The third novel by the author of PINS and Monkey Suits takes readers on a swift ride of bike messengers, AIDS activism, gay sexuality and urban angst.
Kent R. Hyles, a 24-year-old jaded activist-emeritus, rides through Manhattan as a bike messenger, dodging more than traffic. Ness, his HIV-positive not-boyfriend, lures him to easier climes on the West Coast as he prepares to leave New York.
Still recovering from a passionate affair with Eric Cleese, a popular activist clone, Kent chooses the swift escape of traveling on wheels through the streets of the New York in the early 1990s. Even the advice of a Jamaican messenger leaves him confused, seeking random sexual encounters when not working or avoiding cab doors.
Leaving New York would be easy, but he has a project, born of a chance meeting with a corporate underling, Michael Sheets, who’s eager to learn how to sell a cause, and how to come out. Trading in information for the promise of a lot of money, the messenger learns how to use his skills for a conflicted idealism; theft for a cause.
Each chapter heading is listed with the street corner where the action takes place. Cyclizen offers a brisk and sexy read set in a recent yet almost historic time in New York City. Parental surprise visits, ex-lovers colliding at the laundry, and a brief tragic accident stir up enough problems to inspire an evolution; no longer citizen, not merely cyclist; a cyclizen.
Cyclizen explores the class divisions of metropolitan life, the angst and pleasures of casual sex, and offers a darkly comic take on gay culture and relationships.
As with his previous novels, Provenzano weaves a deeper story, that of the demise of the tribe of centaurs. With clever symbolism, names and plot devices, he retells a mythic tale in a contemporary urban setting.
Excerpt
"There he was in the window, pumped up and glistening like an Amsterdam hooker. It was the wheels that tempted me, thick round chunks like giant Oreo cookies. I couldn’t wait to get ‘em muddy, real muddy. Hide the beauty under Central Park soot.
"If you’re expecting some sort of Zen and the Art of Bike Maintenance from me, forget it. My theory, if extended to life maintenance, is simple. If it breaks, fix it. If you can’t figure out how, hire a professional. If it squeaks or sticks, grease it. Other than that, I pretty much just ground the parts out. Until I figured out which kind of tires to get to prevent flats on the dangerously trash, nail, glass, and pothole-filled avenues, riding wasn’t fun. Not every cyclist shared any presumptuous camaraderie. In fact, some of them could probably be counted on to steal any part not locked down."
Professional Reviews
advance praise – Ian Philips, author of See Dick Deconstruct
From the ashes of office temp arises a courier on two wheels in search of the man who got away. As he whizzes up and down the thoroughfares of Manhattan, fleeing his past, sizing up his future, he careens headlong into lust’s pothole. Watch our hero as he falls under the spell of a dashing and dastardly inside trader. How far will the seduction go? Only the Cyclizen knows.
advance praise - Trebor Healey, author of Through It Came Bright Colors
Juggling AIDS activism, corporate and individual greed, all through the travails of a bike messenger in search of love and belonging, Cyclizen is noteworthy for its fine characterization and poignant lyricism. Provenzano explores love and friendship with insight and nuance, marking his work as unique, vital and significant."
Bay Area Reporter
"Many passages stand out and could stand alone as short stories in their own right: awkward attempts at being friends with an ex-boyfriend, a sad interlude with a friend/fuck buddy, fictional HIV-poz porn star Jake Stallion, plus numerous one-night-stands with guys Kent hopes will be 'the one.' Is there a gay reader who wouldn't see parts of himself in Kent's stories?
One scene particularly resonates in the light of all the AIDS deaths we endured. Kent tries to explain to his parents why he's so unaffected by the death of his 81-year-old aunt. He tells Mom and Dad of all the memorials he's attended. He tries to explain to them what it's like seeing someone die before they're 30, weighing less than 100 lbs. But Mom and Dad either don't get it, or don't want to hear it. This sequence is beautifully, poetically written.
Cyclizen is unforgettable. Kent's look back on his younger days almost feels like a ghost story. The years covered in the book are a period that will indeed haunt us forever." -- Bay Area Reporter
Just a simple gathering of the Gay & Lesbian Activist Association of New Birch and Sipsboror (GLAABS) and we plunge down a hilarious ride to perdition.
Martin Powers wanted an ironing board for Christmas. Instead, he got . . . Matthew Kieler, a non-returnable gift, but a gift that kept on giving. A powerful tale of survival, compassion and unapologetic love in the time of AIDS.
‘I have to go back soon,’ says Adam one afternoon. Yes, I know he has to go back soon. He has to go back to London and to his job and his apprenticeship. He has taken the maximum number of days leave – he has taken his entire Summer holiday in the Sp
