Jim Provenzano

關於我：

Cyclizen is the tale of a bicycle courier, living in San Francisco, recounting his life in New York City during the heyday of ACT UP and other protest groups. Provenzano accomplishes the seemingly miraculous task of spinning a yarn that is simultaneously meandering and as on-point as an arrow loosed from an over-taut bow.

Readers can never be sure where this book is heading, but it’s one hell of a trip from point A to point B, filled with rich vocabulary and occasional forays into clever wordplay." - Anthony Glassman, Gay People's Chronicle

---

"Many passages stand out and could stand alone as short stories in their own right: awkward attempts at being friends with an ex-boyfriend, a sad interlude with a friend/fuck buddy, fictional HIV-poz porn star Jake Stallion, plus numerous one-night-stands with guys Kent hopes will be 'the one.' Is there a gay reader who wouldn't see parts of himself in Kent's stories?

One scene particularly resonates in the light of all the AIDS deaths we endured. Kent tries to explain to his parents why he's so unaffected by the death of his 81-year-old aunt. He tells Mom and Dad of all the memorials he's attended. He tries to explain to them what it's like seeing someone die before they're 30, weighing less than 100 lbs. But Mom and Dad either don't get it, or don't want to hear it. This sequence is beautifully, poetically written.

Cyclizen is unforgettable. Kent's look back on his younger days almost feels like a ghost story. The years covered in the book are a period that will indeed haunt us forever." - David Nahmod, Bay Area Reporter

---

"Like Jim Provenzano's two earlier novels (PINS, about homophobia in amateur sports, and Monkey Suits, about working class gay activism), Cyclizen is about as far as you can get from the many safe and sanitary gay novels being cranked out nowadays.

The narrator, Kent, is a different kind of road warrior, working as a hip and hot bike messenger on New York's class-society terrain. An understandably burned-out AIDS activist, but still an idealist, his internal battle is with his past and present and with the men in his life.

Attractions and, ironically, activism get him involved with a Wall Street trader, but deeper friendships help him keep his balance.

Like the wheels of a street-smart messenger's bike, the prose is fast, busy and sometimes jarring. Kent's real subject matter is not his own but our culture, relationships and our challenging times." - Mandate magazine

---

"In the early 90s, 24-yearold Kent Hyles casts off his constricting bourgeois office garb in exchange for a pair of spandex and a messenger bag. With the purchase of a dependable bike, Kent begins his decade-long relationship with New York City, a place whose filthy sidewalks, gruff personalities and unforgiving real estate contribute to our hero’s adoration. On every littered corner, in every shadowy bar, Kent finds dissolute opportunity lurking. Through the adventures of this courier, author Jim Provenzano careens through a city still in the ugly grip of AIDS. So much more than bikes and AIDS, Cyclizen is a quick-footed novel of sex, scandal and activism.

Most couriers ride in order to pay the bills while pursuing their Broadway debut or first film feature. For Kent Hyles, it is the thrill, not the pyacheck, that keeps him on two wheels. Indeed, dodging potholes and cab doors provides exhilaration enough to distract from the fact that his friends are disappearing around him, plucked one by one from hospice beds.

The surge of riding becomes a way of staring down the promise of death that seems to loom at every intersection and in every back room. On any day at work, Kent might slice between a bus and a rogue taxi, eking through with his life.

Similarly, Kent’s non-stop sex life tempts and escapes the disease that has brought most of his friends to the limits of human suffering. Though always cautious, the sex Kent has is urgent and raw, gritty like his East Village stomping ground. Provenzano is at his best in these scenes, painting the erotic interests of a thrillseeker. He is good with smells, bringing to life the noxious intoxication of a pair of briefs or the sexy stench, beloved by only a few, of cum cooling on a partner’s chest. Whether Kent is slobbering on a man’s balls, sniffing around an armpit, or jerking off in the cold, dark, deserted East Side Park, the story comes alive in its visceral description.

Provenzano is sparing, unsentimental. His prose is swift, like spinning tires turning out Kent’s journey. At times he seems like an old friend telling a story by email, spitting out details in capricious jolts, as if we are capable of filling in the blanks.

But his novel has a current. It sweeps you along, even when there is no plot, per se, to be swept along in. In fact, it is not until halfway through the slim volume that anything of substantial intrigue occurs. When a handsome if standoffish executive, also a steady fuck, asks Kent to participate in a bit of big business espionage, Kent finally declares, "It had begun."

The payoff is big, almost as much for us as for Kent. When the targeted firm finally crumbles, the cash comes rolling in. What follows" the ironic ennui of sitting pretty on a big score. With a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills, Kent helps out a sick friend, the one act that seems decent to him in this world of dark back rooms, cheap orgasms, bloated non-profits and false motives of disingenuous corporate types.

With each chapter title Provenzano calls out an intersection, providing a roadmap punctuated by honking car horns and iconic 90s hangouts. It is in these local bars, to wit, Crowbar, Tunnel and Pyramid, where the sly smiles of strangers lead to furtive encounters. Even against the death-black backdrop of AIDS, even as we lurch unwittingly toward the Armageddon of 9/11, the city has a life-affrming pulse.

Cyclizen is a small yet valuable book that has a place among great New York stories. Among other things, it is a period piece preoccupied with mortality and the sexy adrenaline rush of those who dare to live." - Torso Magazine, Dec. 2008

Advance praise for Cyclizen:

"From the ashes of office temp arises a courier on two wheels in search of the man who got away. As he whizzes up and down the thoroughfares of Manhattan, fleeing his past, sizing up his future, he careens headlong into lust’s pothole. Watch our hero as he falls under the spell of a dashing and dastardly inside trader. How far will the seduction go? Only the Cyclizen knows."
– Ian Philips, author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning See Dick Deconstruct

"Juggling AIDS activism, corporate and individual greed, all through the travails of a bike messenger in search of love and belonging, Cyclizen is noteworthy for its fine characterization and poignant lyricism. Provenzano explores love and friendship with insight and nuance, marking his work as unique, vital and significant."
– Trebor Healey, author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning Through It Came Bright Colors

Review excerpts for Jim Provenzano’s debut novel, PINS

"What starts off as yet another coming-of-age tale of gay youth in suburbia takes a dramatic turn and careens into a full-fledged miracle of writing."
– NY Blade News

"Fully captures the reader ... a descriptive writer of the Ernest Hemingway model; terse, stripped down, and to the point."
– Lambda Book Report

"Provenzano has a swift and flexible style that cuts against sentiment and reveals, in moments of grace, something like true feeling. He’s also funny. He has an ear for teenage banter, and he’s tartly lyrical about Jersey towns, Italian families and homemade mix tapes with titles like GRAPPLE and AURGH. Most urgent, he shows how gay bashing is still an outlet for kids who grew up in the so-called gay ‘90s."
– The Advocate

"PINS is an auspicious debut, sort of a Catcher in the Rye about disillusioned gay jocks. It firmly establishes Jim Provenzano as an important new voice in early 21st-century fiction."
– Torso Magazine

"A brilliant piece of fiction… The plot is very complex with many layers, each well-developed and passionately expressed. No sensitive reader will make it to the end without giggling, anxiety, joy and tears."
– Gay People’s Chronicle

The 2002 stage adaptation of PINS:

"Provenzano shows great skill with naturalistic dialogue and a healthy dose of wry humor."
– San Francisco Examiner

"(PINS) wrestles with his themes thoughtfully and to entertaining effect. The center of the play, though, is a gay coming-of-age story compounded by the homophobia that seems rampant in so many sports, especially those with obvious homoerotic overtones.
– San Francisco Chronicle

"Scenes flow into one another with graceful fluidity, and the wrestling action – choreographed by playwright Provenzano – is visceral and smacks of authenticity."
– Oakland Tribune

"A fine example of the virtues of compelling drama: spare, incisive writing ... Impressively written, this almost minimalist drama skillfully builds an empathic tension."
– San Francisco Bay Times

PINS was also translated into German with the English title, Wrestling Team:

"Wrestling Team" ist eine aussergewöhliche Coming-out-Geschichte, in der es um eine Gruppe junger Ringer geht. Das Buch wurde inspiriert durch ein Hate Crime in New York: Der 15-jährige Joe eifert im Ringerteam seiner neuen Schule den drei Rädelsführern nach. Auf einen davon fährt Joe besonders ab, aber der ist bestimmt nicht schwul - und sich zu outen ist für Joe einfach nicht drin, schliesslich will er nicht so enden wie Anthony aus dem Team, der wegen seines Andersseins ganz unten in der Hackordnung der Sportler steht. Die Hänseleien führen schliesslich zu einem Mord. Der bekannte schwule Schriftsteller Felice Picano schrieb über dieses bewegende Buch: "Diese Geschichte aus der Welt der Athleten ist erschreckend realistisch geschrieben und eine Mahnung dafür, welchen Weg wir noch zurücklegen müssen."

----

Praise for Monkey Suits:

"Jim Provenzano’s brilliant novel Monkey Suits captures perfectly the Reagan Age as it examines the lives of gay cater-waiters working the Metropolitan Museum’s swank parties while getting politicized."
– Author David Ehrenstein, for the Bay Area Reporter

"A wit that equals Maupin at his best, using the figure of the cater waiter as his Everyman… A thoroughly entertaining and well-written story filled with well defined characters, clever plot twists and subtle humor... light-handed irony and a sharp eye for dark humor around the edges."
– Independent Writers Forum

"A nostalgic Manhattan-set novel about unfocused youth, mercurial boyfriends, and the early days of activism and anger. Part sneering and part servile, a nervy imbalance gives this novel a subversive, comic clout."
– Richard LaBonte, Bookmarks

Reviews of Sporting Life: LGBT Athletics and Cultural Change from the 1960s to Today (2005-2006, at the GLBT Historical Society):

"An Emerald City version of a school gym's trophy cabinet, illustrating the community's inclusive reputation, and surpassing straight sports culture." - Bay Area Reporter

"The rich and colorful exhibit... documents the thriving gay athletic scene ... The exhibit is filled with rare items, gleaming under lights and organized by sport from track and field to bowling. In one case are original medals from the first Gay Games." - San Jose Mercury News

My syndicated Sports Complex column (1996-2006) won the first Federation of Gay Games Journalism Award (2007)