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Buzz and Israel
by Charlie Vazquez (Fireking Press 2005)
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More than anything, Charlie Vazquez's first novel is about a search for a fully realized and worthy Self. Such a quest is typical and de rigueur for all the young, but even more so for disenfranchised gay youth. Vazquez places his title characters, Buzz & Israel, in the context of the marginalized "punk" and underground criminal world that often takes advantage of those who fall intentionally or not, into it. This further heightens the sense of alienation of the young men as each strives to survive. Who but a few among us have escaped even a brush with this element of life in our growing up and coming out.
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The story, familiar to many gay men who have searched for identity and community as they come to accept their sexual orientation, is tragic and dark. There is no redemption or escape from the tangled mess of their lives and circumstance. These two represent a sector of the community that is left behind or pushed aside and is similar in this respect to the underclass of the majority. Without proper guidance or mentorship their choices lead them further and further away from attaining their true core needs; love, acceptance, companionship, and success. It is, in more than a few ways, at least at its core, an every-gay-man story.
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Israel, a Puerto Rican orphan from New York City has gotten caught up in the schemes of others who use him, his beauty and his innocence, for their own gratification. Buzz, a truly lost soul who has been objectified his whole life, uses his raw outsider persona to woo and seduce Israel into a chaotic world of drugs, crime, and what many non-gay readers may consider debauchery. Older gay readers will recognize many of the characters from their own pasts, especially those who have gone a long way from home and the culture that rejected them. Many of the scenes will evoke memories of the worst moments in our youthful exploration and for the younger, less worldly and experienced reader it will give a concrete and vivid picture of what can happen if they too get caught up in their own illusions and the nearly inescapable delusional net of the predator's seductions.
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The plot takes them down the west coast from Oregon into California, over into the deserts of Arizona, ending finally in Israel's hometown borough. Along the way Buzz introduces Israel to his circle of seedy compadres that he gathered around him over the years and the world where he is a big fish in a small murky pond. We meet lonely and often lecherous men looking for fresh meat, fences for stolen loot, hustlers, drug addicts, musicians, drag queens and trannies. Many are stock characters we all recognize and few, save the shamanesque Andrea Gina and Israel's adoptive clan of Santerians, are as uniquely original as they think they are or have to be. This heightens the sad, dark feeling that permeates the book. Like the berdache, the trannie Andrea Gina is the lone voice of good sense and reason. She is a heroine whose best efforts are only temporarily relieving. The Santerians, who are the most deftly fleshed out of all the characters, try the best as they know how within their worldview to save Israel also wind up being ineffective. They too represent a closed society in which the uninitiated and weaker can be devoured, albeit by "saints".
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Handwritten chronologically from beginning to end in Portland cafes over several years, the story unfolds slowly and somewhat heavy handedly with effected language and literary conceits. Not until the two main characters take to the road does the story pick up speed and a clear voice. The middle chapters read quickly and cleanly, each scene rolls seamlessly to the next, making it the most enjoyable part of the book. Being a young writer, Vazquez hits many of the potholes all first time novelists do and for that reason can be rightly forgiven. The story is compelling in the same way rubbernecking a bad accident is - it is disquieting, painful to look at, but instinctually necessary to witness if only to show us what can happen if we don't pay attention to the signs in the road. Some may liken it to the gritty, raw texture of Burroughs or Genet, but Vazquez is too young to have their expertise and voice. That naiveté adds to the tragic feel of the story in a way the older, more jaded and derelict novelists couldn't. It works to Vazquez's advantage.
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Buzz and Israel is a necessary read if only because it represents a milieu that has been denied a voice by our culture in most places other than music where angst and rage are readily accepted motifs - perhaps because songs are more easily palatable for the shortness of their exposition and their time limited marketability based on trend and profit margins.
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This novel lingers, hovers like volcanic ash falling from a darkened sky and leaves an acrid taste in one's mouth and heavy dust on the heart. And, this is as it should be if this story is to have its intended impact. Vazquez has accurately reflected back to us that part of ourselves and our society that many so tenaciously try to ignore or push out of consciousness. It belongs to a queer fiction genre now becoming familiar and accepted by gay readers as we become a more established community that doesn't necessarily always have to put out a positive, most times defensive, spin for the public for political and social gain. It is offensive, and in the end shows quite clearly that the gay community, just like the straight one, has a dark underbelly that must be seen and acknowledged if the community as an inclusive whole is to become balanced, humane, and compassionate.
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Review by Mark Hannan 2005
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Obtain a copy of Buzz and Israel
http://www.firekingpress.com/author.htm
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