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Waiting for Something Else
FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR GAY FICTION
The path to love doesn't always travel in a straight direction. Waiting for Something Else tells the story of James, a heterosexual man who unexpectedly falls in love—but not quite in lust—with his gay co-worker, Roger.
“Martin Cloutier's prose is suffused with intelligence, wit, compassion, and a vision of the world uniquely his own but which also speaks to a potentially wide readership. This writer is on the cusp of an impressive literary career.”
—Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog
“Martin Cloutier understands that comedy -- the searing, real kind -- begins in an honesty as painful for the reader as for the author. We laugh when we read his work because we hear, fatally, the accents of our own abjection as it encounters the humiliations of daily life.”
—Edmund White, author of A Boy’s Own Story
Bald, bewildered, and Buddhist, James is struggling to adjust to life in New York City. Nine months into managing a Brooklyn gourmet restaurant, he’s still friendless and dateless, and secretly pining for Sherry—a Wiccan vixen with a narcissistic streak—but too timid to act. One drunken night, while confessing his unrequited love to Roger, a playwright known for sex comedies, James unwittingly stumbles into one of his own when Roger makes a move on him.
Roger, weary of sculptured thighs, pecs, and the superficial chicken parts of gay dating, is drawn to James’s awkward sincerity—and his knack for puppet animation. James enjoys the ego-stroking attention of Roger’s sexual advances, and envies his ability to make art in off-Broadway Brooklyn, but remains unsold on his hairy chest, prominent jaw, and unavoidable penis. Things become even more complicated when Sherry, escaping her bipolar boyfriend, moves in with Roger—only to catch feelings after a drunken night sharing his bed.
In this era of shifting identities, sexual fluidity, and the messy modern search for connection, Waiting for Something Else tackles the complexities of attraction—the fine lines between gay, straight and questioning—exploring whether desire can transcend sexual orientation and our personal expectations.
Editorial Reviews
“Waiting for Something Else is a brilliant comedy of manners about erotic confusion, artistic ambition, and the eternal search for connection. It is also extraordinarily funny. Martin Cloutier writes about the world of high cuisine and low behavior with sensual precision and piercing wit. This is a serious novel that never takes itself too seriously, one brave enough to parse the meaning of blowjobs even as it plumbs the mysteries of the heart.”
—Steve Almond, author of All the Secrets of the World
“This novel is as charming, bawdy, eloquent, and purely pleasurable as any romantic comedy could be. Its characters inhabit their hapless fates in unrequited lust and love with humor and wit. Beneath the comic contemporary surface -- 21st century New York cynics, servers, actors, artists, waiters, chefs, drinkers, lovers—runs the deeply philosophical and muddled inquiry into the nature of love. One yearns, as in a Jane Austen novel, for the true linking of souls beyond the restrictive conventions of culture. Waiting for Something Else most definitely delivers.”
—Antonya Nelson, author of Female Trouble
“Waiting for Something Else is about the big things—lov
The path to love doesn't always travel in a straight direction. Waiting for Something Else tells the story of James, a heterosexual man who unexpectedly falls in love—but not quite in lust—with his gay co-worker, Roger.
“Martin Cloutier's prose is suffused with intelligence, wit, compassion, and a vision of the world uniquely his own but which also speaks to a potentially wide readership. This writer is on the cusp of an impressive literary career.”
—Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog
“Martin Cloutier understands that comedy -- the searing, real kind -- begins in an honesty as painful for the reader as for the author. We laugh when we read his work because we hear, fatally, the accents of our own abjection as it encounters the humiliations of daily life.”
—Edmund White, author of A Boy’s Own Story
Bald, bewildered, and Buddhist, James is struggling to adjust to life in New York City. Nine months into managing a Brooklyn gourmet restaurant, he’s still friendless and dateless, and secretly pining for Sherry—a Wiccan vixen with a narcissistic streak—but too timid to act. One drunken night, while confessing his unrequited love to Roger, a playwright known for sex comedies, James unwittingly stumbles into one of his own when Roger makes a move on him.
Roger, weary of sculptured thighs, pecs, and the superficial chicken parts of gay dating, is drawn to James’s awkward sincerity—and his knack for puppet animation. James enjoys the ego-stroking attention of Roger’s sexual advances, and envies his ability to make art in off-Broadway Brooklyn, but remains unsold on his hairy chest, prominent jaw, and unavoidable penis. Things become even more complicated when Sherry, escaping her bipolar boyfriend, moves in with Roger—only to catch feelings after a drunken night sharing his bed.
In this era of shifting identities, sexual fluidity, and the messy modern search for connection, Waiting for Something Else tackles the complexities of attraction—the fine lines between gay, straight and questioning—exploring whether desire can transcend sexual orientation and our personal expectations.
Editorial Reviews
“Waiting for Something Else is a brilliant comedy of manners about erotic confusion, artistic ambition, and the eternal search for connection. It is also extraordinarily funny. Martin Cloutier writes about the world of high cuisine and low behavior with sensual precision and piercing wit. This is a serious novel that never takes itself too seriously, one brave enough to parse the meaning of blowjobs even as it plumbs the mysteries of the heart.”
—Steve Almond, author of All the Secrets of the World
“This novel is as charming, bawdy, eloquent, and purely pleasurable as any romantic comedy could be. Its characters inhabit their hapless fates in unrequited lust and love with humor and wit. Beneath the comic contemporary surface -- 21st century New York cynics, servers, actors, artists, waiters, chefs, drinkers, lovers—runs the deeply philosophical and muddled inquiry into the nature of love. One yearns, as in a Jane Austen novel, for the true linking of souls beyond the restrictive conventions of culture. Waiting for Something Else most definitely delivers.”
—Antonya Nelson, author of Female Trouble
“Waiting for Something Else is about the big things—lov
387 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 3, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 22, 2025
Incredibly funny, with bite. A great read.
June 9, 2026
The Lambda Literary Awards are the Kentucky Derby of LGBTQ literature, and this year’s winners will be announced June 12. Martin Cloutier’s Waiting for Something Else is a finalist in the Gay Fiction category, and while the competition is fierce (The Sunflower Boys is also in the running), you probably wouldn’t lose money betting Cloutier’s novel will at least place. (Horse-racing lingo for finishing in the top two.)
Frankly, Waiting for Something Else might very well win. It has thoroughbred quality.
Cloutier came out of the gate with an unusual ambition: to write a genuinely funny literary novel.
He succeeded.
He introduces us to three characters who are literally waiting—as in working at a gourmet restaurant in Brooklyn, but also figuratively waiting for life to give them what they want. There’s James—tall, bald, formerly fat—who wants a domineering woman and has his eye on Sherry. Roger is openly gay, dates muscular go-go boys, but wants a meaningful relationship. He thinks James fits the bill. And Sherry, who is attracted to artists and married men, has drunk sex with Roger and thinks she can straighten him out.
Here’s Roger’s opinion of his escapade with Sherry:
He let Sherry do all the work. For as friendly as the breasts looked with all their bouncy fullness, the vagina with its red folds and creases appeared rather angry. He remembered reading somewhere that you have to be more polite at the front door than the back. The whole apparatus seemed unnecessarily complicated—too many foyers and vestibules before the main entrance. Was this biology’s way of increasing anticipation—an endless list of opening acts before the main concert?
My sentiments exactly.
Most books that aim for funny settle for absurdity. Skippy Dies comes to mind. Cloutier achieves it through the setup of three people, each wanting someone else. I was reminded of one of my favorite Frasier episodes, “The Ski Lodge.”
Setup alone won’t carry a novel, and this is where Cloutier separates himself from the field. The best humor exposes the truths we spend our lives trying to hide.
On the subject of truths: yes this book is funny, but that’s not why I recommend it. If you just want comedy, watch SNL. What you won’t find there, or even on my beloved Frasier, are characters so real they could be your frustrating coworkers—or a deep dive into the chicken-or-egg debate about human sexuality.
The comedy here takes you around the first two turns of the track. James’s reticence about his sexuality is what fuels the home stretch.
Here Roger is presented as openly gay and fixed in his sexuality, despite his oopsie with Sherry. James, on the other hand, is a conundrum. He has only ever been with women and seems truly attracted to them. We’re right there while he ogles Sherry’s boobs.
James wants Sherry—until he doesn’t, until he settles on the something else.
I’ll be honest. As a preacher’s kid who tried damned hard to settle on the something else, this disturbed me, as in ranting-to-my-husband level frustration. It was my gentle husband who pointed out that Cloutier never pushes the argument that far. He leaves the question unanswered. Does James settle? Or fluidly change his orientation?
Here’s James contemplating this issue:
Some things, like a penis, could not be so easily accepted. To accept a penis required more than a minimal commitment. It wasn’t like a party invitation. You couldn’t just accept a penis one day and then cancel it the next. There were implications. Society demanded a choice. He needed to be branded with one of the LGBT letters. But why did it have to be like that? Why couldn’t sexuality be like someone’s income, impolite to mention and unethical to judge?
This—not the humor—is why you need to buy this book. Even if you don’t read it, you’re going to want it on your coffee table, so you can prove to your friends you can spot a thoroughbred when you see one.
Frankly, Waiting for Something Else might very well win. It has thoroughbred quality.
Cloutier came out of the gate with an unusual ambition: to write a genuinely funny literary novel.
He succeeded.
He introduces us to three characters who are literally waiting—as in working at a gourmet restaurant in Brooklyn, but also figuratively waiting for life to give them what they want. There’s James—tall, bald, formerly fat—who wants a domineering woman and has his eye on Sherry. Roger is openly gay, dates muscular go-go boys, but wants a meaningful relationship. He thinks James fits the bill. And Sherry, who is attracted to artists and married men, has drunk sex with Roger and thinks she can straighten him out.
Here’s Roger’s opinion of his escapade with Sherry:
He let Sherry do all the work. For as friendly as the breasts looked with all their bouncy fullness, the vagina with its red folds and creases appeared rather angry. He remembered reading somewhere that you have to be more polite at the front door than the back. The whole apparatus seemed unnecessarily complicated—too many foyers and vestibules before the main entrance. Was this biology’s way of increasing anticipation—an endless list of opening acts before the main concert?
My sentiments exactly.
Most books that aim for funny settle for absurdity. Skippy Dies comes to mind. Cloutier achieves it through the setup of three people, each wanting someone else. I was reminded of one of my favorite Frasier episodes, “The Ski Lodge.”
Setup alone won’t carry a novel, and this is where Cloutier separates himself from the field. The best humor exposes the truths we spend our lives trying to hide.
On the subject of truths: yes this book is funny, but that’s not why I recommend it. If you just want comedy, watch SNL. What you won’t find there, or even on my beloved Frasier, are characters so real they could be your frustrating coworkers—or a deep dive into the chicken-or-egg debate about human sexuality.
The comedy here takes you around the first two turns of the track. James’s reticence about his sexuality is what fuels the home stretch.
Here Roger is presented as openly gay and fixed in his sexuality, despite his oopsie with Sherry. James, on the other hand, is a conundrum. He has only ever been with women and seems truly attracted to them. We’re right there while he ogles Sherry’s boobs.
James wants Sherry—until he doesn’t, until he settles on the something else.
I’ll be honest. As a preacher’s kid who tried damned hard to settle on the something else, this disturbed me, as in ranting-to-my-husband level frustration. It was my gentle husband who pointed out that Cloutier never pushes the argument that far. He leaves the question unanswered. Does James settle? Or fluidly change his orientation?
Here’s James contemplating this issue:
Some things, like a penis, could not be so easily accepted. To accept a penis required more than a minimal commitment. It wasn’t like a party invitation. You couldn’t just accept a penis one day and then cancel it the next. There were implications. Society demanded a choice. He needed to be branded with one of the LGBT letters. But why did it have to be like that? Why couldn’t sexuality be like someone’s income, impolite to mention and unethical to judge?
This—not the humor—is why you need to buy this book. Even if you don’t read it, you’re going to want it on your coffee table, so you can prove to your friends you can spot a thoroughbred when you see one.
May 19, 2026
The prose starts out a little manic and overwhelming, but eventually I found the cadence and fell into the story and characters. I found it painful to read at times. So much is so very relatable and insightful about the nature of attraction and sexuality and the boundaries between friendship and something more. I can't tell you how many times I've had a hopeless crush on a friend that I was so glad I never confessed because eventually I found the cadence and fell into the boundaries of friendship. It makes me glad and sad I've never lived in New York. I think I'll be digesting it for a while.
June 3, 2026
such a gem of a book. we're all just waiting and figuring things out arent we <3
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews