Stealing Arthur by Joel Perry

[Ulysses]

Prism review of “Stealing Arthur”
By Joel Perry
Five stars



The French have an expression: Quelle salade! It refers to a confused and complicated situation.

Alternatively, in Québéquois French it means “what a pack of lies!” Which, after all, is not so far off, either.

Joel Perry’s “Stealing Arthur” is dizzying, riotous, Byzantine in its plotting, rife with intersecting characters, and offers us a profoundly cynical view of Hollywood and the movie industry.

It’s hilarious.

Imagine the old film “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” combined with “Pulp Fiction.” Imagine a gang of gay Mafiosi trying to rig the annual film institute awards (here renamed the Arthurs, mostly likely for reasons of avoiding lawsuits). Imagine a dozen Los Angeles gay boys of every shape and size, in every possible variation of psychological and emotional distress.

Quelle salade, indeed.

Although Perry’s madcap novel is truly an ensemble piece, in which every character matters, it seems to me that Guy Lanner is the moral core of the story. A refugee from an anti-gay indoctrination camp called Desert Springs, Guy lives in West Hollywood and is known to take in strays—damaged young men who have suffered at the hands of a homophobic society. Guy’s story is at the center of the epic shenanigans in “Stealing Arthur,” which pretends to be about the egotism and greed that is Hollywood, but which is really about the redemptive qualities of love, compassion, and friendship.

There are very good people in this tale; there are very bad people; there are bad people who are not as bad as they seem, and apparently good people who are not really so good. There are surprises aplenty, ranging from acts of startling violence to moments of spiritual revelation. And the chief delight in reading this novel is discovering who all these people are among the twists and turns of its lurid tapestry of interwoven plotlines.

I almost knocked off a star because there is not a single person in this book who isn’t messed up in some way. I know for a fact that there are plenty of gay men in Los Angeles who live pretty normal lives and have not been screwed over by their families or society.

But then again, who writes books about them? So I added the fifth star back on.