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Let's Shut Out the World
The narrator of these autobiographical stories and personal essays has man trouble--trouble with his homophobic father, his horny best friend, his rigid high school principal, and a slew of "fauxmosexuals" and elusive boyfriends--and a knack for butting heads with fundamentalist Christians. Bitingly funny and at times harrowingly sad, Let’s Shut Out the World traces the man-hungry and misanthropic journey of an intensely bibliophilistic young man following his natural bent from a desolate Texas landscape of tumbleweeds, Jesus freaks, and compliant straight boys to the gay capital of San Francisco in pursuit of sex, drugs, a lover, and more.
Whether describing having his hair styled by a gang of eighth-grade bullies; staging a Satan festival in the main hall of Greenvale High complete with black robes, black candles, and raw chickens; succumbing to a sneezing fit inside the healing Sanctuary at Chimayo; or indulging in inappropriate sex with a caregiver, Bentley writes with a pen dipped in blood, indignation, and grim whimsy.
This collection also provides the back story and sequel, and vividly fills out the author’s rough-and-ready romantic escapades detailed in his diaries, the Lambda Literary Award finalist for memoir, Wild Animals I Have Known.
Whether describing having his hair styled by a gang of eighth-grade bullies; staging a Satan festival in the main hall of Greenvale High complete with black robes, black candles, and raw chickens; succumbing to a sneezing fit inside the healing Sanctuary at Chimayo; or indulging in inappropriate sex with a caregiver, Bentley writes with a pen dipped in blood, indignation, and grim whimsy.
This collection also provides the back story and sequel, and vividly fills out the author’s rough-and-ready romantic escapades detailed in his diaries, the Lambda Literary Award finalist for memoir, Wild Animals I Have Known.
192 pages, Paperback
First published March 22, 2005
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59 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 24, 2017
Another Visit with Kevin
After finishing Wild Animals I have Known I immediately purchased this one. I wanted to spend more time with Kevin because he seemed so worthy of my attention. I'm glad I read this after Wild Animals, this book being like a "second date" with a fascinating guy. Great book.
After finishing Wild Animals I have Known I immediately purchased this one. I wanted to spend more time with Kevin because he seemed so worthy of my attention. I'm glad I read this after Wild Animals, this book being like a "second date" with a fascinating guy. Great book.
August 10, 2016
**copy provided by publisher via Divine Magazine in exchange for an honest review*
When I finished Kevin Bentley's Memoir, "Wild Animals I Have Known: Polk Street Diaries And After", I immediately asked for this book, unfortunately because of my reading schedule I was unable to dive right in. I absolutely loved the first book, but I was left with a huge book hangover. Nothing I tried to read satisfied me. I was stuck in a rut and wanting to know so much more about where Kevin came from and where he ended up. I knew the basics, he comes from El Paso, Texas, part of the Bible
Belt, A place very unforgiving of homosexuality. I know he ends up in San Francisco in 1977 and eventually married to his now husband, Paul. I knew about all his drug use, sexual exploits and also about the not one, but two men he loved deeply, who were both heartbreaking lost to the AIDS epidemic along with the slew of his friends, sexual partners, acquaintances and neighbors who also succumbed to this horrible disease.
These essays, a prequel and sequel to the original memoir, offered me what I was so badly craving. A deeper look at the time in his life before he left for California. His first exploits into sex and drugs. A closer look at Jack and Richard, the aforementioned lovers and of course how he met and fell in love with Paul and a small look at their life together.
These 13 essays are just as riveting and entertaining as his memoir. While profoundly more serious in places and somewhat sadder, they are still told with Mr. Bentley's charming wit and humor. I think this continuation of his story offered me the closure I so desperately needed to move on. Highly recommended!!
When I finished Kevin Bentley's Memoir, "Wild Animals I Have Known: Polk Street Diaries And After", I immediately asked for this book, unfortunately because of my reading schedule I was unable to dive right in. I absolutely loved the first book, but I was left with a huge book hangover. Nothing I tried to read satisfied me. I was stuck in a rut and wanting to know so much more about where Kevin came from and where he ended up. I knew the basics, he comes from El Paso, Texas, part of the Bible
Belt, A place very unforgiving of homosexuality. I know he ends up in San Francisco in 1977 and eventually married to his now husband, Paul. I knew about all his drug use, sexual exploits and also about the not one, but two men he loved deeply, who were both heartbreaking lost to the AIDS epidemic along with the slew of his friends, sexual partners, acquaintances and neighbors who also succumbed to this horrible disease.
These essays, a prequel and sequel to the original memoir, offered me what I was so badly craving. A deeper look at the time in his life before he left for California. His first exploits into sex and drugs. A closer look at Jack and Richard, the aforementioned lovers and of course how he met and fell in love with Paul and a small look at their life together.
These 13 essays are just as riveting and entertaining as his memoir. While profoundly more serious in places and somewhat sadder, they are still told with Mr. Bentley's charming wit and humor. I think this continuation of his story offered me the closure I so desperately needed to move on. Highly recommended!!
July 20, 2016
This book is wonderful from the first sentence. Okay, maybe not the first sentence, which is, “My mother got leukemia the year before I turned forty,” but at least from the first page. It’s incredibly funny and the narrator is extremely likable as he deals with growing up the gay kid in El Paso, Texas.
His life experiences are harrowing. They would be hard to read, except he tells them with such charm and grace that I was swept right in. Kevin Bentley has a gift for writing. Thank goodness he hasn’t been squelched by the forces in his life, from child abuse to the AIDS crisis.
I will even say that this is an important memoir. As a community, as humanity, we can reflect on what we’ve gained and lost through the lens of too-contemporary history. He’s literate without being pretentious, forgiving without being blind.
Mainly, I just seriously enjoyed reading it.
Five Stars
~ Christy
I was provided this book in exchange for an honest review by Inked Rainbow Reads. I was not compensated, coerced, or flattered into an opinion.
His life experiences are harrowing. They would be hard to read, except he tells them with such charm and grace that I was swept right in. Kevin Bentley has a gift for writing. Thank goodness he hasn’t been squelched by the forces in his life, from child abuse to the AIDS crisis.
I will even say that this is an important memoir. As a community, as humanity, we can reflect on what we’ve gained and lost through the lens of too-contemporary history. He’s literate without being pretentious, forgiving without being blind.
Mainly, I just seriously enjoyed reading it.
Five Stars
~ Christy
I was provided this book in exchange for an honest review by Inked Rainbow Reads. I was not compensated, coerced, or flattered into an opinion.
September 22, 2024
Hard to follow book that lacks coherent continuity, contradicts itself, and often makes no sense because it isn't a real memoir: it's mostly a collection of essays Bentley published elsewhere first, which means it's choppy and doesn't follow a typical chronology. The author's chapters usually start with the end, then he skips around in his timeline going back and forth so the reader ends up wondering what is going on.
There are some detailed gay sex scenes that are good creative writing, and many parts of the book are difficult to believe. Some are virtually impossible. Much of it is "creative non-fiction" and exaggerated.
Some of this is standard gay memoir stuff: the emotionally abusive name-calling military dad who is absent; the mother that looks the other way but babies her son; the AIDS crisis (he tests positive early on and survives); the Christian relative that sends "loving" condemnations of the author's coming out in San Francisco; falling in love with every new stranger he meets; the deep loneliness no matter how many hundreds of hookups he has; the sex diseases that don't stop him from sleeping with nameless bodies and doing it bareback; the rampant drug and alcohol abuse without conscience; and the suicide attempts.
When will Bentley or any of the others see that much of their loneliness and discontent comes from their own bad choices while they condemn others that try to live a healthy or moral lifestyle. Instead of criticizing and stereotyping (which he does a lot of), he (and others) could truly embrace and accept those they don't agree with or understand, which might actually lead them to truth or inner happiness. If you're truly about tolerance, love, and representation, then don't reject at least half of the people in America that are often trying to help you solve the loneliness crisis they see within you.
Yes, Bentley (and others like him) are, as the title says, shutting the world out. And then they wonder why they're unhappy or dying inside.
There are some detailed gay sex scenes that are good creative writing, and many parts of the book are difficult to believe. Some are virtually impossible. Much of it is "creative non-fiction" and exaggerated.
Some of this is standard gay memoir stuff: the emotionally abusive name-calling military dad who is absent; the mother that looks the other way but babies her son; the AIDS crisis (he tests positive early on and survives); the Christian relative that sends "loving" condemnations of the author's coming out in San Francisco; falling in love with every new stranger he meets; the deep loneliness no matter how many hundreds of hookups he has; the sex diseases that don't stop him from sleeping with nameless bodies and doing it bareback; the rampant drug and alcohol abuse without conscience; and the suicide attempts.
When will Bentley or any of the others see that much of their loneliness and discontent comes from their own bad choices while they condemn others that try to live a healthy or moral lifestyle. Instead of criticizing and stereotyping (which he does a lot of), he (and others) could truly embrace and accept those they don't agree with or understand, which might actually lead them to truth or inner happiness. If you're truly about tolerance, love, and representation, then don't reject at least half of the people in America that are often trying to help you solve the loneliness crisis they see within you.
Yes, Bentley (and others like him) are, as the title says, shutting the world out. And then they wonder why they're unhappy or dying inside.
April 9, 2018
Amazing recollection of living and surviving in San Francisco in the 70 s and 80s.
Another great book by Kevin Bentley. Very difficult to put it down , I read it cover to cover in just two days.
Another great book by Kevin Bentley. Very difficult to put it down , I read it cover to cover in just two days.
February 9, 2019
I loved this book. I love Kevin’s writing which is sometimes too literary for me but I love looking up what he’s talking about and learning from it. I love the honesty and love that he’s shared. I love his love for love. No fear of loving and losing. Bravery. Lust. Loss. Love.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to read
May 1, 2009I knew Kevin's brother when I lived in Dallas and have wanted to read his work ever since.
July 16, 2013
A collection of reminisces of Bentley's early life in
Texas, his "coming of age" in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s,
and the subsequent years of loss and re-discovery.
Texas, his "coming of age" in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s,
and the subsequent years of loss and re-discovery.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews