Jonathan Kemp: 26

Uk 2011, 134 pp., brochure, € 17.95
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Österreichs.
Myriad Editions
»26« is an explicit and startling meditation on sex and language. An unnamed narrator travels to cruising grounds and sex clubs, pushing the boundaries of desire and the body in a relentless pursuit of pleasure. From the author of »London Triptych«, this prose takes us to places language rarely goes. In each chapter, titled after a letter of the alphabet, the author details his characters' encounters with luminous intensity, while at the same time facing the impossibility of capturing the moments he describes. In the tradition of Georges Bataille, Kathy Acker and Jean Genet, »26« tries to be a new erotic classic that readers of »London Triptych« will surely find enticing. Kemp beautifully counterpoises explicit description with a searing interrogation of the extreme measures taken in the quest for sexual fulfillment.

Jonathan Kemp: London Triptych

UK 2010, 239 pp., brochure, € 12.95
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Österreichs.
Myriad Editions
Rent boys, aristocrats, artists and criminals populate this début as the author interweaves the lives and loves of three very different men in the Underground gay scene across the decades. Jack Rose begins his apprenticeship as a rent boy with Alfred Taylor in the 1890s, and finds that a life of pleasure and excess leads him to new friendships - most notably with the soon-to-be infamous Oscar Wilde. A century later, David tells his own tale of unashamed decadence while waiting to be released from prison, addressing his story to the lover who betrayed him. Where their paths cross, in the politically sensitive 1950s, the artist Colin Read tentatively explores his sexuality as he draws in preparation for his most ambitious painting yet - »London Triptych«.