Strip

by Andrew Binks

John Rottam is on a journey back in time and place. Fleeing a private stripping engagement turned violent, he reflects on a time in his life when he was burdened with a broken heart, self-doubt and a floundering dance career. A few clumsy steps in the corps de ballet of a prestigious Canadian ballet company sends John fleeing to join a psychotic and incompetent dance troupe in Quebec City, run by the bitter Madame Talegdi, who all but destroys his dream of a legitimate career.
Stifled by the walls of Old Quebec, limited French, and dwindling finances, John seeks out the feathers and sequins of the Chez Moritz nightclub, for a last shot at doing a little of what he loves, on the condition that he strips as well as dances. John's fall from grace eventually lands him in a road house freak show, where he struggles to find love and a meaningful life amidst alcohol, deception, abuse and exploitation. When the show folds, John is forced to move on, confront his uncertain future and come to terms with his disturbing past.
His final strip-tease becomes a haunting dance of desire, revulsion, insight and, ultimately, redemption. "Strip" is the unsettling, yet deeply inspiring, second novel from Andrew Binks.

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2013

About the author

I was born and raised in Ottawa. Via a circuitous route of Kingston, Winnipeg, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Vancouver, where I studied, danced, acted and taught, I finally became a graduate of the University of British Columbia's Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing. In 2007 I returned to Ontario –– after fifteen years on Canada’s west coast –– and love being back in the heat, the snow and the tempests.


My work has been published in Prism international, Prairie Fire, Joyland, Galleon, Fugue, Harrington Gay Men's Literary Quarterly (U.S.), Bent-magazine, The Globe and Mail, Xtra and Xtra West, among others. I am a past honourable mention of the Writer's Union of Canada's short prose contest, and finalist in the Queen's Alumni Review poetry contest, as well as This Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt. My poetry has also appeared in Quill's ‘Lust’ issue and Velvet Avalanche Anthology.


In summer of 2013 my personal essay, The Short Goodbye, was published in Prairie Fire, where the piece placed second in their non-fiction category. My first novel, The Summer Between, was published in May 2009, by Nightwood Editions. My second novel, STRIP was published in October of 2013.


Please feel free to contact me with feedback, or if you would like a helping hand with your own writing, I will give a free initial consultation of a sample of your work.

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This novel is an extraordinary achievement. Binks has really managed to get inside his character "John" and delineate the damage that ensues from growing up gay; even though John has a loving family, growing up gay and closeted and unacknowledged is debilitating. Whatever John learns about the real world he has to discover through trial and error as he stumbles through his paces.

Binks also has beautifully captured the physical and emotional world of dance and dancers. Not that I'm in any sort of position to judge, but this element of the novel (and it's enormous) was totally convincing and illuminating.

What we have here is the sort of "gay fiction" we don't see often enough. This is not a fairy tale world of parties and perfect boyfriends, but a real life world of emotional pain and distance, inner turmoil, and the need to heal when the path towards recovery is not at all obvious.

Bravo. I'll say it again: extraordinary!

[Gillian D · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read without rose coloured glasses, about the life of a professional, gay dancer, and the obstacles, both professionally and personally, he faces to keep that career. Binks is both poignant and funny as he takes us along this journey.

[Amber Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

With equal parts exhilaration and desperation, Andrew Binks explores the male body with as much raw quandary as feminist authors Monique Wittig or Lynn Crosby probe the female. And what deep reaching questions a body can hold! Bink’s pathos-worthy protagonist, John Rottom, is almost too human, too willing to fall down on a stage that most of us wouldn’t dare stand upon. Strip not only reveals the tortured machismo of a dancer’s physique, but also the poetic and visceral longings of a post-disco, pre-AIDS era.

[Eal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got a first reads copy of this. Thank you. I will read anything once. This just wasn't to my taste, although it was well written and had some marvelous descriptive passages about time and the ravages of dance on the human body, and the feeling of dance I didn't have enough invested in the main character or his arc to want to see the resolution of the story.

[Randy Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally engrossing story.

Heartfelt story of a life experienced.; good, bad and otherwise. No sugar coating here. True to how life can slap you around; and how you can keep going. Never forgetting, nor lamenting, your past; but using it all to move you forward in life.

[David W. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never finished the book. I tired several times as I want to support Canadian authors.
Normally I can at least finish a book, but not this one.
Maybe you have to be a dancer to appreciate it.
I found the reading "dense". Too many words to describe something minor.
Again - maybe as a dancer I would have appreciated it.
Could not even appreciate it from a gay male perspective
Glad so many others liked it though

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gripping and raw book if you're interested in either queer history circa the time of the aids crisis or the backstage trials that people go thru to become a ballet dancer. I guess it's obvious that the two would be intertwined. I was surprised to realize that most of the book takes place over a timespan ofjust six months; I guess that's a tribute to the wonderful writing.