Labour of Love

Boys Like Us Trilogy, Book 3 – Sometimes the muse has the last word. Peter McGehee's acclaimed two novels, Boys Like Us and Sweetheart, introduced us to Zero MacNoo and his wonderfully zany circle of friends, family, lovers, and ex-lovers as they struggle to get through life (and death) in the age of AIDS. Peter McGehee died shortly after finishing the manuscript of Sweetheart. But Doug Wilson, his long-time lover, companion, editor and, yes, muse, carries on in Labour of Love for a final installment of the remarkable trilogy.

Labour of Love is a testimony to living bravely. Wilson uncannily matches much of McGehee's light-hearted, but not shallow, tone and temperament. Though primarily a romantic farce, it is as wise, and a little darker, than the first installments. It covers the adventures of dying lovers, anti-gay-bashing demonstrations in the streets of Toronto, the obnoxious attentions of Zero's Arkansas kinfolk, tumbles in the sack, triumphs of a drag queen in a courtroom, and wild cross-border journeys (such as in a "borrowed" courier van driven by a competent and lusty lesbian pal).

Labour of Love is the title, and the achievement, of Wilson's first and final novel; it, too, was published posthumously. This new edition is accompanied by introductions from Dr Raymond-Jean Frontain and long-time friend and fellow-artist Jeffrey Canton.

"A genuinely delightful gay domestic comedy so full of tangy dialogue and wacky situations that it screams for the stage or, better yet, the screen." – Booklist

"Labour of Love is more a testimony to living bravely than a cry of despair. Wilson uncannily matches much of McGehee's light-hearted, but not shallow, tone and temperament." — Stan Persky

"Accomplishes what may seem impossible: a humorous romp in the face of widespread death." – Library Journal