Dale Peck

This is the first time I have ever not finished a book I received through Early Reviewers. But I couldn't do it. I ragequit this book during the very first disc. The rampant and obvious misogyny in both the writing of these stories and the narration of the audiobook are appalling. Male audiobook narrators: please stop doing high, nasal voices for female characters. You don't sound female; you sound deranged and bigoted. Male literary authors: please stop exploiting female pain for the sake show more of your "art" - it's crass.
Absolutely do not recommend. show less

Jaspar Van Arsdale doesn't understand the changes going on with his friend Q. He seems to be preoccupied with with helping Jaspar to lose his virginity, which isn't all that unusual for teenage boys, but Q's insistence has a dark, taunting quality and an urgency that surprises Jaspar. It isn't until after the car accident caused by Q, which leaves Q unscathed, that Jaspar's like is completely changed. He died in the crash, but he inexplicably finds himself transported into the body of show more another classmate named Jarhead and has almost complete control over him. Struggling to discover what happened, he soon finds himself being hunted by a demon named Leo and a demon hunter named Ileana. One wants to show him the wonders of his new existence; the other would like nothing more than to bring him to a final end.

"Body Surfing" is a sexually charged tale of demons and creation. Or, the creation of demons. From Leo, the story provides an interesting story of what it's like to live forever -- the many pleasures both sexual and violent, and the loneliness that comes with it. Leo's existence consists of jumping from body to body, wreaking havoc in whatever body he commandeers, but deep down he wants to share this with someone, so he breaks one of his groups own laws and creates a demon out of Jaspar. From Jaspar, the story focuses on what he should do now that he has these amazing powers. Should be follow along with Leo and become a full-fledged demon, or should he put an end to it before things get too out of hand? I highly recommend reading it to find out. show less

Mouthy, catty, bitchy. Smart and articulate too, though that should be taken for granted. Peck's selling point and sole outstanding characteristic (there are others who write as well or better) is his unabashed snark. Come to the judgments themselves, he's sometimes right, often wrong, and who really cares? If you read him at all, you read him for the atavistic spectacle of criticism as bone-crunch and blood-spew. The corollary being that when he gives the hatchet a rest and tries to talk show more straight, he's as dull and plodding a critic as most. show less

Dale Peck's Visions and Revisions is part memoir and part historical and cultural analysis written in a fierce, tight and poetic style that brought me right back to those horrible and life-changing days before protease inhibitors. While not a full history of ACT UP it gives an excellent sense of what it was like to organize when it was a matter of life and death and there was nothing to lose. While sometimes it seems as if it was so long ago and that the communities that was created, show more especially in large cities, have moved on, I still see remnants of it in #BlackLivesMatter or in Occupy Wall Street (and of course the biggest debt also goes to the Civil Rights movement) or in the organizing in the Trans community. I love Peck's bold style and his ability to write about his sexuality in a raw and unapologetic manner and his rage at a government that did not care whether gay people lived or died. The last part of the book "13 Ecstasies of the Soul" knocked me flat out (and I agree with the reviewer who said it reminded him of "Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies for Rog) and I confess I wept and then began reading the book again. Thank you Edelweiss for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion. show less