SHAMING THE DEVIL
Collected Short Stories
By G. Winston James
(Top Ten Press ISBN978-0-9770797-0-4)
Reviewed By Stanley Bennett Clay
Poet G. Winston James makes a remarkable fiction debut with SHAMING THE DEVIL, a
collection of short stories that examine black, predominantly homoerotic
experiences with beauty, passion and a boldness that renders it both
transcendental and deeply personal. One need not be gay or black to enjoy these
well-honed nuggets of literary art that twist, turn, enthrall, and provoke in
ways that only a poet can. Mr. James is not merely a fantastic storyteller and
thinker but a wordsmith Michelangelo whose nearly every sentence is
painstakingly crafted into well-cut diamonds. Forgive the hyperbole, but I am
simply overwhelmed.
The collection opens with UNCLE, innocently, even sweetly, narrated by a little
boy celebrating his sixth birthday while his body celebrates feelings for his
uncle that he does not understand. An empathy-inducing reminiscence of new and
uninformed sensations, desires and longings, it will take many a reader back to
those first frightening and fantastic pre-pubescent shivers engendered by the
very presence of a hero-worshipped same sex relative.
While RAHEN (my personal favorite) boldly tackles gay bashing and rivets until
the heartbreaking end, CONFINING ROOM flips the script on homie-sexuality. And
take note of this beautifully written phrase from THE SPACE BETWEEN: “He opens
her with four fingers. He speaks rivers inside her. She does not know what to do
with her hands. The rest of her body. Or the thoughts, like famine and harvest,
roiling in her head.”
UNDER AN EARLY AUTUMN MOON is the tale of a late night tryst with a surprising
twist set in the fuckable landscape of a public park. PATH and SICK DAYS are
thematically linked both in tone and content; tracking the light hearted—-in
fact downright hysterical—escapades of a metrosexual homosexual’s quest for
transient trade and the attended consequences of infidelity.
JOHN poignantly examines a self-loather’s confrontation with his demons via a
therapist and a hustler, and although I’m not much of a fan of sadomasochism, I
found SOMEWHERE NEARBY brilliant in its mix of cruel sex, brutal assault,
intellectualism and the power of brooding self-examination at death’s door.
A seventeen-year-old boy weathers a violent physical and psychological storm in
his native Jamaica as his older gay brother, banished years earlier by a
now-absent father, lays dying of AIDS in the brief but powerful STORM. And
CHURCH returns a prodigal world traveler to his hometown congregation where his
moving revelation restores faith in a true and loving God.
This twelve-story collection ends with THE EMBRACE, a bright and buoyant story
of three friends and their sexual fantasies that slowly turns erotically
haunting when one of them introduces another to a mysterious lothario. THE
EMBRACE is sure to leave you breathless.
As in any story collection, some are better than others. But there is not a weak
one in this bunch, as the author gives each narrator a unique voice, each story
its own fascinating twist, and writing as appealingly grandiose and artful as
Morrison and Baldwin.
Indeed, Baldwin and Thomas Glave are the only BGM writers to win the prestigious
O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction. Based on a couple of the best stories in
SHAMING THE DEVIL, it would not surprise me one bit if G. Winston James was
chosen to make this a literary trinity.
Special Los Angeles Black Pride Celebration performance of Stanley Bennett
Clay’s “Armstrong’s Kid” followed by a champagne reception Sunday July 5th.
Email back for details.
