Product Description

Take David Sedaris, Sandra Bernhard, and Christopher Buckley and roll them into one fiercely hilarious human being. Then add a dash more subversive humour and outrageous irony and you might begin to find the stinging understanding of life of Mike Albo in his debut novel Hornito. Juxtaposing a trip to his childhood home where he has retreated to make sense of his hectic life in New York City with memories of growing up gay in suburbia, Albo creates the character "Mike Albo," whose memories from a fictitious life are outrageously, hilariously, embarrassingly real. Filled with the typical suburban childhood predicaments of bullies, rollerskates, satin shorts, and Solid Gold dancers, Albo evokes a poignant, nostalgic past that riffs terrifically with his vibrant, energetic--and perpetual--search for love in the present. By turns vulnerable and jaded, flamboyant and obsessive, Albo brings his own unique, witty, and touching take on being young, single and gay in today's culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1901794 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-01
• Released on: 2000-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Amazon.com Review
Softly lit, as if by a disco ball and a vintage Lava lamp, Mike Albo's rich and funny novel hinges on his protagonist and alter ego's visit home to suburban Springfield for Labor Day weekend, where he reminisces about his standard-issue American childhood and seeks a remedy for crabs, while obsessing about an unattainable trick of his named Eric, a dancer at Freon in Manhattan: "He is a human candy bar impulse buy--moving effortlessly and beautifully up there with a king-size Snickers down his white cutoffs." There is no plot to speak of in Hornito, but a few events occur to strike off sparks of recollection. The driving force is Albo's unquenchable libido, which leads him into the sex clubs of New York and the dismal local gay hangouts of his parents' hometown, just as it led him into satin shorts and eyeliner during his warped 1980s adolescence. Among the best gay books of 2000, Hornito speaks to the geeky and emotionally hungry boy in even the coolest man. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly
Up-and-coming New York City monologuist Albo's kaleidoscopic fiction debut chronicles a young man's navigation of consumer culture, gay identity and numerous erotic adventures. Poignant glibness and sharp pop-culture criticism punctuate the chatterbox voice of protagonist Mike Albo, whose harsh, quirky observations and quicksilver humor belie his earnest heart. The book flashes through two decades, from formative events in his stultifying, suburban Virginia childhood to New York City's East Village in the early '90s, as starry-eyed, adult Mike tries to make sense of who he is and what he wants. He thinks he wants go-go boy EricDbut Eric's with George and sometimes with BennyDor maybe he wants another one-night stand with a heartbreaker like Rod. He knows for sure he wanted Jeff, his high school love, and Jason, the unreachable golden boy. Investigating his various desires, Mike unearths a secret involving his brother and their older, male babysitter, and finds that in his stoic loneliness amid sex clubs, trashy boys and a deadening office job, he gets "total crymouth." Evident are the trip wires of hurt and fear of rejection that connect the "different" little boy with the sassy young man. Also in plain sight is something the protagonist doesn't see: though true love eludes Mike, he is nonetheless truly lovable. Albo moves fluidly from childhood scenes in which Mike eats sticks of butter on his porch and secretly dreams of being a flashy dancer in satin shorts, to the wily high school strategies he employs to become popular, and eventually to the downtown hipster world that, ironically, mirrors all the hypocrisies and pleasures of his pubescence. While the brilliance of Albo's cynical nostalgia may be lost on those who neither came of age in the New Wave '80s nor participated in the urban retro trends of the '90s, this writer's formidable gift for humor and self-flagellating satire transcends the limits of a generation-X audience. Agent, Tina Bennett. 20,000 first printing; author tour. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A scandalously savage riff on goring up suburba-gay." -- --Vanity Fair

"Hornito is a wonder: sexy, fiercely observant, unmistakably sad, and wildly funny all at once..." -- -- Mark Doty

"I've long been a fan of Mike Albo's brilliant comic monologues; the emotional intensity of the remarkable novel raises his art to a new level." -- -- Ron Rosenbaum

Customer Reviews

Buy vodka head to CVS hunker in the corner and READ ALBO
One of the best books I've read in a long time -- much better than Me Talk Pretty -- but Albo writes in an entirely different style. While Sedaris recounts humourous events, Albo recognizes the humor in what being single, gay, and in NY really is about. I'm giving this to everyone I date from now on -- with the words "If this ain't you move along!" Albo, whether he thinks so or not, has it all figured out. My only complaint is I read it in one night and there's nothing left -- where's book two?

I CAN'T PUT THIS DOWN
I haven't laughed this hard in years. I haven't had greater insight into the passion and sadness and speedy joy of being in my twenties. The main character in this book basically just gets it - his loneliness and efforts to find love are so amazingly similar to mine. And they're also hilarious. But Hornito not a "humor" book like Art Buchwald or Steve Martin: it's a genuine, truthful tour of the insanity of being single and the most unspoken parts the heart. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS! People compare Albo to David Sedaris, but Albo is SOOO much better!! This book is INCREDIBLE.

Much more than a witty diversion!
Mike Albo has talent to burn. This adroitly written diary/memoir/fantasia of the past and current struggles of a young man to establish a meaningful relationship in a world that is centered on transience is at once humorous (even hilarious) and soulful (even sad). Albo cleverly writes as though this were an autobiogrphical confession, so much so that it is difficult not to buy in to every bizarre recall and projection. How much of this is fantasy, how much reportage? To this reader there is no discerning that line. Much of main character Mike's recounting of his childhood sexual fantasies and acting out sound like terrific stand-up comedian material, but since they are so carefully woven into the fabric of his young adult escapades as the novel speeds along, they gain credence, and in making all of this story credible, Albo forces us to examine the sociology of the last quarter of the 20th Century. There is a lot of stern observation about our status as social beings. And I think this is the test of a really fine humorist: Make 'em laugh like crazy until they go home and, in solitude, think and even cry a bit. A solid Bravo for Hornito!