Reviews
Johnny Was and Other Tall Tales
Johnny Was and Other Tall Tales
JOHNNY WAS and Other Tall Tales is a versatile collection of 24 short erotic stories. Greg Wharton says in his Preface that he is attracted to the “darker emotions” - and it shows. Those stories one might call the “shadow spots” of the book shine the brightest.
The title story sets the tone for much of what is to follow. “Johnny Was” is a compelling love story between a sadist with a penchant for extreme edge play and a young man with a death wish. In “That Grin,” a man tells the story of his sexuality and its formative influences: being tickled by an uncle, and being tickled and wrestled to the ground by older boys. The protagonist doesn’t complain about being abused or revel in his role as victim; instead, the demon has become the desired. Tickle torture has become the kink the man now lives for. “That Grin” also illustrates a theme that is present in a number of Wharton’s other stories: the way in which sexuality and identity can arise from traumatic experiences.
“Blood Oranges and Cotton Candy” is a coming of age story. As a boy, Paul was raped by his brother’s friend, Jared; yet at a moment of crisis in his life, it is Jared whom Paul seeks out:
Jared, the man who I feared the most, yet
dreamed of and desired the most. He’s the reason
I’m so fucked up - or at least he’s who I’ve always
blamed. He’s the reason I’m such a slut - or at
least he’s who I’ve always blamed. He’s the man
I always look for in other men, and he’s who I see
when I close my eyes with the other men.
It is clear that desire, far from being a simple thing for Wharton’s characters, is fraught with peril.
In “Love,” a man gives a list of the ordeals and torments his beloved must undergo before he will make an admission of love. We begin with asphyxiation and end with adoration, and all the various emotions - anger and tenderness - that fall under the glyph of love are expressed. As a dissection of the constituent elements of desire, this story is an extraordinary achievement. It also offers a convincing explanation for the diminished attraction of card games in evening society.
In a collection as varied as Johnny Was, we naturally get many stories of a lighter hue. In “Walking Olive,” a dog-walker loses a dog while wanking on a client’s bed. The fun here lies in the tone of voice: very arch, very camp. There are whimsical, amusing fantasies like “Cock-Sucking in America” and exquisitely framed vignettes like “Bibles 10% Sale.” The latter is a story in which love has been lost and sex is all that is left between two people. It ends with a beautiful moment of epiphany: “Under the blizzard white evening sky, I spill my bitter white love for you on the snow around my knees, and I swallow yours.” “His Baby” is a tender story about two lovers, Sam and Roberto, who are forced to flee Chicago after stealing money from the mob. The story has a nice noir vibe, but reads in parts like a fragment.
Some of the more minor stories, such as “Cropped”, will describe a certain kick (here, being whipped) and tell you what it is like, giving a distillation of the experience. Others are What-If stories, wishes that might plausibly be fulfilled. A favourite is “Blue”, in which a man who hasn’t had sex for a while looks over to the apartment opposite and sees another man wanking; he wanks as he watches, then realizes the other man can see him...
Greg Wharton’s stories engage our heart and hippocampus as well as our libido. There are graphic descriptions of sexual and sometimes violent acts, yet, for all that, very little casual sex. After reading this collection, you might consider the phrase “casual sex” to be a found oxymoron, like, say, military intelligence or reality television. Sex occurs here, as it does for all of us, as part of some larger life project, whether of love, obsession or need. And even where the sex is “unusual,” Wharton never lets us forget that there is always, as it were, a person appended to the appendage.
Suspect Thoughts Press, 2004, 192 pages, £9.99
Page(s) 54-55
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The