Readers looking for LGBT content won’t find it in Revoyr’s latest, which tells the life story of a fictional Japanese-American silent film star, and focuses on the circumstances regarding his early retirement. The book is beautifully written, unfolding quietly at first and slowly building tension, and is recommended for all fiction collections; however, the only gay action involves one minor character and is all off-screen. Advise your Revoyr-loving patrons that this is a good one, but not a gay one.
Revoyr’s other novels are more appropriate for review here: The Necessary Hunger (1997; reviewed in the Spring 1998 GLBTRT Newsletter) follows Nancy and Raina, teen lesbian basketball players going through the college recruitment process together. Japanese-American Nancy has a crush on African-American Raina, who’s dating another girl; to complicate matters, Raina’s mother falls in love with Nancy’s father, and the two families meld to share a household. Despite this drama, the author avoids a soap-opera feel; Revoyr ably switches between fast-paced basketball action and gritty urban scenes, and Raina and Nancy are believable, appealing characters.
Southland (2003), like The Necessary Hunger and The Age of Dreaming, is set in Los Angeles. Jackie, a Japanese-American lesbian, investigates four unsolved murders that took place at her grandfather’s store during the Watts riots. Her quest takes her all over LA and back in time via relatives’ papers, police reports, and witnesses’ anecdotes. Here Revoyr transcends the conventional mystery genre to include elements of historical, romantic, and literary fiction.
Reviewed by Daisy Porter
Senior Librarian
San José (CA) Public Library