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Wild
Palms
Palms
Between the Palms by Michael T. Luongo
It would seem that one man’s erotica is another
man’s pornography, and vice-versa. The thin line
that divides pornography from erotica has for ages
been the source of fierce debate between scholars
and laymen, men and women, straights and gays,
any government and the society it serves, and so
on. While individually we all may have a working
knowledge of what erotica is–works involving
sexual impulse or desire–collectively, we are all
somewhat at a loss as to how hardcore erotica can
be before it is considered pornographic.
I mention this up front because it is the only
sticking point in an otherwise fantastic assemblage
of stories. Between the Palms: A Collection of Gay
Travel Erotica, edited by travel writer Michael
Luongo, proficiently expands gay American
literature several degrees by anthologizing erotic
tales of travels abroad.
Whisking the reader through such wondrous
locales as Ghana, Australia, Jamaica, Florence,
Buenos Aires, Cairo–and even the Nevada desert–
the reader is thrust not only from one sexual
experience to another, but from culture to culture,
making the experiences themselves funny and sad
by turns (as the storyteller is only in whichever
location for a finite amount of time).
The stories are also understandable. We see the
authors in their vulnerable states, strangers in
strange lands, gobbling up rituals, sites, cultures,
yet all the while remaining gay men. Men who
desire comfort and companionship and sex–and
many times, just a warm kindred spirit to sleep
beside while on holiday. On display, the authors
are flawed men all of them–but that is their appeal,
making many of these tales credible and personal
journeys of not just the flesh, but also the soul.
Between the Palms is a winner. Boasting more
than tales of eroticism, some of the stories are
downright romantic and heartbreaking. Of the
book’s best writings, Tim McKenzie’s Desert Bloom:
Memories of Burning Man is a gem; a literary
baptism that reaffirms what it really means to be
alive through the shedding of inhibitions. A Page
from History, by Dayton Estes, should be
nominated for some form of award, it was so well
written and poignant. Kieron Devlin’s Beyond
Giza, is a hilarious piece that evokes fits of
laughter, will stay with you long after the book is
finished, while Luongo’s own Eyes of Caravaggio,
Matthew Link’s Ghana’s Kiss of Love Without End,
Night and Day by Steve Dunham, and Swiss Miss
by Michael Senno–a painful and fitting story with
which to end the anthology–give the collection the
gravity and teeth to execute the perfect storytelling
of an imperfect story.
There are other notables here. Legendary heavy
hitter Felice Picano puts his youth on display with a
funny, eye-opening Biker Boys and Commie
Lovers. Lawrence Schimel gets liberated through
some rough–and hot–treatment in Spanish
Summer (Grenada, 1992). And Robert
Stephenson tells a truly touching and erotic tale in
Salaam.
Palms is not without its issues, however. The first
two tales–Simon Sheppard’s Stoned in Ten
Languages, and Aaron Krach’s Big Red: Sun, Sex
and Fishing for Men in St. Barth’s–do nothing for
the collection, coming off as hollow acts of sex. By
accomplished writers both, the tales fail to
accomplish what a majority of the others do. The
success of Palms lies squarely in the writers’ ability
to marry the environment to the sexual experience,
giving the incidents causation: the location and the
acts are inexplicably linked. You cannot think of
one without the other, offering greater depth to the
story, the culture, the writer, the setting, and the
sex involved.
On another–but similar–note, lightning has struck
twice for L.M. Ross, author of the well-intentioned
but misfired novel, The Long Blue Moan. Writing
here as Lance Rush, his story Sizzle in Paradise
suffers in the same fashion. His explicit sex
scenes, pushing erotica into pornography, subtract
from what could have been a sexy and magical tale
of trysting in Jamaica. Regardless, Ross is
talented, and tacky descriptions and exclamations
aside, his tale is by far the steamiest in the book.
Highly recommended, Between the Palms is a fast,
delicious, and insightful read. The expansion of
this series will do wonders for gay travel, if it has
not yet done so already. Imagine Bangkok,
Lebanon, Montreal, the moors of Ireland or
Scotland, Puerto Rico, or Sweden, with Luongo’s
expert gatherings of global and sexual exploration.
One can’t get to the airport fast enough. P&A
man’s pornography, and vice-versa. The thin line
that divides pornography from erotica has for ages
been the source of fierce debate between scholars
and laymen, men and women, straights and gays,
any government and the society it serves, and so
on. While individually we all may have a working
knowledge of what erotica is–works involving
sexual impulse or desire–collectively, we are all
somewhat at a loss as to how hardcore erotica can
be before it is considered pornographic.
I mention this up front because it is the only
sticking point in an otherwise fantastic assemblage
of stories. Between the Palms: A Collection of Gay
Travel Erotica, edited by travel writer Michael
Luongo, proficiently expands gay American
literature several degrees by anthologizing erotic
tales of travels abroad.
Whisking the reader through such wondrous
locales as Ghana, Australia, Jamaica, Florence,
Buenos Aires, Cairo–and even the Nevada desert–
the reader is thrust not only from one sexual
experience to another, but from culture to culture,
making the experiences themselves funny and sad
by turns (as the storyteller is only in whichever
location for a finite amount of time).
The stories are also understandable. We see the
authors in their vulnerable states, strangers in
strange lands, gobbling up rituals, sites, cultures,
yet all the while remaining gay men. Men who
desire comfort and companionship and sex–and
many times, just a warm kindred spirit to sleep
beside while on holiday. On display, the authors
are flawed men all of them–but that is their appeal,
making many of these tales credible and personal
journeys of not just the flesh, but also the soul.
Between the Palms is a winner. Boasting more
than tales of eroticism, some of the stories are
downright romantic and heartbreaking. Of the
book’s best writings, Tim McKenzie’s Desert Bloom:
Memories of Burning Man is a gem; a literary
baptism that reaffirms what it really means to be
alive through the shedding of inhibitions. A Page
from History, by Dayton Estes, should be
nominated for some form of award, it was so well
written and poignant. Kieron Devlin’s Beyond
Giza, is a hilarious piece that evokes fits of
laughter, will stay with you long after the book is
finished, while Luongo’s own Eyes of Caravaggio,
Matthew Link’s Ghana’s Kiss of Love Without End,
Night and Day by Steve Dunham, and Swiss Miss
by Michael Senno–a painful and fitting story with
which to end the anthology–give the collection the
gravity and teeth to execute the perfect storytelling
of an imperfect story.
There are other notables here. Legendary heavy
hitter Felice Picano puts his youth on display with a
funny, eye-opening Biker Boys and Commie
Lovers. Lawrence Schimel gets liberated through
some rough–and hot–treatment in Spanish
Summer (Grenada, 1992). And Robert
Stephenson tells a truly touching and erotic tale in
Salaam.
Palms is not without its issues, however. The first
two tales–Simon Sheppard’s Stoned in Ten
Languages, and Aaron Krach’s Big Red: Sun, Sex
and Fishing for Men in St. Barth’s–do nothing for
the collection, coming off as hollow acts of sex. By
accomplished writers both, the tales fail to
accomplish what a majority of the others do. The
success of Palms lies squarely in the writers’ ability
to marry the environment to the sexual experience,
giving the incidents causation: the location and the
acts are inexplicably linked. You cannot think of
one without the other, offering greater depth to the
story, the culture, the writer, the setting, and the
sex involved.
On another–but similar–note, lightning has struck
twice for L.M. Ross, author of the well-intentioned
but misfired novel, The Long Blue Moan. Writing
here as Lance Rush, his story Sizzle in Paradise
suffers in the same fashion. His explicit sex
scenes, pushing erotica into pornography, subtract
from what could have been a sexy and magical tale
of trysting in Jamaica. Regardless, Ross is
talented, and tacky descriptions and exclamations
aside, his tale is by far the steamiest in the book.
Highly recommended, Between the Palms is a fast,
delicious, and insightful read. The expansion of
this series will do wonders for gay travel, if it has
not yet done so already. Imagine Bangkok,
Lebanon, Montreal, the moors of Ireland or
Scotland, Puerto Rico, or Sweden, with Luongo’s
expert gatherings of global and sexual exploration.
One can’t get to the airport fast enough. P&A
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