Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men About More-or-Less Gay Life

by Wendell Ricketts

In this age of Will & Grace and gentrification, the dream market and gay investment advisors, you don't hear much about working-class queers. In fact, some would even consider the idea a contradiction in terms. But the contributors to Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men About More-or-Less Gay Life would beg to differ. The first collection of short stories by working-class queer, gay, and bisexual men, Everything I Have Is Blue is a rich and long-overdue contribution both to the burgeoning field of working-class studies and to LGBTIQ fiction.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Queer, Gay, LGBT, Gay Fiction

249 pages, Paperback

Published June 28, 2005

About the author

Wendell Ricketts was born on an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,and raised in various small towns on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. He holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and has worked professionally as a translator from Italian since 1998. In addition to The Wrong Door: The Complete Plays of Natalia Ginzburg (U. Toronto Press, 2008), an early version of which received the PEN American Center Renato Poggioli Prize for translation, he is the translator of Communicating Success: Public Relations with an Italian Flair; Olive Oil and the Mediterranean; Trilobites: The Back To The Past Museum Guide; Ferrara and its Bread: The History of a Culinary Masterpiece across Seven Centuries, and Twenty Cigarettes in Nasiriyah: A Memoir, among other publications. He has also translated four books as yet unpublished in English, including the novels Generations of Love (Matteo B. Bianchi) and Around Three O’Clock (Andrej Longo); his translations of excerpts from two recent Italian working-class novels appeared in World Literature Today in November 2013. From 1986 to 1996 he was theater and dance critic for the Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco, California, and his writing about literature, travel, politics, the media, and contemporary social issues have appeared in such publications as Contact Quarterly, The Advocate, Dance Ink, Marriage and Family Review, Spin, Silent No More: Voices of Courage in American Schools, and 30 Days in Italy: True Stories of Escape to the Good Life. His fiction and poetry have been published in such journals and anthologies as Mississippi Review, Salt Hill, Blue Mesa Review, modern words, and The Long Story. He is the author of What We Lost in the Fire & Other Stories (FourCats Press, 2022), Cards from the Basket: 307 Imaginative Writing Prompts to Spark the Creativity of Writers, Writing Teachers, Students — and Everyone! and editor of Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men about More-or-Less Gay Life (2005) and of Blue, Too: More Writing by (for or about) Working Class Queers (2014).

Reviews

[C.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK! OK! I admit that ONE of the reasons I like this book is because I have work included in it! Pages from my forthcoming book "advanced ELVIS course" you can see here: http://hometown.aol.com/caconrad13/my...

Wendell Ricketts did an amazing job, and did something almost NO ONE else is willing to do, especially in queer culture, and that's write about working class queers.

FUCK the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy crowd! This is an anthology by queer working class men who say we all need to be who we are, and STOP taking fashion tips, and other such bullshit, and start making REAL changes in this world! Like ending the FUCKING WAR in Iraq for instance, which is taking the lives of working class men and women every single day!

CAConrad

my NEW BOOK (Soma)tic Midge (Faux Press): http://CAConrad.blogspot.com

the DEAR MR. PRESIDENT poem with pictures: http://thedearmrpresidentpoem.blogspo...

PhillySound FEATURE in FANZINE: http://phillysound.blogspot.com/2008_...

PhillySound: new poetry: http://PhillySound.blogspot.com

updated (Soma)tic POETRY EXERCISES: http://somaticpoetryexercises.blogspo...

[Blake Fraina · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, the theme of this very intriguing book can be found in editor Wendell Ricketts's story "Raspberry Pie." Regarding his posh, patrician ex-lover across the lunch table, the narrator's only desire is to make him understand that, "I am not like you."

Fortunately for readers, Ricketts, unlike the protagonist of his story, doesn't plan to drag us out to his favourite splatter films to prove his point. Instead he has given us this fascinating, diverse and refreshingly unique short fiction anthology in order to blow apart many of the tired stereotypes of gay men that persist in Western culture.

The struggling protagonists of these stories are acutely aware, not only of their place in the social strata, but of their status as outsiders. They remark on more privileged men that surround them sometimes with frustration and contempt, as in the Rickett's story, sometimes with envy and desire, like the anonymous Harvard cutie sporting Brooks Brothers and Bass Weejuns on the MTA in John Gilgun's "Cream," or merely with simple bewilderment, as with the outreach worker whose green polo shirt "...looked as if it'd never seen a stain," in Rick Laurent Feely's "Skins."

But even though their working class origins are plainly evident most of them occupy an uncomfortable grey area in between the two worlds, for it is with an equal degree of detachment they regard their own families and the environments they grew up in. Fathers are often belching, farting brutes firmly planted in front of the TV with beers in hand, while mothers are ineffectual, chain smoking, church-ladies. Even in a story where the narrator and his boyfriend are unconditionally embraced by a warm, loving family (the lovely, winsome holiday tale, "My Special Friend" by Christopher Lord) the author still takes pains to describe the orange and brown crocheted afghan draping the sofa, the twin Barcaloungers, the beanbag ashtrays and a collection of ceramic chickens in the kitchen. In this way, it seems as if they are saying, "But I am not like you, either."

Most of the men in these stories are transplants to major cities or metropolitan areas - Portland, Baltimore, Toronto, New Orleans, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Some are in college or recent graduates, others newly employed or recently promoted. And all of them, with several notable exceptions (like the trucker in Timothy Anderson's hilarious "Hooters, Tooters and the Big Dog") appear to be trying, with varying degrees of success, to transcend their roots while still rejecting the stereotypical lifestyle that the media insistently sells as the gay ideal.

And that's the beauty of this book. The characters refuse to be pigeonholed. They come across as living, breathing individuals and thus are the strong suit in most of the stories. I highly recommend this book to readers of gay fiction who are seeking a unique perspective and some terrifically original characters.

[Adam Hodgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had really high expections for this book and I wasn't disapointed, it's nice to read queer fiction thats not about rich double income no kids types. Some stories I liked more than others of course but thats always the way collections like this are. While I could relate to some of the working class feel of the stories, some hit really close to home, I found that this was a very American, not that that's a bad thing but there are big differences between growing up working class in Canada and growing up working class in the States.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like short story collections for the simple fact that they are often organized around common subjects, and I was drawn to this because I have never seen an anthology of 'gay' fiction devoted to class, or rather the blue collar and working class gays. Definitely worth the read and there's story by local activist, writer (and a friend of mine) Rick L. Feely in the edition.

[cubbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i was really excited about the first few stories, pretty put off by the goriness of some of the middle stories, really excited about the end stories, and not as excited as i thought i would be about the final essay.

[Peadaar Morrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

[Sumayyah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5