Sticky Kisses

by Greg Johnson

"Greg Johnson writes with uncommon clarity and beauty about the many faces of love and the price of living honestly and flat out," wrote Anne Rivers Siddons of Johnson's debut novel, Pagan Babies . In his new novel, he delves even more deeply into the complex and irrevocable ties of family. Abby Sandler has not spoken to her brother, Thom, in four years, the result of a family explosion that has over time evolved into a dull resentment and a futile waiting for someone else to make the first move. His unexpected phone call wrenches her away from her staid life as a teacher in Philadelphia and unofficial companion to their possessive widowed mother and sends her back to Atlanta, where they both grew up and Thom still lives. Over the ensuing holiday season, as Thom and Abby tentatively move toward reconciliation, both are also moving toward elusive new Thom, newly diagnosed HIV-positive, is still grappling with the loss of his lover Roy; Abby, her earlier sense of self reawakened, is unexpectedly plunged into a passionate love affair. But it is with Thom's eclectic group of friends that Abby finds herself most involved, and as this often chaotic group swirls around them, both Thom and Abby confront the often ephemeral, impossible-to-pin-down nature of human connection, both fragile and strong as steel, that ultimately draws them toward unexpected confrontations and a staggering realization of the healing power of love. Greg Johnson is a professor of English at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta. He is the author of Pagan Babies, I Am Dangerous, Aid and Comfort, A Friendly Deceit, and Distant Friends . His short fiction has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, The Southern Humanities Review, and Best American Short Stories . He was named Georgia Author of the Year in 1991 and 1997 and was a winner in the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project.

317 pages, hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Greg Johnson is an American short-story writer, novelist, poet, and biographer who teaches creative writing at Kennesaw State University and lives in Atlanta.

Reviews

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the most stressful reading experiences ever. Not only is the content intense, but the density of the books vivid details is laborious to get through. Still, the reader manages to eventually care about most of the characters and the complexities of their relationships. The situations they encounter leave you turning the pages to see what unfolds next, and it is often unexpected. Filled with tragedy after tragedy, the book is not an uplifting read, rather it clearly shows the heartache that can come with every day living.

Favorite passages:
"They had one of those strange, intense loves that often develop between two gay men: less than marriage but more than a friendship, a unique relation crafted slowly through years for wily bargaining and crazy need, funded by shared experience and mutual knowledge and an awareness on each man's part that the other knew him thoroughly and still loved him, and you thought long and hard before tossing that away."

"Shortly before Carter's parents arrived, as Connie was holding forth in the living room about the first time he'd met Carter and how he'd known instantly what a sweet, special person he was, Thom slipped back into Carter's bedroom, carrying a garbage bag he'd found in the kitchen pantry for a little ritual he'd performed already for two or three other friends. Bending to the storage cabinet under the TV set, he pawed through Carter's videotapes and took out any that looked even vaguely suspicious; he proceeded to the nightstand, where he removed the packets of condoms and the bottle of lube, and then to the bathroom, where he found more condoms in the cabinet under the sink. He rifled through Carter's dresser but found nothing more exotic than a pair of black bikini briefs, which he left alone. The tapes, condoms, and lube he stuffed into the garbage bag and then he slipped into to the kitchen and dropped the package into the trash."

[Salina James · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book took me so long to read. if I could give it no stars I would. it jumps from past to present with no real connections between a lot of the flashbacks and is very anti climactic. true it is about real things, but it is also overly dramatic and difficult to read. the authors word choice is not the greatest... "he recognized but did not recognize the room. looked to the left, wearily, and saw the familiar but not familiar IV stand". ugh so awful.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This angsty book is slow-moving and lugubrious.