Dirty Old Town, by Richard Bowes

Dirty Old Town is in F & SF, May 2017.  It's a story a lot like Dust Devil on a Quiet Street, in that it feels very autobiographical but it isn't, quite.  The settings are real, but the TV series described is not. 

The story concerns a childhood--well "frenemy" oversimplifies.  A boy he feared and fought but knew personally becomes an actual friend and lover in adulthood (still complicated).  The guy is a journeyman actor, and wants to produce a story about Bowes' grandfather.  There is a bit of magic involved, in that the protagonist can use an incantation to get inside another person's head and feel what they are feeling.

It's really a very good story, makes you feel quite fine about spending the time to read it.  It's also too complex to describe briefly, and is probably worthy of some deeper criticism.  I can't link to it as it is paywalled, but if you get a chance to read it you should.  I give it four stars.

Sleep Walking Now and Then, by Richard Bowes

I reviewed Richard Bowes' semi-autobiographical World Fantasy Award nominee last year, and found it a little lifeless.  His story nominated this year, Sleep Walking Now and Then, is another matter.  It has the same sensibility as the book, but succeeds by having a different focus.

Bowes describes a New York he knows well, projected forward. It's a harsher, more elegiac place that's more devoted to jaded entertainment than it is in the present. Those entertainments take advantage of the faded glory of the city, and one such is depicted here.

There is technical speculation - in the 2060's we have the option to have our phones literally in our palms, rather than carrying Palms. Maybe not. But the social speculation feels right on. The impresario putting on the entertainment (an immersive one, where the audience is within the show) is probably better off than most, but he's still living from show to show. The actors are a part of the underclass of the city. All will do pretty much anything to keep the run going.

Enjoy this as a dystopian and yet genteel view of the near future. 3 stars from me.

Dust Devil on a Quiet Street, by Richard Bowes

Dust Devil on a Quiet Street is a sort of fictional memoir.  A lot of events appear to be true, but none of it is guaranteed to be.  Definitely the tone of the book is a memoir, more than a novel.  I guess it's OK as a form, but for me it kind of fell short.

Beyond being a memoir, Dust Devil is about gay life in Manhattan, with a strong element of reaction to the tragedy of 9/11.  Bowes poses himself as a self-effaced sort of man-about-town, hanging out with many great writers and getting some nominations but not ever quite enough to make a living at it.  Supernatural elements, mostly low key, are woven in as a natural component.  He sees things because he can.

While he does appear to have been around a lot of famous people, he seems to have changed the names for some of the central characters.  I can't verify Judy Finch (Judy Light, Judy Icon) as a rock singer or Barbara Lohr as a fantasy writer.

Bowes was a reference assistant at a New York university library for 30 years, and librarian personality has sort of infested this writing.  Certainly he didn't start out that way--mostly high, lots of racy scenes and risky sex, and close calls with death.  But it all seems kind of remote.

Many reviewers seem to find this book profound and moving, but really it just never got going for me.  Bowes is so very detached from his own life that it's hard for him to tell us why we should care about his adventures.  Certainly there's an exciting life story here, that leads to something--redemption, recognition--but we don't see it here.  I'm going to give it 3 stars, but I think I'm being generous.

I Needs Must Part, The Policeman Said, by Richard Bowes

I have been reading the Nebula Award nominees available online--the latest was I Needs Must Part, The Policeman Said , by Richard Bowes. The story is of a Greenwich Village man, seemingly rather ordinary, developing a serious illness and making contact with the world on the other side, as it were. The story has a very autobiographical feel--the character turns out to be a writer of speculative fiction. His struggles to maintain sanity might be contact with a different reality, or a more mundane slide into madness. This one grew on my as I read it, I like it just enough to give it 3 stars.