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Bruiser
Bruiser is the story of a love between two men wary of emotional commitment. Adrian fends for himself as a waiter, boxer and hustler until he meets Paul, a lonely British expatriate old enough to be his father. Rejecting their lives in Chicago, they embark on a road trip to Brazil. On the journey, they find adventure, though they cannot completely escape themselves.
254 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1997
1 person is currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Richard House
44 books18 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.
Richard House is an author, film maker, artist and university lecturer. As well as the digital-first novel The Kills, he has written two previous novels (Bruiser and Uninvited), which were published by Serpent’s Tail in the 1990s. He is a member of the Chicago-based collaborative Haha. He is the editor of a digital magazine, Fatboy Review: www.fatboyreview.net
Born in Cyprus, Richard House is an artist and writer. His first novel, Bruiser, was short-listed for the Ferro Grumley Gay Fiction Award in the USA. The Kills has been longlisted for the 2013 Booker Prize. He currently teaches at Birmingham University, UK.
Richard House is an author, film maker, artist and university lecturer. As well as the digital-first novel The Kills, he has written two previous novels (Bruiser and Uninvited), which were published by Serpent’s Tail in the 1990s. He is a member of the Chicago-based collaborative Haha. He is the editor of a digital magazine, Fatboy Review: www.fatboyreview.net
Born in Cyprus, Richard House is an artist and writer. His first novel, Bruiser, was short-listed for the Ferro Grumley Gay Fiction Award in the USA. The Kills has been longlisted for the 2013 Booker Prize. He currently teaches at Birmingham University, UK.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 21, 2014
It's hard to rate this book. In a way it's beautiful and something that I really enjoyed reading but it had some unpleasant moments that left me feeling strange. And I have no idea what I thought about the ending.
May 7, 2020
'Bruiser', is a beautiful, distilled oddity, that was such a pleasure to read, it left me sad to finish it. It is a story about the adventures of two men - a young man barely out of his teens and a middle aged English man named Paul, who finds himself, for reasons we don't really know, in Chicago. Both are running from their lives. The younger, Adrian, embarks on his escape at the age of 19 fleeing the boxing gym and his waiter job after meeting Paul who offers to take him on a road trip through the American mid west and onto the promises of a new world.
Though physically a strong youth, Adrian becomes ill, and it is not so clear whats going on as first he tries to hide his symptoms ,worried they might indicate AIDS - just a quick note this was written in 1997. These symptoms come and go, and he confuses everyone by bizarre acts to throw off doctors and Paul and us, to his own amusement - but it becomes evident that it is less about the physical disease than the trauma of the past that seems to surface.
Paul, on one hand is the sobering voice, yet we feel he too has gone through similar experiences but never duly moved on. An Englishman of various citizenships, we learn he went to boarding school. Not much more is said, but rather implied. There were ' girlfriends' ,and maybe one fling with another man in the past, but we get the impression Paul has not fulfilled his romantic desires. Even when he meets the hot young boxer/waiter Adrian he never really lets himself go. Sex, even at the beginning is slightly tame and it wanes pretty quickly. Instead, the litany of bodily fluids in the text are the results of physical and emotional strain. Blood, sweat, tears, mucus, even skin stained with marker saturate the text.
Trauma runs though 'Bruiser' much like the threatening thunder that rumbles under the American mid western skies. As they drive through states from motel to motel, on their way down to South America. During their stop offs, they recant tales of their pasts - sometimes they are stories, sometimes truths sometimes we don't know.
There is a story within a story at some point in the book, where Paul seemingly makes a up a tale while drunk with Adrian one night. This is probably the nearest Paul goes to uncover his own past, or at the least explore his own psychology. It is story that is well on the Sadean scale : torture, rape, incest, brutal violence - the works. A short fantasy/nightmare which works to make the rest of the text more mundane, yet none the less disturbing. Perhaps even more so.
By the time we reach near the end of this book, its clear what seemed like a straight forward road trip adventure isn't quiet so. The past, of course has a habit of finding you just when you thought you could escape and so the pair find themselves having to adjust to some new kind reality. Paul, the sole narrator, describes the feeling of unsettlement as he surveys the ethereal, new world, that twinkles with a haunting sense of ambivalence.
Though physically a strong youth, Adrian becomes ill, and it is not so clear whats going on as first he tries to hide his symptoms ,worried they might indicate AIDS - just a quick note this was written in 1997. These symptoms come and go, and he confuses everyone by bizarre acts to throw off doctors and Paul and us, to his own amusement - but it becomes evident that it is less about the physical disease than the trauma of the past that seems to surface.
Paul, on one hand is the sobering voice, yet we feel he too has gone through similar experiences but never duly moved on. An Englishman of various citizenships, we learn he went to boarding school. Not much more is said, but rather implied. There were ' girlfriends' ,and maybe one fling with another man in the past, but we get the impression Paul has not fulfilled his romantic desires. Even when he meets the hot young boxer/waiter Adrian he never really lets himself go. Sex, even at the beginning is slightly tame and it wanes pretty quickly. Instead, the litany of bodily fluids in the text are the results of physical and emotional strain. Blood, sweat, tears, mucus, even skin stained with marker saturate the text.
Trauma runs though 'Bruiser' much like the threatening thunder that rumbles under the American mid western skies. As they drive through states from motel to motel, on their way down to South America. During their stop offs, they recant tales of their pasts - sometimes they are stories, sometimes truths sometimes we don't know.
There is a story within a story at some point in the book, where Paul seemingly makes a up a tale while drunk with Adrian one night. This is probably the nearest Paul goes to uncover his own past, or at the least explore his own psychology. It is story that is well on the Sadean scale : torture, rape, incest, brutal violence - the works. A short fantasy/nightmare which works to make the rest of the text more mundane, yet none the less disturbing. Perhaps even more so.
By the time we reach near the end of this book, its clear what seemed like a straight forward road trip adventure isn't quiet so. The past, of course has a habit of finding you just when you thought you could escape and so the pair find themselves having to adjust to some new kind reality. Paul, the sole narrator, describes the feeling of unsettlement as he surveys the ethereal, new world, that twinkles with a haunting sense of ambivalence.
April 20, 2020
It was an enterteined read but I feel like the story needed a bit more life
March 30, 2022
Raw, yet tender. Unexpectedly a comfort read.
January 7, 2015
This novel begins with a rather disorientating sequence where a car hits an animal and the driver flees. Is this really happening? Is it a nightmare? A story the narrator is composing? This ambiguity sets the tone for a novel that is quite dream-like following the affair between a forty-something Englishman named Paul staying in a hotel in Chicago and a barely-legal boxer/waiter named Adrian. After hooking up it becomes clear the two have been circling around each other for a short time. Told entirely from Paul’s perspective it is difficult to know Adrian’s real motives for entering into the relationship. After observing rent boys from a distance and giving Adrian cash after their encounters Paul thinks he’s probably only staying with him for his money. The two set on a road-trip journey as Adrian wants to drive all the way to Brazil. The growing intensity of their intimacy reaches levels which skirt dangerously around love. Written in a blunt yet enigmatic style “Bruiser” follows two lost souls seeking to find a new understanding.
Read my full review at LonesomeReader review of Bruiser by Richard House
Read my full review at LonesomeReader review of Bruiser by Richard House
February 13, 2024
I will be eventually reviewing all the Men on Men books, but the first four are of course the extraordinary ones - its amazing the writers published there at the beginning of their careers and volume four is no exception. I'll be honest - I love anthologies - and the Men on Men ones are extraordinary for what you can discover - in this book I found a story called The Magistrates Monkey, which blew me away and lead me to look up what the author has published so now I am reading Richard House's Bruiser and will be moving on to his other works.
I can't praise this book in particular and the series in general to much. If you like really excellent writing and great stories, even if only extracted from longer works, then get this book and all the others in the series.
I can't praise this book in particular and the series in general to much. If you like really excellent writing and great stories, even if only extracted from longer works, then get this book and all the others in the series.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews