Captain Swing

by Larry Duplechan

Depressed by the death of his gay lover in an auto accident, Johnnie Ray Rousseau is called to the deathbed of his disapproving father, where he meets Nigel, a second cousin who offers a new chance for romance

Genres: Gay Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I've been rereading Duplechan's connected novels slightly out of order, it's been nice to review them for the intimate and affable style. In this story, jazz singer Johnnie Ray Rousseau returns to his Louisiana home when his father is dying in a hospital. The message isn't from his dad, who remains hostile toward his gay son. Johnnie is surprised to see his young cousin Nigel has grown to be a strapping young man, and their connection gets intense. The novel is full of outspoken relatives and African American family arguments with secrets revealed. The descriptions are rich with sounds, scents, food and an erotic air, with some eventual resolution. The related novels to this work, 'Tangled Up in Blue,' and 'Eight Days a Week' are also worth reading.

[Ted Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent ending. Brilliant execution.

[Joaocanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure I could have predicted that would enjoy a book about two second cousins boning this much. Yet here we are.
I read Blackbird last year, and really enjoyed that. It sucks that it seems like Blackbird seems the only book by Duplechan that is easy to find. Because now I have scoured the internet looking for decent copies of his Johnnie Rousseau's novels.
I did not like this as much as I liked Blackbird, but it was still a decent book. The main problem for me is that the first 50 pages or so drags a bit, but once he is back in Louisiana the novel takes off. Mostly because of the secondary characters: Aunt Lucille, Fifty and Freen. I could read an entire novel about any of these characters.
The prose is pretty enjoyable too. There is this passage in the middle of the novel that pretty much sums up Duplechan's style:
"I am relatively sure that at half of everything I've ever said was taken from some fifty-year-old RKO movie, some Tom Robbins novel, some Joni Mitchell song. It has long been assertion that if Twentieth Century Fox had never released All About Eve, I might have adulthood not only mute, but utterly humorless and very likely heterosexual"

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had missed Duplechan's novels when they were originally published. I recently read Blackbird and now this one, which is the last of the Johnny Ray Rousseau's novels to date. Rousseau is called back to his Louisiana roots to pay farewell to his dying homophobic father. While there, he becomes emotionally and physically involved with his 19 year old cousin Nigel. (SPOILER: I found the sex between these two very different men to be tastefully handled but I still felt squeamish reading about it.) The short novel plays out with a plausible and sensible ending. Since this novel was published in 1993, it's now time for a sequel between the adult Nigel and Johnny Ray. Duplechan is a wonderful writer who creates memorable characters written in a humorous but never condescending way! Bravo

[Micah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is whatever, but it can never get over the initial incest. And the fact that the on person is 35 and the other is 19 makes it even more disgusting to me. Having someone be of legal age doesn't mean that an older person is not a predator. It's gross. And the idea that this is one of the funniest gay novels of 1995 really makes me sad we haven't really progressed much since this isn't funny at all and gay fiction still relies so much on tragedy.

[Katie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet little story.