chancy topics he embraces. LOOKER simply works!

Clay introduces a huge cast of characters so rapidly yet so well defined that for a few chapters the novel seems as though it will be a series of short stories; we meet Brando, an entertainment lawyer whose celibacy is linked to his past lost love Collier; Selma Fant, the alcoholic wife of a councilman whose only child Earl-Anthony responded to his misunderstood childhood by transforming into a popular transgender singer Miss Zara; successful writer Omar who despite his longing for a relationship with Brando after his leaving the demanding Shane is a lothario `chickenhawk' unable to forego his desires despite his nearing middle age; Jeanette Bell and her lesbian lover, highly successful novelist Clymenthia Teager; Vanessa Ellerbee and her downlow husband William who craves Brando; recently divorced Dee Dempsey whose bruised heart embraces those in need; Ramon Alexander and his abused wife Charlene; and Senior Father Lacey Cannon who holds court for all the pretty gay men in his community. And yes, there are more!

The story is too fine to condense in a review. Suffice it to say that Clay connects all the dots by a central story of a murder trial over a heinous event that occurred between Ramon and Jeanette, a climactic situation steered by Brando that alters the lives of each of the characters and brings about closure to the many open wounds and secrets and lusts and stories of each of the novel's cast.

Clay has the ability to write some of the most sensuous prose about lovemaking and just plain sex between men as anyone out there: his situations and recreations of scenes are erotic and electrically charged. At the same time he is able to enter the courtroom with some of the better banter between lawyers and some pungent political and social commentary that is eloquent and deeply moving. Clay again explores the `on the downlow' particles that pepper the wealthy black community of Los Angeles (his setting for his novel), but he also dips deeply into the crises of relationships in the 21st century - finding that the concept of monogamy still rings clearly and preferably, the goal of the struggling of wandering eyes of the lookers.

And so Stanley Bennett Clay's title LOOKER could mean `handsome looking men', `stunning women', voyeurs, or those searching for that nebulous lifelong love - it all depends on the part of this kaleidoscopic novel the reader wishes to emphasize. But in the end Clay once again proves that he is capable of spinning tales both bizarre and tender, and he succeeds in every direction. This is yet another tasty novel from a writer of distinction. Grady Harp
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780743291026
Author:
Clay, Stanley Bennett
Publisher:
Atria Books
Subject:
Gay
Subject:
Gay men
Subject:
African American men
Subject:
Erotica - General
Subject:
Legal stories
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Publication Date:
June 2007
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
275
Dimensions:
8.14x5.45x.77 in. .56 lbs.
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