Sweetheart

Boys Like Us Trilogy, Book 2 – In Peter McGehee's debut novel, Boys Like Us, reviewers noted his lean, mostly-in-dialogue, fast-paced comedy of manners with an arresting theme ("I lose people …"), fascinating contemporary urban folklore, and a superbly funny airplane scene. In Sweetheart, Zero MacNoo is back in hilarious new situations, adding a dreamboat lover, a precocious child crooner, a first-cousin-first-love porn star, and some lesbian garage mechanics … as the AIDS plague continues to descend.

Two wildly divergent worlds – Zero's fiercely eccentric Southern family in Arkansas and the sophisticated urban gay community of Toronto, where he lives now – collide. His cousin Trebreh, the porn star, parks his teenaged daughter with Zero, complicating an already complex life as he tries to balance a budding romance, AIDS activism, and family responsibilities.

Though Sweetheart is a novel about AIDS survival, McGehee carries off this grim topic with wry wit and warmth. It was published posthumously. This new edition is accompanied by introductions from Dr Raymond-Jean Frontain and long-time collaborator Fiji Robinson.

"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

"An utterly delightful book. I enjoyed every word of it!" — Quentin Crisp

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