Product Description

"A tour de force, part noirish suspense novel and part grim satire of compulsive gay male sexuality,as despondent as a Jim Thompson yarn in which the narrator is killed on the last page. It is as compelling as good Thompson too."-Booklist

A satirical, hysterical, horicic rocked fueled trek around LA in pursuit of the most unlucky ex-lover in history. Or maybe hes a psychotic. Or maybe the narrator is. Either way, someone is going to die.

James Robert Baker is the author of five other novels: Testosterone, Boy Wonder, Fuel Injected Dreams, Adrenaline and Right Wing (published on the Internet). Baker was a filmmaker whose underground film Mouse Klub Konfidential, about a Mouseketeer turned gay-bondage filmmaker, is credited with driving Michael Medved away from filmmaking. On November 5, 1997, he committed suicide.

Also Available by James Robert Baker:

Adrenaline

TP 11.95, 1-55583-565-1 CUSA

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1214609 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

From Amazon.com
Dean Seagrave is a crazed L.A. artist with a vendetta. His heart has been broken and his house burned down--all his books and art, even the only manuscript of his new graphic novel, Testosterone, destroyed, along with his good nature and his sense of restraint. Now he's careening through Los Angeles on the trail of his loser ex-boyfriend, Pablo Ortega, who had promised fidelity but turned out to be a "sleazy little scumbag beaner tearoom queen," an "emotional serial killer" who simply chose Dean as his latest victim. In one hand, Dean holds the tape recorder into which he recounts events as they occur, a sort of "living novel" of his search for vengeance. The final book from the author of Tim and Pete (Baker, who suffered from depression, killed himself in 1997), Testosterone is a wild ride--dark, funny, and satiric--and a testament to the savage side of love. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly
Controversial gay cult author/filmmaker Baker (Tim & Pete) committed suicide in 1997, but left behind this previously unpublished novel, an amalgam of inner torment, sexual addiction, lost love and angry retribution. Revised, edited and updated for prime time, the novel consists of the transcripts of tapes dictated by harried protagonist Dean Seagrave describing a tumultuous, frenetic Los Angeles odyssey. In the middle of the night, Seagrave's house is set on fire, sending him on a quest to find the guilty party. But he already suspects the culprit is his missing lover, Pablo, who went out for cigarettes one day and never returned. Hopped up on drugs and rage, and carrying a Glock, Seagrave embarks on a hunt to find (and murder) his errant boyfriend, starting with random visits to mutual friends. His search turns violent when he happens first upon Pablo's best friend, Calvin, a wheelchair-bound AIDS victim, and then upon Pablo's terrified mother, and attempts to physically shake answers out of each of them. As his search progresses, Seagrave finds a series of sinister clues to Pablo's mysterious past: a home video of a missing, mutilated pet; a secret apartment stocked with bondage equipment; and evidence that Pablo has ties to a demonic cult. Still, it's never clear quite what is true and what isn't, and by the time the tale builds up to its ultra-violent, surrealistic conclusion, Seagrave has proved himself a wholly untrustworthy narrator. Baker is adept at generating suspense, and he exhibits a sharp wit when ruminating on gay culture. But the tape-transcript device is tired, and reading Baker's high-strung prose style is often like eavesdropping on an overcaffeinated cell-phone conversation. Still, this is a fitting if flawed valedictory effort. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Dean Seagrave is driving around L.A., looking for Pablo Ortega. When he finds him, he is going to kill him. Why? For starters, because Dean's house has burned down, and he believes Pablo is to blame. Then there are the ugly things Dean has learned from Pablo's other lovers. Pablo practices black magic rituals in which animals are tortured and dismembered--so that was what happened to Dean's missing dog--and that even include human sacrifice during S & M sex. Pablo puts curses on his exes, too, that require white magic exorcism to be removed. Certainly, Dean could be cursed, so obsessive is his quest for the man who loved (?) and left him. Cast as a series of transcriptions of tapes Dean records during his manhunt, Testosterone is a tour de force, part nourish suspense novel and part grim satire of compulsive gay male sexuality, as despondent as a Jim Thompson yarn in which the narrator is killed on the last page. It is as compelling as good Thompson, too. Ray Olson
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