The Mostly Unfabulous Homepage of Ethan Green

Johnny grew up in lower-class London with a mother who was both a prostitute and a drug addict. All he has known in his short life is that there may or may not be food to eat, that his mother had to have "visitors," and that school was an intermittent place.

When his mother dies of an overdose, seven-year-old Johnny is befriended by a handsome stranger, Martin Usher also known as Shamash, who saw the incident unfold. Before the police can inquire, Shamash has comforted the boy and, with the complicity of the orphaned Johnny, whisked him back to Australia, in the place of Shamash's own, recently deceased, son. Johnny, now become "Vaslav," settles into a comfortable life as the son of a prominent gay man -- well known in gay and arts circles alike. Well-loved and taken care of by his new family, Vaslav thinks his past is gone forever.

But as he becomes a teenager, Vaslav begins to realize that "Johnny" is still there, deep within him, ready to spend the forbidden currencies of youth and sex in this new world of excess, parties, and pretty boys. With the seeds of his own ruin sown deep within him, Vaslav initiates a forbidden love affair, one that threatens to destroy him and all whom he knows and loves.

Glove Puppet is an arresting novel in which love and transgression, sex and manipulation collapse upon each other -- where the best intentions can yield the worst consequences.

Neal Drinnan has worked in publishing for many years, has been a frequent contributor to OUTRAGE magazine, and a regular columnist for Sydney's Capital Q. He lives in New South Wales in Australia. E-mail him here.
 

"This is the ostensibly autobiographical account, racy as hell, of a rogue who commits enormities and has moral qualms about them but whose spirit and allure remain intact. ...hip, intelligent, sexy Johnny-Vas is one of the few literary adolescents as robust and intriguing as Huck Finn."

-- Booklist

"Glove Puppet is a courageous and compelling novel, original and strongly written."

-- Sydney Star

"This is a thoroughly perverse book and Drinnan's conscious determination to break just about every taboo that people still take seriously makes it worthwhile. Glove Puppet isn't any sort of grim read, though. It's more a black comedy of manners, an inverted Jane Austen...Drinnan writes with verve, economy, and wit."

-- Big Issue

Sound interesting? Read some excerpts and an interview:

• From the Prologue: At seven, Johnny Smith's mother dies, and he lets a stranger carry him away.
• Cure: Johnny, newly rechristened "Vaslav," escapes with his new father to Australia.
• Changling: Vaslav explores the highlights and lowlights of his new life in Sydney.
• Melting Ice: After Shamash's parents die in a plane crash, things begin to change.
• An Interview with the Author: Find out what gets author Neal Drinnan pissed off in this candid conversation.

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