Songs for the New Depression in Q & A with Kergan Edwards-Stout

Jul 14, 2012 Jodi rated it it was amazing

This is an incredibly important book. I was raked over the coals with the raw emotion that Kergan Edwards-Stout creates in the telling of this story. You can feel the anguish of someone wanting, needing to be loved; and the pain one wishes to inflict, at their failure to find what they are looking for.

Kergan Edwards-Stout writes his debut novel ‘Songs for the New Depression’ with the experience of someone who has lost a partner to AIDS. Given his knowledge, his readers will come away shaken by t
This is an incredibly important book. I was raked over the coals with the raw emotion that Kergan Edwards-Stout creates in the telling of this story. You can feel the anguish of someone wanting, needing to be loved; and the pain one wishes to inflict, at their failure to find what they are looking for.

Kergan Edwards-Stout writes his debut novel ‘Songs for the New Depression’ with the experience of someone who has lost a partner to AIDS. Given his knowledge, his readers will come away shaken by the painful and often graphic memoir of Gabriel Travers; a fictional character, as he reflects on his life.

From his deathbed, Gabe tells his story broken down into three decades; 1995, as he comes to terms with his choices in life, the 1980s, when sex was his way of looking for love and AIDS became an ugly result of free love, back to his tumultuous youth in 1976, when he begins his journey with reckless abandon, through the gay scene after experiencing a broken heart.

Given that the book deals with such a difficult topic, Edwards-Stout manages to lighten the mood of what could be an oppressive book, by injecting humor and light-hearted moments. Regaling us with stories of Gabe’s relationships with his unlikely friend Clare; one of his only friends high school, his mother Grace, who is exploring her new found freedom and finally the man who becomes his partner guiding him through the final journey of his life.

Kergan Edwards-Stout is an award-winning director and author, whose work has appeared in a number of publications, including the Huffington Post, Bilerico Project, LGBTQ Nation, American Short Fiction and the health magazine SexVibe. He has been honored by the Human Rights Campaign as a “2011 Father of the Year”, and blogs regularly at http://kerganedwards-stout.com. He is currently at work on a memoir.

This book, Winner-2012 Next Generation Indie Book Award - LGBTQ
Shortlist - 2011 Independent Literary Award – LGBTQ, is one that everyone should read; in fact it should be mandatory. It is eye-opening to the struggles a gay person endures to be accepted in a judgemental society. The book is incredibly well-written, so much so that you can understand why Edwards-Stout has been published in many periodicals.

When you read ‘Songs for the New Depression’ be prepared with a box of Kleenex and a free schedule as you will be so engrossed you won’t want to be disturbed; the read is that good.

Disclaimer: 'Songs for the New Depression' was given to me by the author for an honest review. Thanks Kergan. xo ...more

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Mar 12, 2012 David Hallman rated it it was amazing

The Duality of Time

Philosophers, physicists, and poets have drawn on a wide variety of metaphors to capture the essence of time, some of which are more successful than others.

At the personal level, we all have our own interpretations of the significance of the passage of time for us as individuals and as communities.

Two seemingly contradictory conclusions emerge – on the one hand, time seems to change everything, and yet on the other hand, immutable consistencies remain.

Kergan Edwards-Stout’s n ...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Carey Parrish rated it it was amazing

It isn't often I read a book that touches my soul, but that is exactly what happened with Songs for the New Depression. Author Kergan Edwards-Stout has crafted a story that is beautiful, tragic, and consuming. Once you start this one, you won't be able to stop. And keep some tissues handy.

Meet Gabriel Travers. A man approaching 40, Gabe is ill with HIV and he thinks he's dying; no, he knows he's dying. Nobody believes him but he knows it. His life hasn't been everything he wanted it to be, but w It isn't often I read a book that touches my soul, but that is exactly what happened with Songs for the New Depression. Author Kergan Edwards-Stout has crafted a story that is beautiful, tragic, and consuming. Once you start this one, you won't be able to stop. And keep some tissues handy.

Meet Gabriel Travers. A man approaching 40, Gabe is ill with HIV and he thinks he's dying; no, he knows he's dying. Nobody believes him but he knows it. His life hasn't been everything he wanted it to be, but whose has, eh? The world he lived in back in the 80's is something he recalls fondly but which in the present day is a mere memory and a passel of regrets. He never found true love. He never became what he thought he wanted to be.

He lets his thoughts drift back to his high school days and the first love of his life, Keith. Keith was perhaps the only person who knew the potential Gabe possessed and it was with Keith, and only Keith, that Gabe shared the savagery of an attack that has left him scarred ever since.

Gabe's story is one of personal redemption. In what he believes to be the finality of his life, he at last sets out on the journey of self discovery that will hopefully rid him of his regrets and put to rest the bitterness of a past that he's never been able to shed.

Readers can delight in Gabe's journey because it is one that we all at some point in our lives, for whatever varying reasons, have to take. Maybe Gabe isn't the classic literary hero, he is a very flawed character in many respects, but no one is perfect, and anyone who reads this tale will relate to Gabe in a very personal manner. His love of Bette Midler, his reliance on the help of his mom's wife, a priest who loves country music, and his own remembrances of what he sees as a life half lived will open the door to the reality of what he actually is, was, and will become.

Kergan Edwards-Stout has written a masterpiece. A bravura debut novel, its heartfelt message is ultimately timeless.

Mr. Edwards-Stout, well done, sir. ...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Ian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recommendations, books-i-loved-5-stars

There are so many ways you could consider this book gratifying. It is abundant in one mans struggle to live a life that from the beginning was doomed to sadness. Although the overall theme of the 250 plus page work by Kergan Edwards-Stout is about facing your own mortality it is the fleshed out protagonist of Gabe / Gabey that lends it's support the books reverse structure. This book is about story, character and internal dialogue, it's also about time and place and all play a modern anachronist ...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Pamela rated it it was amazing

Kergan Edwards-Stout’s Songs for the New Depression pulled me in immediately with its honesty, humor, and intimacy. I opened the book thinking it would be something interesting to read over the course of the next couple of weeks and instead devoured it quickly. The author weaves in psychology, spirituality, trauma, life & death, and redemption all in the course of 252 beautifully written pages. The main character, Gabe, is flawed, but lovable. He is a believable character -- a human being, someo ...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Indie Reviews rated it it was amazing

Shelves: indie-reviews, favorites, lgbt, fiction

Kergan Edwards-Stout's debut novel, Songs for the New Depression, is the poignant and darkly humorous story of Gabriel Travers who is HIV positive and convinced that he’s dying despite his doctor’s proclamations to the contrary. His viral load is undetectable, his T-cell count is up, but according to Gabe one glance in the mirror tells him everything he needs to know. "His ass, once the talk of West Hollywood, now looks suspiciously like a Shar-Pei..." Faced with his own mortality, Gabriel’s fir ...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Nancy Silk rated it it was amazing

This is a story that I shall never forget; the first part made me laugh, cry, and then sob in public. The second and third parts gripped me and traveled into my heart and mind. It's a reminder of the 80's and the horrible disease of AIDS. For so many trapped in this disease, they could see no future. Everyone needs to love and be loved, yet politics and bigotry make obscene jokes of those who are different. They are NOT different. Kergan Edwards-Stout is am amazing man, father, and author. His w ...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Jeffrey Ballam rated it it was amazing

In Songs for the New Depression, Kergan Edwards-Stout takes us back to the days of the AIDS pandemic. We follow Gabriel Travers on his journey to find love and (self-) acceptance but we follow him in reverse beginning with the current third of Gabe’s life and then backwards to the first third just after coming out in high school. This is an emotionally engaging read, often difficult at parts especially for those who have watched a loved one being ravaged by an incurable illness. Yet, it is a mus ...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Jeffrey Luscombe rated it it was amazing

What a great read! I was especially impressed with the structure of the novel and its interesting backward motion that (beginning in the 90s and moving back to the 70s) only a skilled writer could maneuver. The same is true of the first-person narration - which is made even more difficult by a (shall we say) often less than sympathetic - yet very true and honest protagonist. But Edwards-Stout handles it wonderfully.

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Feb 07, 2012 Eric Arvin marked it as to-read

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Feb 01, 2012 Alina rated it it was amazing

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