Green Eyes

Green Eyes #1

by Michael Ampersant

Alpha males, delicate souls, and a killer-psychopath hit it off in an impossible scramble for the last happy ending. Yes, the GREEN EYES take you on a roller-coaster ride of gay romance (“When bipolar John meets mesmerizing Alex in the cruising area of Georgia Beach, little does he know about Alex’s haunted past…”). And, yes, the book is about lithe, tapered bodies, perfect abs, and outsized male organs. It’s about love. And hurt. And murder. And redemption. Glands fire. People talk during intercourse. There’s a hilarious supporting cast. Expectations are met. Yet we do more. We have Nobel laureates. We have an even-handed discussion of the orthographic skills of the Tea Party (“No pubic option”). We have educational content about the mysteries of vasocongestion. We have neologisms (“Ikea moment,” “Armani minimum”). You learn about the 302 neurons that constitute the brain of a microscopic worm---and how this all relates to the IQ of John’s hated, child-abusing father. You participate in an in-flagrante masterclass. You get a hitchhiker’s guide to gay sex. You learn about the unheard-of provisions still on the Georgia books prohibiting all but intra-marriage intercourse (Title 16, Ch. 6). You hear about Torre’s observation (“The other line is moving faster”). You’ll be amazed by our avant-garde art and music, or by the voracious appetites of two desperate housewives (“Consenting adults, unite”). We have secret drugs, Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, Albert Camus, Mark Twain, and countable near-death experiences. Pizzas are undercooked. Our bears (hairy middle-aged homosexuals) are ticklish. And there’s a table of contents. Are you still there? Then you will like the book.

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Contemporary

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 12, 2015

About the author

Michael was born in Berlin, Germany, but moved to the Netherlands and founded the Applied Logic Laboratory at the University of Amsterdam.
He lives on the Cote d'Azur now where he writes half-serious prose, mostly gay-themed. His first novel, GREEN EYES, was a finalist of the Lambda Literary Awards last year. His second novel, a sequel, THIS IS HEAVEN, will be out in September 2017. He loves cats, dogs, views, chess, mushrooms, hikes, and his partner Chang.

His short stories have appeared on the pages of Temptation Magazine, EtherBooks, Gay Flash Fiction, The Bear Review, and LustSpiel Magazine. A new short story is due in Bunbury, the English lit magazine.

Reviews

[LenaRibka · Rating 4 out of 5]

28th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalist - Gay Erotica




3,5 stars

THIS BOOK IS DIFFICULT TO REVIEW/RECOMMEND...



WHY:

1. GAY EROTICA.

This book was a nominee for LAMBDA 2016 in the category Gay Erotica.
It is not a genre that can compete with MM Romance. Yes, I know, the majority of MM Romance Readers want a lot of SEX scenes in their books, but not THE KIND of Sex Gay Erotica offers. Gay Erotica is not about the romance between the two. It is about libido in the first place. Sex in the genre is often dirty, unclean, rough, aggressive and reeking. Are you ready for it?

2. A VERY UNUSUAL WRITING STYLE.

For me it was a winner. But I'm aware that the style Michael Ampersant delivers/offers is not everyone's cuppa. Do you understand THIS KIND of humor?

WHY this book is ingenious:

1. You treasure all LAMBDA nominees. You have just to know them.
2. You estimate a SPECIAL writing style. I assure you, you won't come across SOMETHING like this BEFORE. Michael Ampersant's style is UNIQUE.


The inimitable style: 5 stars.

The story itself: doesn't matter.
It is one of those books where the writing and the way of telling is much more interesting than the story itself. I think that it could have at least 50 pages land some long-winded observations less. But the way the WHOLE package is made is so unusual and ridiculously delicious, the humor is so profound, that in spite of all my complaints, I need just to read more by the author.

Honestly, I wanted to DNF it more than once during reading, it was mostly WTF-"eye-rolls". BUT. I. JUST. COULDN'T. I had to come back. AGAIN and AGAIN. I don't know, but it is something about this book that difficult to explain, difficult to describe and difficult to separate from.


ADDICTIVE. UNIQUE. SPECIAL


Oh, yes, it is also very witty. Philosophical. Extraordinary.







P.S. I'd like to mention that the idea to read this book came to me after I had read the author's review to Need to Know, the ARC I was declined on NetGalley. And while it happens really seldom, I was kinda angry and curious about this book, it is how I came across his review and wanted immediately to have more of this style :)

[Martin]

LOL, this is so silly, it's almost entertaining. But only almost.

[Bookjunkie12 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I think if you like Woody Allen movies you will enjoy this book. I'm sure you can tell by my two stars that I don't like Woody Allen movies...because they don't make sense to me. And yep there was a reference to a Woody Allen movie in the story!

There were just too many mindless ramblings and made it difficult for me to keep up and follow the actual story. Yes underneath the mindless ramblings is a story a very crazy convoluted somewhat incomplete story. Well not really incomplete there were just some gaps that didn't get filled in...in my opinion.

John, our MC and POV, is a professor of French at the local college who has decided to make some changes in his life/personality by trying to be less shy. So his story begins with having random sex on the beach with a stranger and a random third who sorta joins in. The next 24 hours pretty much sets the stage for the rest of the book. There are drinks at a bar, a party, and a visit to the hospital and John offering to a safe haven for the random third, Maurice. By happenstance one of the paramedics who shows up for the visit to the hospital is the stranger from the random sex had that morning, Alex. After this the story gets even more screwy, literally.

There is more random sex, a declaration of love, blog post, male escort services, attempted murder, murder, a suicide attempt, and amnesia! Yeah there is a lot in this story and I think if it were a little more focused it could have really been a book that I could enjoy. There were quite a few supporting characters that were a bit confusing and a little unnecessary. Just so you know somewhere in the middle of all of this is a pretty o.k. story you just gotta dig deep for it.

I hope the author doesn't take this as judgement or discouragement because I know time and effort was put into this story. It just wasn't a story for me. I know it was the mindless ramblings and the $10 words when a $.50 words would have worked just fine that kept me from really enjoying this story, maybe...

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew. This book. I am at such a loss with this book. It was good. The main character is bipolar, and I'm like borderline with severe depression and ADD, so I could understand the running commentary. This book is from the perspective of the main character John. My biggest problem with this book, though, is that I felt incredibly stupid because some of the vocabulary. I had to stop and go look some words up. That kind of threw me off. Maybe I need to go read the dictionary next. Shew.

John. John. John. John is a French teacher that teaches in Georgia schools. He is out for the summer. He decides to go walking along the beach in the gay section and ends up in a sexual encounter in the dunes. With a man with the most incredible green eyes ever. Then a third comes along. After the encounter, John tries to help the third man find his shorts and ends up looking for a towel to steal to lend the third man. He gets busted and is late to the third man. The third man is gone. Later he ventures to a bar to chill be for a party next door when the third man, known as Maurice, comes in and tells a story that is shocking. Maurice ends up in the hospital and now everyone is trying to figure out how to stop a psycho killer before being killed themselves. All the while, having sexual encounters at almost every turn it seems. During this the man he loves, Alex, has come up with a plan of his own, and it causes him to have amnesia. All kinds of twists and turns in this story. And hopefully it will bring a happy ending.

I'm not going to lie here. I kinda had a hard time keeping up at times. Sometimes I felt like I was reading out of my own head lol. But sometimes it was really hard for me to keep up. It's a good book, don't misunderstand me. I just feel like I need to be smarter or something to appreciate it the right way. I liked John. He was a complex character. They all kinda were. Each had a depth to them you didn't quite expect. But what I loved about John, is even with all the crap going on around him, he was worried for his friends and their safety. He would pile them all up in his tiny apartment, just to make sure everyone was safe and no one was getting hurt or come after. He was trying his best to take care of them all. I felt bad at times for him, because it seemed like a never-ending circle you couldn't step out of, but he stuck with it. Even when it came to taking out a killer. That was stupid beyond belief, that they thought they could do or even try, but they felt if they didn't fix it somehow, it would never stop or change.

Sometimes situations call for drastic measures. There seemed to be quite a few of those in this book. But the things you do for friends and loved ones…..

http://lovebytesreviews.com

[Phetra Hedlund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! That was first reaction to reading this book, my second reaction was plain and simple holy shit! It is hard to find words to describe this book and make it justice because this book is honestly like nothing I’ve ever read before.

The language is very different, because you are right there inside John Lee’s mind every step of the way and even though you are there quite a lot learning about John and his speculations about people, what is going on and why it is written in a way that it appears like an inner monologue and conversation. Which is quite impressive.

In the beginning of the book you get the impression that the book is about a gay man slightly bit of a loner at the same time as he might be a tad depressed, odd ball who feels awkward around people and simply don’t get them. The longer and more you read and the more people John meet, and by the end there are quite a few people involved in this book, it more and more becomes a crime story with thriller feel. John, is awkward and I love him awkward.

This book isn’t a book for the one who wants an easy read, this book took me quite some time to read and I had to read it in portions and read other things in between so I could ponder and think. This is a very different type of book, a book that has a lot of depth to it, touches about many different subjects such as right and wrong in different aspect of life, what is love, depression, rape, abuse of power, sex, self-discovery and so on and so forth.

Green Eyes isn’t the light Sunday read it is the type of book you can read over and over again in time and discover new things each time. It is dark humor mixed with seriousness. It has a complexity to it that I don’t think I ever experienced from an author of today.

[John Kok · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very unusual book---serious literary fiction in the guise of M/M romance. If you like sex, read this book. If you like love, read this book. If you like one-liners, read this book. If you like perfect happy endings, read this book. If you like irony, read this book. If you like over-the-top, read this book. If you like neologism, read this book. If you like green eyes, read this book. If you like blue eyes, read this book. And so on. READ THIS BOOK!

[HarbingerOfSilence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copy of the book provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, three stars is not a bad score! Goodreads says “I liked it” when you hover over the little third star, and surprisingly (most surprising for myself) I have to say I did like the book.
It kind of snuck up on me. In the beginning I was like “What the hell???” just hanging on for the ride trying to find my way into the story but then I would find myself picking up the book at odd moments and becoming really engaged in the story.

I didn’t really know what to expect from a book that combines a bi-polar French assistant professor, dubbing his place of work ‘hippocampus’ because of the hippo-like girth of his students, a clinically depressed paramedic, a lesbian emergency room doctor calling herself ”Dr. Dyke” and a German bon vivant called Godehart “Go-hard” Wagner (yes, THE Wagner).

You get to follow John, the luckless French professor and get to know his every wayward thought – and let me tell you, he has a strange brain (lost count of the times he fell in love in the course of just 4 or 5 days). But what’s even stranger than his brain is his life.
Through no fault of his own he gets involved in a case of attempted murder and then actual murder. In order to protect his new friend (new because when the story starts he has only met the guy a few hours ago during a tryst on the local gay beach) he and his posse of assembled acquaintances go after the perp together.
I got whiplash from the way the book jumps from one situation to the next. And all the while you get John’s commentaries, sometimes talking to an internal director or the reader directly (and sometimes in the majestic plural).

This book made me laugh out loud and face-palm in the middle of a crowded commuter train. But sometimes you would also feel this subliminal melancholy and hopelessness under all the funny situations. If you let yourself think about it you might want to start crying, but the sheer absurdity of most of the situations and trains of thoughts luckily won’t let you. However, it leaves me with a peculiar feeling and I think the book will stay with me for a while yet.

In a way it reminded me a bit of Bad Monkeys, in that it’s sometimes so absurd or strange that you can’t even tell if it’s real.
There probably were many witty references to great films or literary works, but if there were, I’m sorry, they went completely over my head. I have to say, as much as I liked the fireworks of all of the strange and funny encounters and dialogues, they made it difficult for me to follow the actual story and keep track of all of the different characters in it. I believe the story would have been just as good if it was a little bit more streamlined. Especially because the type of writing is something I had to get used to at first. It's so different from what I've usually read, it was a bit like reading Faust for the very first time.
I also would have liked to get a bit more of John’s emotions to be better able to identify with him, but I’m not so sure if John himself knew what was going on in his heart all the time.

If you are looking for a light romance to read on the side, then this is not the book for you. However, if you are looking for something completely different, a little crazy, a little confused, a little funny and sometimes thought-provoking, then you should definitely try Green Eyes.

[Beagle Lover (Avid Reader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Green Eyes 3.75 stars

I will have to admit, this is my first foray into the land of erotica, and my experience with this genre is limited. But this particular book has opened my eyes to a whole different species of writing that I feel I will be reading more of in the future.

Mr. Ampersant has written a novel about many things in Green Eyes, including, but certainly not limited to, Alpha males, suicide, gay romance, cruising the gay beaches, Nobel laureates, vasoconstriction (I will let you research what that word means), the number of neurons in the brain of a microscopic worm and how all of this information relates to John's, the MC, child-abusing father. How is that for an opening plot description?

So many things occur in this book that if I were to even begin to cover the main plot points, I could easily make this review at least 10 paragraphs in length. I will touch on the major items in this novel, at least from my perspective.

John Lew is a lonely, hard-drinking gay twenty-nine year old gay male living in Georgia Beach (modeled after Rehoboth Beach, DE and Hilton Head, SC) in a small, cramped apartment. He meets Alex (Green Eyes) while cruising the gay area of Georgia Beach and they engage in gay sex in the sand dunes. Soon a third man joins in and Green Eyes takes off, leaving John and the stranger alone in the dunes. The stranger, who's name turns out to be Maurice, invites John to a party that night at a friend's home, but cannot find his swimming trunks and is arrested for pubic indecency. (Poor Maurice.)

While Maurice is in jail, the Police Chief leaves to get the prisoner some clothes. While he is gone, his deputy begins to rape the unfortunate Maurice and is caught in the act of "in flagrante" by the early returning Chief. Maurice is left in bad shape until John bails him out.

More humorous, and not so humorous, acts occur to John, Maurice, Alex (aka Green Eyes), Godehart, a rich, gay man, Dr. Sandeman and Ben. In a particularly humorous portion of the book, Godehart accompanies John to a store that sells vampire regalia, sexual toys, etc. Godehart buys a huge, two connected dildo, with an offset of each phallus of 150 degrees. When Godehart asks John to help him insert it into his rectum, after lubrication, of course, the phallus becomes stuck inside the poor man, and John is left with no choice but to call 911, all the while trying to pull the sex toy out of the older man who is crying out in agony.

These sort of random acts and occurrences are just a part of John's wild and harried week before Alex, his true love, attempts suicide. He survives, but suffers from amnesia, and doesn't remember John. Over the course of the ensuing weeks, Alex begins to love John, and they go the beach. What happens after that is for me to know and you to discover, should you read this highly humorous and sometimes tragic book. The second book is already published, entitled This is Heaven.

[Isabelle Arden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was provided free of charge in exchange for an honest review, through the Don’t Buy My Love review program.

First of all, I’ll just start out by saying if you’re looking for a traditional romance or erotica read, then this likely isn’t the book for you. In fact, if you’re looking for a traditional read of any kind, this likely isn’t the book for you, but maybe because I’m already a big fan of writers like John Birmingham (in fact, the book reminded me a lot of Birmingham’s The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco), I really enjoyed Green Eyes, with its energetic, rollicking style, multiple throwaway cultural references and concentration on character vignettes over a traditional structure.

Green Eyes is told though the eyes of the narrator, John, a bipolar academic who has decided to change his life by being less shy. Through a series of random encounters and coincidences, John eventually finds himself in a loosely-defined relationship with Alex, the titular green eyes. After another of their acquaintances, Maurice, is raped by a police officer who then goes on a rampage in an attempt to eliminate witnesses, they realise they must take matters into their own hands before even more people are killed or hurt.

The novel immediately establishes a highly idiosyncratic style of narration, with frequent segues, tangential afterthoughts and almost stream-of-consciousness leaps from one topic to another. I admit, I found it hard to get into at first, but once I had become accustomed to the style, I found I got sucked into the story, as well the engaging narration style.

There’s a lot of self-satire in Green Eyes which I think is, in many ways, its saving grace – it could have come off a lot more shallow and silly. It’s true, the brutality of the crimes that kick off the novel’s thriller plot could be seen as having been glossed over, but throughout the book I had the sense that the author knew what he was doing, and had one eye on the audience at all times, sharing the extremely dark joke that sits just below the apparent superficiality of the prose.

I did find a few of the vignettes a little unnecessary, but overall the multiple strings of the narrative pull together well. The side characters were hilarious (especially Godehart, the rich German of the Wagner family and Alice, ‘Dr Dyke’) and the cultural references were deft. Overall, I think this isn’t a book for everyone, but it is an intelligent read with an outré style, a little reminiscent of gonzo. Not for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it.

[Brad Tanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Ampersant's Green Eyes is a curious exploration of the inner world of a gay man. Beautifully written, often peppered with staccato short sentences and multiple literary and cultural references, both aiding in the characterization of the main protagonist, this novel however combines literary ambition with a genre plot of an erotic crime novel set in a hot coastal town, Georgia Beach. The action unfolds through the eyes and the mind of John Lee, a 29 year old academic and a single man with a bipolar disorder. His love interest, Alex, the owner of the green eyes, is a dream-come-true guy who reflects John's psychological vulnerability in his own suicidal tendencies. The events escalate when both men find a Brit called Maurice, with whom they've enjoyed a brief sexual encounter in the dunes, brutally raped. I won't go into further spoilers, but I'd like to say that the book is hot , it is also intelligent. I didn't find the crime plot very essential for it, perhaps because the main character, due to his psychological makeup (there was something Asperger-ish about him), didn't react much emotionally to the horrible things happening to his acquaintances. He did react plenty in cerebral terms though, as it often happens with highly intelligent people. I thought the book may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I certainly enjoyed its uniqueness, quirks, erotic scenes and the inventive prose. A solid five stars from me.
(N.B. I received an ARC of this book from the author to provide an honest and constructive review)

[Amarilli 73 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review on http://www.sognipensieriparole.com/20...

"Bitter-sweet” is the first word that comes to mind to define this erotic novel (rather: “sort of”).
Bitter-sweet---the main character is: John, a 29 year old, bipolar teacher of French, who decides to give a jolt to his quiet life, starting with random sex on the beach.
Nothing impossible there, but this is only the beginning of an incredible series of events, some very funny, some very sad. Readers should expect everything: from dashed hopes in darkrooms to psychotic police officers; from emergency CPR's to encounters with paramedics with mesmerizing green eyes. John is clumsy, a bit unfortunate, totally overwhelmed by the events. "Some people bring bad weather, I bring the absence of crowds," he says. First there was a lack of love (and sex) in his life, but then, in the space of one day, there is too much of it: Maurice, Alex, Ben, a black guy, and so forth. "I didn’t have a single soul-mate in years, and now I have two, and one is dying already," he complains. Bittersweet and crazy is also the Ampersant’s writing: his style is ironic but also raw, vivid, and without hypocrisy. In the end I had the impression of being inside John's head---living his thoughts/emotions/ wry comments/calamities...
A really well-written novel. I would not want to label it as a "gay novel," tough, it's much more.

[Bob Bienpensant · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the surface, Green Eyes is a sizzling, arousing gay romance novel. Deep down, it is a philosophical book about the meaning of life (or the nonsense of life), about the meaning of sexual orientation (or the absence thereof), about true love (or how love comes true), about language (how to use mixed metaphors, for example, or better, how not to use mixed metaphors), about treachery and treason, redemption, elation, seduction (there's a four chapter seduction sequence, cum-stained, marvelous, one of the best ever written), about races and racism...all this culminating in the most beautiful and most absurd happy ending. Five Stars.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Challenge 2018: book that was borrowed or given to you as a gift. I normally read books in order, especially ones in a series. I was lucky to read the second book by Michael Ampersant first, which was an amazing story. He sent me the first one to read as well. The story takes place in Georgia Beach and has a host of colorful characters, each unique and lovable (except the horrible police officer). We meet John, a frustrated assistant professor of French at a local community college, Alex, a paramedic who was called when Maurice was viciously attacked by Officer Benson, a sadistic, murderous villain, Dr. Sanderson, Maurice's emergency room doctor and a horde of minor but important characters. It was wonderful to meet them the first time (even though it was the second due to reading the novels out of order) to see how they originated in the story. There is quite a bit of action, a term I will use loosely in context, plotting, and back story. What struck me the most, as it did with the sequel, was the plethora of vocabulary, both English and foreign, that truly made the novel unique. I only had to look up a few words, honestly, but they were all the right words needed to make this humorous and somewhat serious story a great read.

[Doujia2]

No rating because I’ve had enough with this book at 65% and skimmed the ending.

Definitely not your usual erotic story. Very disorienting reading experience—half the time I was impressed by the peculiar narrative voice (believe me, you won’t find anything else like it), and really wanted to stick with it longer to see where the author was going, while the other half of time, it just felt too whimsical for my brain to handle, and it became increasingly clear that the payoff wouldn’t be worth the struggle. So, DNF it is.

[Tena · Rating 3 out of 5]

"GREEN EYES" is a delicious and sexy M/M (mostly) story however it is also an deceptively intense and witty story of hope, love, humor, drama, trauma... all the things we fantasize (or have nightmares about) to encounter and experience. Read it now, then grab the sequel for another yummy adventure! ** Disclaimer and My extra special thanks and gratitude to the author, Michael Ampersant, who sent a copy of this to me when he found out I was looking it, after reading "THIS IS HEAVEN". **

[Erica]

I'm not going to put a star rating on this book, because this book was not for me. By "not for me" I mean I am not its intended audience. It's not the book's fault that I'm not the intended audience and went ahead and read it anyway and then didn't enjoy it. The prose is frequently clever and the style is engaging, and I assume this book would be amazing for the right audience. Unfortunately, that audience is not me.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Green Eyes is on of the strangest books I’ve read in a while. Ultimately it won me over. The book’s through line, John’s love for Alex, got to me. I really cared what would happen in the end, and Green Eyes delivers an unexpected but satisfying denouement. I encourage readers to give it a chance.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Douglas Coupland, green eyes is humorous, thrilling and erotic. It is the blending of genres. I like the style that this is written in. It's quite absurd and our narrator, John, seems to be either poking fun at himself or the author Michael Ampersant (or the author poking fun at John) The tenses seem to be all over the shop and I are not sure if something is happening in John's mind, that of the writer or in the reality of the book. I like how this flows. It is like drops of water falling on one another, joining and bursting. It's languid. This is also a book about blogging. There are some witty and intelligent observations on this subject. It's almost a resource for how to start a popular blog. It is brilliant how this is used in the book for criminal baiting.
The bringing together of the end of this book is great fun. Almost like the writer realized he was late for something and had to have it wrapped up quickly in a few sentences. The last chapter is poignant.
This is a perfect book for any adult reader, who's looking for something other than the usual.

[Kate A. A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael's writing is elegant and very funny with moments of great pathos. I felt I got to know the main character well and appreciated him as a (faulted, and aren't we all) human. The style of the book is definitely unusual, and certainly would not appeal to all readers. The plot rambles wildly and I found myself reading a chapter or two and enjoying the language and humour - almost as if I was reading a collection of poems or short stories.
I wasn't gripped in that I didn't find excuses to go and read when I should have been doing other things, as I might have done with some books where the plot grabs you by the neck and hauls you along, and there is nothing wrong with that. I think perhaps these days we are all too used to pages that deliver a rampaging plot; this is to be savoured and remembered.
A favourite line (and there are many great ones):
An all-pervasive touch embalms me and goes on vacation with me and for long walks on the beach as I am trying to stay awake.

[Joshua Stuart]

This is a most intriguing and nuanced novel. It moves at a good pace, introduces interesting and developed characters, and while an erotic novel, it uses the format of an erotic novel to good purposes.