Groovy Books: Band Fags!

Since I love to read, I thought it was about time to feature some of my current and past favorite books here on Deep Dish. So to kick things off, I've selected a recent read of mine--Band Fags! by Frank Anthony Polito, a Brooklyn-based actor and playwright whose first novel is a total delight. It tells the retro tale of an increasingly complicated friendship between two boys, Jack Paterno and Brad Dayton, who are both Band Fags (Jack plays the trumpet and Brad the trombone in their school band). The story follows them from seventh grade until just before their freshman year in college, taking us back in time to 1982-88. The novel has some very serious moments as both young men grow up and fall in and out of love--and lust. Adolescence can be quite confusing and heartbreaking, and Polito makes us care deeply for his characters, whom I easily identified with. However, the author also made me laugh out loud many times with his use of pop culture from the 1970s and '80s, including:

Hunky actor Jon-Erik Hexum--"the male answer to Christie Brinkley"--whose Playgirl exposure gets the boys all hot and bothered.

Singer Rex Smith, whose Sooner or Later film takes Jack's breath away.

The "totally romantic" movie, Somewhere in Time, starring Superman (aka Christopher Reeve) and Jane Seymour, which makes Jack want to stay in The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island someday (where it was filmed).

And comedienne Judy Tenuta, who makes an amusing cameo appearance in the novel.

But my favorite flashback is Jack's crush on actress Kristian Alfonso, who began playing the character of Hope Williams Brady on the daytime soap opera, Days of our Lives, in 1983 (she's still on the show today). Jack follows her every move by taping the soap on his VCR, reading about her in Soap Opera Digest and her official Fan Club newsletter, and compiling his own scrapbook of photos and articles. One of my favorite chapters--with the fitting title of "Obsession"--is all about Jack's chance to actually meet Ms. Alfonso "up close and personal" when she makes a public appearance in Toledo, Ohio (which is 70 miles from his hometown of Hazel Park, Michigan). It turns out to be a day that the boy will never forget.

I highly recommend Band Fags! How can you resist a story with chapters named after such groovy tunes as "We Got The Beat", "You Spin Me Round" and "She Bop"? If you're looking for some fun in the sun this summer, it's a perfect book to read on the beach, and I look forward to Polito's second novel, Drama Queers!, which was just released this week.