Blind Items; A (Love) Story

New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1998. St. Martin's Griffin Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Good. Greg Weiner (Cover photograph). [12], 272, [4] pages Cover has some wear, soiling, and edge curling. Some staining on back cover and the edges of several back pages. Matthew Rettenmund (born December 25, 1968) is the author of the novels Boy Culture and Blind Items: A (Love) Story, as well as the non-fiction books Encyclopedia Madonnica, Totally Awesome '80s, and Hilary Duff: All Access. He was the founding Editor in Chief of Popstar! Magazine from October 1998 until May 2012. He worked at Telepictures in New York. Rettenmund graduated from the University of Chicago. His novel Boy Culture was adapted into an award-winning movie in 2006. In this hilarious romp through gay New York, author Matthew Rettenmund once again delivers with acerbic wit, dead-on dialogue, and perfect pop culture references. This time, a lonely magazine editor has fallen for a TV star hunk, who, unfortunately, must remain firmly in the closet or risk his career. Which will win out, true love or shallow fame? Rettenmund answers the question with verve and attitude, in this wonderful second novel of love and loss in modern Manhattan. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: If not completely blind, love seems a bit shortsighted in Rettenmund's latest foray into the gay milieu. Enough one-liners find their mark to provide numerous chuckles--and the occasional flash of insight--throughout this amorous adventure. New Yorker David Greer is eking out a living editing gay porn magazines while his best bud, "somewhat flamboyant queen" Warren Junior, pens a gossip column replete with blind items that stop just this side of libel. David attends a TV network bash, dizzy with the prospect of glimpsing Alan Dillinger, the hunky star of a wildly popular beach series who's rumored to be gay. Not only do the men meet, but they embark on a tenuous affair--despite Alan's anxiety about coming out. Alternating with these close encounters are chapters centering on John Dewey, a "pale and minor" 12-year-old being raised by his grandmother in a New Jersey trailer park. This shy youngster, who has been told that his real father was gay, has increasing doubts about his own sexual identity. Becoming fixated on Granny's photo of a handsome 1920s movie star, John discovers that a Seattle film buff owns a supposedly lost film starring his idol. The boy, now 17, boards a cross-country bus to find the movie maven--Truitt Connor, an 81-year-old gay man who gives John a home. Rettenmund sprinkles the proceedings with an ultimately beguiling blend of fun and fantasy.