Shy

by Kevin Killian

Those who read past the disorienting first chapters of this gritty debut novel will be richly compensated by its intellectually stimulating and emotionally gripping prose. Killian produces a pantheon of distinctive characters--including himself as a young writer whose half-hearted work on a book about his murdered gay lover is stalled by his absorption in the dramas of others around him. The misfits, losers, adolescent rebels and rootless souls of Smithtown, Long Island (N.Y.), whose petty dreams and futile hopes the author sets forth with mercy, are the spiritual kin of Christopher Isherwood's creations in The Berlin Stories. Killian displays a facility for developing teenaged characters, such as Harry Van who, at 15 or 16, is continually aware that his golden youth is temporary; and Paula, a romantic who finds enlightenment in the music of David Bowie. His work is also noteworthy for unlikely phrasings ("Her face lit up like a jack-o-lantern, from inside, with the incredible light and heat of love").

Genres: Fiction, Gay Fiction, Queer

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Kevin Killian was an American poet, author, and playwright of primarily LGBT literature. He is also a highly regarded editor. My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, which he co-edited with Peter Gizzi, won the American Book Award for poetry in 2009. His novel, Impossible Princess, won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award as the best gay erotic fiction work of 2009. Killian is also co-founder of the Poets Theater, an influential poetry, stage, and performance group based in San Francisco.

He is married to Dodie Bellamy.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given it's nearly 5-star rating on Goodreads, one would think that this completely unknown book is one of the greatest works of fiction involving teen sexuality, coming-of-age, marriage, pan-sexuality, S&M, and essentially all things erotic and sexual. But take heed: there is a reason why there is only one edition of this book and has never been republished. It's a confusing scrambled mess. I won't dispute it has some interesting characters, and a few pornographic scenes are inspiring. Mostly, though, it is difficult to read with its jumble of characters, irrational time-shifting and clashing of literary styles. And when the author invokes Virginia Woolf to launch into a screamingly horrible stream-of-consciousness section, you feel embarrassed for the author. Don't spend your time with this, please, and find instead one of the nearly infinite number of similar-subject books available. The author Dennis Cooper comes to mind...

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Shy is the story of Harry Van. Its 1974, summertime, Long Island. Three demanding people are about to enter Harry's life and change it for good.

"'Gunther Fielder' is not his name; he's on the run, from his wealthy Manhattan society life, from a misguided engagement, from a terrible crime. Paula Theale is the best friend Harry Van has ever made, and they've known each other three weeks. Together they're ready to follow their favorite rock star's command. Kevin Killian is writing his first novel. Kevin can't forget the life or death of his great love Mark McAndrew, but when Harry Van comes into his life he gets shyer and shyer by the minute.

"These hungry people converge from different corners of sexuality during one explosive summer. Dickensian in scope, 'Shy' takes Harry Van from a series of squalid foster homes to the strangest summer of his life. He doesn't know much, but he wants to know love's total expression." From the back cover of the 1989 paperback edition (the only one) from Crossing Press.

That is what this novel is supposedly about(I have no idea were the synopsis on Goodreads comes from - it reads like part of a review) what the author had placed on the book when it was published.
Before I say anything else I would suggest you read the excerpt from this novel entitled 'September' published in the first edition of Men on Men edited by George Stambolian in 1986 and compare it the slightly different version published in 'Shy' on page 247. All of this is a prelude to saying that if you read the synopsis of this novel as well as the chapter/excerpt 'September' then you will understand why why Dennis Copper is quoted as saying (on the cover of the book) "Killian may have found in Harry Van the definitive sympathetic, young, beautiful, messed up 80s anti-hero..." Because what became clear to me was that Killian was originally planning, or originally wrote all or part of a novel which is like Dennis Cooper's early novels, most of which hadn't yet been published, but when you look the blurbs and titles for Cooper's 'George Miles' cycle one can only wonder who influenced who?

Having said all that let me be absolutely clear 'Shy' is nothing like the blurb quoted, this is not a novel about Harry Van, if there is a central character then it would be Gunther Fielder, but that is to impose way to much order and discipline on this novel, which is a total mess. Don't be confused by talk of stream of consciousness, alternate viewpoints or any other literary clap trap - this is a confused mish-mash of styles with absolutely no narrative discipline, no plan, no consistent storyline. It doesn't read like a collection of only slightly connected short stories, nothing is that organized. It is as if he wrote different chapters about different characters and then tried to force them all together even when they didn't fit - and they don't. The entire 'September' chapter I refer to earlier doesn't actually make any real sense in terms of the dynamics of the novel or the characters and Gunther Fielder, though in many ways the central character around which everyone else circles (nothing and nobody circles around Harry Van) and his own sub or back story makes no real sense and doesn't fit in - even his sexuality doesn't fit in with his relationships with anyone else, including the Kevin Killian character.

It is surprising how really bad the novel is because Killian along with others out in California created a whole new literary movement 'The New Narrative' all about resurrecting the 'author' (for those who follow literary trends, theories and fashions the 'death of the author' is a 1967 theory by Ronald Barthes which everyone took very seriously back then) you would expect something better. I rarely say this but I honestly don't know why this novel was ever published* but I would strongly discourage anyone from spending the ridiculous amounts that are necessary to read many of his prose works (I have sampled any of his poetry). He is certainly the only originator of a literary movement whose own writings are virtually impossible to obtain (imagine the absurdity if to read early works by existentialists like Stare or Camus you had to pay $60+ for a second hand copy of works that had only been published once.

This is a mediocre novel of absolutely no interest or significance and which, along with Killian's other prose works have been hyped to the sky by other writers and commentators. Killian may have been a great poet but there is nothing in this novel to suggest that he was a good or significant writer of prose.

* I'd like to think it has been so long out of print because Killian was ashamed of it but as most of his other prose works 'Little Men', 1996; 'Artic Summer', 1997; and 'Spreadeagle', 2010 are also all out of print after only one edition I actually wonder have Killian or his estate cornered the second hand market in his works and are artificially keeping the prices high (all of the above, including 'Shy' sell for ridiculous amounts - 'Artic Summer' can easily cost you $250!).

[Jail Flanagain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to say that Kevin Killian is a genius but it's so hard to call people geniuses nowadays because the term is just so overused. But maybe more what I wanted to say is that Killian has an amazing talent for getting inside the heads of his characters whether their a 15 year old male hustler or a grad student studying lacan. Scenes of crusing in the Long island woods and a bride's unhappy reception come off with equal intensity. Anyway, a totally fascinating book and really hysterically funny without that being the whole point of it.

[Zoe]

sneaky little book......took me awhile to finish, i went in and out of addicted to reading it and soooo bored with it. i do think it's genius though. like even the pov alone - first person kevin pov but ALSO omniscient pov of everyone else in his life....like what it's INSANE and awesome and such a weird thing to read. but also perfect because this book is him just spying on all these people and recording their lives. i love his omnipresence upstairs above gunther's apartment typing away, and how it is increasingly becoming obvious to everyone around him that he is mining their lives for his book. i'm still not totally sure how mark fits into all of this, what it means for the story to be initially about him then to totally depart....but it did create an interesting tension to the whole thing

[Nicolas Chinardet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rambling and confused. It felt like one of those books written under the influence of some illegal substance or other. The writing is mostly good despite a few outlandish statements (see previous sentence). I didn't really care about the characters though and it's not clear to me what the author was trying to do. It's not bad but there are too many good books out there to waste your time on this one, I think.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tried so hard to like this novel, but it was just a hot mess. Yes, it was interesting how he got into the psyche of each character, but the characters and the flash backs just were not cohesive enough. I liked Kevin's character, but the rest were all misfits with no purpose. I paid a LOT of money for this used book, to make matters worse!

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a bizarre book, partly a coming of age story, partly a glimpse into the lives of this cluster of confused and damaged people in 1974, partly poetic, partly porographic, partly sweet and tragic...i dunno. I've never read another book like it. It's not without flaws--the beginning is disjointed in a way that felt different than most of the rest of it, and some sections drag on or rush by in ways that i think could really have benefited perhaps one or two more bouts of editing or revision, but even so, there's a lot of fantastic in this novel.

I will say though, it's not for you if you're squeamish about gay sex, or sex between adults/teens, or any number of other seedy-underbelly-of-life sorts of situations.