Popular demand has moved the writer to bring his List of Publications up to date and out of the shadows. Not that it is in protest against anything current, but, alternatively, the move is a celebration of knowledge, creativity and a long life of reading, writing and riots of fun.
You can use the encomium “Eclectic with a Vengeance” if you must.
Love in a Dark Time: and Other Explorations of Gay Lives and Literature by Colm Tóibin (Scribner, 2002). A provocative, penetrating collection of essays on the literature, art and films of gay and lesbian artists including Oscar Wilde, Francis Bacon, Elizabeth Bishop and James Baldwin by an author more widely noted for his fiction.
A Perfect Waiter by Alain Claude Sulzer, translated from the German by John Brownjohn (Bloomsbury, 2008). A thirty year obsession with what Erneste, the perfect waiter of the title, considered the love of his life is upended by upon receiving a letter from that lost love and forces a revisit to a painful past: a literary novel of the highest caliber, with nary an extraneous word.
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings (Random House, 2010). The definitive biography of the celebrated novelist, short story writer and playwright who dominated world literature for decades with his worldly (and often morbid) tales of passion gone wrong, and how his personal life was haunted by . . . passion gone wrong.
Nobody’s Perfect by Armando Galarraga, Jim Joyce with Daniel Paisner (Atlantic Monthly Press). A thrilling, emotionally complex revisit to the legendary almost-perfect baseball game of June 2, 2010, complete with the satisfying back story of the careers (and psychologies) of the pitcher and the umpire who shared a first-base call that made history.
The Fatal Touch by Conor Fitgerald (Bloomsbury). An intricate, satisfying crime novel set in Rome, with a quirky engaging detective training a new assistant in the ways of homicide investigation while all around them corrupt forces want to stifle (and maybe hurt) them.
Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). A satisfyingly atmospheric novel about Dublin, its famous Abbey Theater, John Millington Synge and the actress Molly Allgood, who served as the muse for the mature-and-dying Synge when she was only a lass and could (and did) have her heart broken for a lifetime.
Paper Conspiracies by Susan Daitch (City Lights Publishers). A mesmerizing novel about the construction of stories, some true and incredible, others false yet widely believed to be true, and the damage that can be done by the promotion of the latter.
The Last Days of Haute Cuisine: America’s Culinary Revolution by Patric Kuh (Viking, 2001). The crème of restaurants in the United States from 1941 onward carried French names with menus derived from classic French cooking. Following the trail from that age based on the haut modèle to the era of locavoracious small-plate boites that emerged after Berekely’s Chez Panisse put California (and fusion) cuisine on the map is delicious (and not at all fattening).
An Evening of Long Goodbyes by Paul Murray (Random House, 2004). A riotously comic novel that is equal parts P.G. Wodehouse and J.P. Donleavy, focusing on a loony Irish family, their Bosnian immigrant servants, lowlifes of Dublin slums and, of course, a greyhound that is running, running, running away from what society demands it to do (just like the family).
Open by Andre Agassi (Knopf, 2009). A blisteringly candid autobiography of the tennis athlete who rose to the top of his sport despite hating the game he mastered: inspiring, insightful and loving.
E-Audio Books of Note (Walkin’ the Dawg!)
Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis
The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch
Favorite Films Seen in 2011 – More Noir, More Laughs, More Jason Statham
The Red and the White (early 20th century war story, with Hungarians doing dirty work for Russians: powerful)
Notorious (classic Hitchcock, always fresh)
Bright Star (a true masterpiece from Jane Campion about John Keats and his love)
Steam (an Istanbul inheritance becomes complex)
Bedrooms and Hallways (hilarious lunacy and Tom Hollander)
The Count of Monte Cristo (7 hr French tv version)
Transporter (meeting Jason Statham for the first time: OMG!)
The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk (don’t miss it!)
Flame and Citron (flawless)
Snatch (how funny can Brad Pitt be? yes!)
Gone, Baby, Gone (superb and gritty)
Rocknrolla (so you want to make fun of Guy Ritchie? not based on this one, you won’t!)
Heartbreaker (the French outdo us in this romantic comedy that is zany hilarious and sweet)
Howl (sui generis, bless their hearts)
El Amor Brujo (Carlos Saura at his finest, and that’s saying something)
Miami Vice (worth seeing every six months. Gong Li!)
Romeo Is Bleeding (old but not forgotten)
There’s Something about Mary (new classic)
Trouble in Paradise (old classic)
Many moons ago, my old friend Jimmy Marshall revealed that he kept a list of movies he saw, by date, where he saw them and with whom. He also included a brief notation of his main reactions to the movie. At the time, that seemed a little extreme to me.
Jimmy Trying To Convince Me To Start Keeping A List (and Checking It Twice)
But later on, I started to keep a list of books I had read and movies I had seen, mostly to keep from reading or seeing something a second time that I’d already experienced (unless it was really good).
For those needing recommendations for something that might be worth checking out, I post the lists of books and movies from 2010 that I REALLY ENJOYED.
THE BEST READS, 2010:
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh (1930; reprinted by Back Bay Books). A romp through a fantastical 1920s London filled with strivers, dimwits and vampy flappers that is guaranteed to make a dreary day seem sunny and change your mood from dull to effervescent.
The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that Gave the World Impressionism by Ross King (Walker). The Paris art world went from celebrating large historical canvases in shades of brown and gray to those featuring riots of color in the decade that King covers so well. Sample factoid: Manet couldn’t give away his paintings (any one of which will now cost you in excess of $45 million).
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark (New Directions). A fraudulent academy purporting to help aspiring authors write their autobiographies provides the setting for Muriel Spark to skewer snobbery and stupidity in her most delicious, inimitable and eccentric manner.
A Gift for Admiration: Further Memoirs by James Lord (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). If you were friends with James Lord, you might not have realized he was keeping a very precise and, as it turns out, withering record of his encounters with you. Here, he delivers the goods on Peggy Guggenheim, Sonia Orwell and Isabel Rawsthorne, among other fascinating characters.
The Golden Mean: A Novel of Aristotle and Alexander the Great by Annabel Lyon (Knopf). A richly imagined and engrossing novel of fourth-century B.C. Macedon and Greece in which Aristotle tells all, including entrancing tales of his most famous student.
Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory by Patrick Wilcken (Penguin). A rich and satisfying intellectual biography of one of the foremost thinkers of the 20th century, of special interest to anthropologists and readers who thrilled to the discovery of Tristes Tropiques.
Prayer for My Enemy by Craig Lucas (Theater Communications Group, 2009). A work of theatrical genius–rich in character, emotion, regret, possibility and tragedy–that covers the war in Iraq, addiction, forbidden love and the eternal battle between the Yankees and the Red Sox.
Old Goriot by Honore de Balzac, translated by Marion Ayton Crawford (Penguin Classics). A ramshackle Parisian boarding house, packed with some on the rise, others on the decline, is the scene of human comedy at which Balzac excels.
The Summer People by Maxim Gorky, translated by Nicholas Saunders and Frank Dwyer (Smith and Kraus, 1995). A delightful play by Maxim Gorky in a Chekhovian mood yet wielding satire like a surgeon’s scalpel at the expense of the Russian bourgeoisie.
A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess (Da Capo Press). A brilliant novel about the tempestuous life of Christopher Marlowe, playwright and spy, by a master of the English language who is also a supreme entertainer.
THE MOST FUN MOVIES, 2010:
Manhunter (Michael Mann directed)
Miss Pettigrew Has A Day
The White Countess (Merchant/Ivory film with surprising grit)
Auberge Espagnole (Romain Duris stars)
Paris (Juliet Binoche and Romain Duris star)
Last Holiday (Alec Guiness stars as a man who thinks he’s dying but isn’t)
NY Export: Opus Jazz (saving Jerome Robbins’s best ballet for the ages)
Passing Strange (Spike Lee films the stage show)
The Firm (still dazzlingly good)
Daniel Deronda (PBS Masterpiece Theater brilliant version of George Eliot novel)
Basic Instinct (if Hitchcock had ever loosened up to make a filthy dirty thriller, he couldn’t have done better than this)
Bright Star (Jane Campion directed, John Keats dies, really really good despite anything you might suspect otherwise)
Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard masterpiece)
Love Is the Devil (Meet Francis Bacon, see art made solid)
Le Amiche (early Antonioni, all about the gals and lots of fun)
The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski directs a thrilling thriller)
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich directs, LA Noir stars)
Night Train to Munich (Rex Harrison shows why he became a star and stayed that way)
Antarctica (Israeli rom/com, and really fun)
Fados (Carlos Saura captures the magic of Fados)
This Gun for Hire (Alan Ladd’s sensational film debut, based on a Graham Green novel, all noir, all the time)
I See a Dark Stranger (Deborah Kerr before she was made boring: STAR!)
Miami Vice (Michael Mann directed again, much maligned for no good reason, and Gong Li AMAZING)
Posted on December 4, 2010 by jbmcfar
Standing in Judgment
To check out the book reviews I have done for Shelf Awareness (mostly non-fiction titles on business, economics and social policy, but some select new fiction), go to http://www.Shelf-Awareness.com (the site has been upgraded, looks great and is user-friendly) and search on “McFarland”
Publication List Used to be on Linked In
but that was the past
and now….
The Publications, 1973 until Right Now:
Short Fiction; Essays, Non-fiction and Poetry; Works for Young Readers; and Criticism and Reviews
Short Fiction
• “Interview Techniques,” in Zest Literary Review #5, It’s Complicated, January 2015
• “Fan Page,” in Outer Voices/Inner Lives: A Collection of LGBTQ Writers over 50, edited by Mark McNease and Stephen Dolainsky, MadeMark Publishing 2014
• “Everyone Should Be There,” ImageOutWrite, Volume Three, Personalpronouns, edited byBrad Craddock, ImageOut 2014
• “The Gentrification Archive of the Old Timer in the Tear-Down,” in Buried Letter Press, Oppression Issue, May/June 2014 http://issuu.com/buriedletterpress/docs/buried_letter_press_oppression_may_
• “Right After Gregory,” in Wilde Magazine, Issue Five, Winter 2014, March 19, 2014
• “The New,” in Hobo Pancakes, Issue #8, November , 2011 http://www.hobopancakes.com/2011/11/01/iambic-ixplosion-7/
• “Saviors,” in The View from Here, Issue # 28, October 2010
• “Jimmy’s Class,” in Imitation Fruit, Issue # 7, October 2010 http://www.imitationfruit.com/issue_7/jimmys_class/jimmys_class.html
• “Genesis Too,” in Hobo Pancakes, Issue # 3, August 2010 http://www.hobopancakes.com/articlsoffaith3.html
• “A Discriminating Eye,” in Ganymede, Issue # 7, Spring 2010
• “Lines,” in Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling, edited by Toby Johnson and Steve Berman. Maple Shade, New Jersey: Lethe Press, 2006
• “Encore,” in Daddy’s Boyz, edited by Jim Condron. Sarasota, Florida: STARbooks Press, 2006
• “Aftermath,” in Wet Nightmares, Wet Dreams, edited by Michael Huxley. Sarasota, Florida: STARbooks Press, 2005
• .“Not Needing, Needing,” in Frontiers Newsmagazine, January 2004, Vol. 22, Issue 19 (Winner of Frontiers Newsmagazine’s First Short Fiction Contest)
• “Playtime!,” in Bearotica, edited by Ron Suresha. Los Angeles, California: Alyson Books, 2002
• “A Girl and Her Dog,” in Stringtown, Issue 2, Summer 1999
• “A Matter of Four Pages,” in CONTRA/DICTION: New Queer Male Fiction, edited by Brett Josef Grubisic. Vancouver, B.C., Canada: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998
• “Hot and Bothered,” in The James White Review, V. 15, No. 4, Issue 57, Fall 1998
• “The Fare,” in Mediphors, Fall/Winter, 1998, Issue 12
• “Friday, June 14, 4 p.m.,” in American Jones Building & Maintenance, Issue 2, Summer 1998, Missing Spoke Press
• “Colleen’s Orders,” in Stringtown, Issue 1, Spring 1998; reprinted in ProCreation, Vol.2, No. 1, Fall 1998
• “Bundle and the Wise Ones,” in Frontiers, V. 2, Fall 1997
• “Re-entry,” in spelunker flophouse, V. 1, No. 2, Summer 1997
• “Accepting Rides,” in The Next Parish Over: A Collection of Irish-American Writing. edited by Patricia Monaghan. Minneapolis: New Rivers Press, 1993
• “Two Beachheads,” in stet, No. 13, Spring/ Summer 1993
• “Liquid Prisoners,” in National Gay and Lesbian Reader, Summer 1993
• “Prime Location,” in Caliban, No. 6, Summer 1989
• “Your Ticket to the Land of a Thousand Dances,” in Caliban, No. 2, Summer 1987
• “Refrain,” in Ararat, Spring 1987
• “Ben’s Lead,” in Wiggansnatch, 21, August 1986
• “Advance over Sleepwalking,” in Wiggansnatch, 20, May 1986
• “Eye of the Beholder,” in On the Edge, No. 4, December 1985
• “Special Delivery,” in Wiggansnatch, 16, Sept/Oct 1985
• “A Power to Contend with,” in Fiction ‘84. Novato, California: Exile Press, 1984
• “Curves,” in Wiggansnatch, 12, December 1984
• “Sound Advice,” in Wiggansnatch, 11, October 1984
• “Table Setting,” in Seniority, May 1984
• “No Fault,” in Image, February 1984; reprinted in Wiggansnatch, 18, January 1986
Essays, Non-fiction and Poetry
• “The Writer’s Craft: Master Guides on the Revision Trail (from First Steps and First Words Onward),” presented at the It’s About Time Reading Series on Thursday, October 14, 2004, #183, curated by Esther Helfgott, publshed on the Web site http://www.itsaboutimewriters.homestead.com for It’s About Time Reading Series in October 2004, reprinted in So, Dear Writer . . . An It’s About Time Writers’ Reading Series Anthology edited by Esther Altshul Helfgott, Peggy Sturdivant, Katie Tynan, Cave Moon Press, 2019
• “What I Like,” in UNIVERSAL ONENESS: An Anthology of Magnum Opus Poems from around the World, editor Vivekanand Jha
• “Slippery, Fleeting,” presented at the It’s About Time Reading Series on Thursday, April 14, 2016, #318, curated by Peggy Strudivant
• “Encounter with Blankness: A Provocation,” presented at the It’s About Time Reading Series on Thursday, May 9, 2013, #283, curated by Peggy Strudivant
• “The Writer’s Craft: Master Guides on the Revision Trail (from First Steps and First Words Onward),” presented at the It’s About Time Reading Series on Thursday, October 14, 2004, #183, curated by Esther Helfgott, publshed on the Web site for It’s About Time Reading Series in October 2004: http://www.itsaboutimewriters.homestead.com
• “A Letter,” in Letters to J.D. Salinger, edited by Chris Kubica and Will Hochman. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002
• “All That Lies Between,” in American Jones Building & Maintenance, Issue 8, Summer 2000, Missing Spoke Press
• “Always Dance: Sex and Salvation in Isherwood’s Vedantism,” in The Isherwood Century: Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood , edited by James Berg and Chris Freeman. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000
• “Rhymes with Waiting,” in Boy Meets Boy, edited by Lawrence Schimel. New York: St.Martin’s Press, 1999
• “A House of Many Colors,” in When Love Lasts Forever: Male Couples Celebrate Commitment, edited by Merle Yost. Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 1999
• “A World Open to Chance,” in The Book Group Book, Second Edition, edited by Ellen Slezak. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1995 (reprinted in The Book Group Book, Third Edition, Chicago Review Press, 2000)
• “Craig,” in A Loving Testimony: Remembering Loved Ones Lost to AIDS, edited by Leslea Newman. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1995
• “The House that John Built,” in Ararat, Spring 1994
• “At Home and Abroad,” in The BadBoy Book of Erotic Poetry, edited by David Laurents. New York: BadBoy Books/ Masquerade, 1995
• “Moving in the Spirit of Frank O’Hara: POEM (I Went Straight from Reading CITY POET),” in NO EXIT, V. II, No. 1, Spring 1995
• “Exploring,” in stet, No. 15, Summer 1997
• “Opinions in Flux,” in “My Glass Is Cracked!” A Collection by Poets Whose Glasses Are Neither Half-Empty Nor Half-Full, selected by Candace Catlin Hall. Hartford, Connecticut: Andrew Mountain Press, 1998
• “What I Like,” in The Pegasus Review, May 1998
• “Frida in Detroit,” in Switched on Gutenberg, V. 3, No. 2, Fall/Winter 1998
• Served on juror panel for Seattle/King County Poetry Bus Project 1997
Work for Young Readers
• The Exploding Frog and Other Fables from Aesop. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1981 Selected by Parents Choice Magazine as one of the best illustrated books in 1981
• “The Exploding Frog,” reprinted in Cricket Magazine, June 1982
• “The Unicorn Celebration,” in Cricket Magazine, May 1988 (reprinted in Cricket Magazine, November 2004)
• “Venus and the Cat,” in Cricket Magazine, November 1990
• “A Secret of the Andes,” in Cricket Magazine, September 1997 Awarded First Place, Children’s Picture Book, Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, Summer 1992
• “The Grab Bag,” in Spider Magazine, June 1998
• “A Command Performance for Uncle Charley,” in Letters to Our Children: Gay and Lesbian Adults Speak to the New Generation, edited by Larry Dane Brimner. New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1997
Criticism and Reviews
• Reviews and Criticism published in: Film Center of the Art Institute of Chicago publications, The Seattle Weekly, Lights, Pacific Northwest Magazine, Ararat, P-FORM: Performance Art Journal, Publishers Weekly, Puck and Shelf Awareness, from 1973 onward
• “Edouard Roditi,” biographical entry in the online encyclopedia http://www.glbtq.com, edited by Claude J. Summers, first published December 8, 2006
• “Alfred Redl,” biographical entry in the online encyclopedia http://www.glbtq.com, edited by Claude J. Summers, first published May 6, 2006
• “Chay Yew, biographical entry in the online encyclopedia http://www.glbtq.com, edited by Claude J. Summers, first published April 29, 2006
• “Sir Robert Helpmann,” biographical entry in the online encyclopedia http://www.glbtq.com, edited by Claude J. Summers, first published March 27, 2006.
• “David Diamond,” biographical entry in the online encyclopedia http://www.glbtq.com, edited by Claude J. Summers, first published March 22, 2006.
• “Craig Lucas,” biographical entry in The Queer Encyclopedia of Film and Television, edited by Claude J. Summers. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2005.
• “Maurice Bejart,” “Erik Bruhn,” “Serge Lifar,” and “Rudi van Dantzig,” biographical entries in The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance and Musical Theater, edited by Claude J. Summers. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2004.
• “David Hockney,” biographical entry in The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts, edited by Claude J. Summers. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2004.
• “The Writer’s Craft: Master Guides on the Revision Trail (from First Steps and First Words Onward),” presented at the It’s About Time Reading Series on Thursday, October 14, 2004, #183, curated by Esther Helfgott, publshed on the Web site for It’s About Time Reading Series in October 2004: http://www.itsaboutimewriters.homestead.com
• “Terrence McNally,” “Lanford Wilson,” and “Charles Henri Ford,’ biographcal entries in The Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in America, edited by Marc Stein. New York: Scribner Reference (Gale Group), 2003
EDUCATION
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.S.
• Johns Hopkins University, M.A.
• Harvard University, additional graduate studies
MEMBERSHIPS AND LISTINGS
Listed in: A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers
International Authors and Writers Who’s Who
Rev 10/24/2019
for a few older collages, paper on paper, check out
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbmcfar/
Classical References
