Product Description

To thine own self be true—no matter what it costs

Acclaimed author J. G. Hayes returns to the gritty streets of South Boston for the much-anticipated sequel to his critically heralded debut, This Thing Called Courage. Now Batting for Boston: More Stories by J.G. Hayes goes home to the bars, housing projects and D Street bedrooms of Southie, where you can feel like a stranger in your own skin, just trying to survive growing up gay among working-class Irish-Catholics who don't want to hear the hard truths about their sons.

Unlike my father, it wasn't only Life I hoped to jump into during my long light-gazing vigils on the roof. In particular, it was a particular bar in a particular part of town, a bar whose blacked-out windows were lit up like Christmas every day of the year. It was a bar for people like me. For although I may have looked like my father, and loved baseball like my father, I was not heterosexual, like my father. And all the prayers to St. Anthony in the world hadn't changed that.

You find them anywhere in Southie—from Castle Island to Carson Beach, from Sunday mass at St. Anthony's to the Tuesday night hack league at the HockeyTown rink. Men, young and not so young, struggle with their sexuality, outsiders in their own homes searching for someplace to belong. Now Batting for Boston is a moving collection of stories, intense and gripping, with no guarantees of a happy ending. Just like life in South Boston.

With Terry, it was like, Jesus; it was like the whole world went away. When our lips met for the first time. It was like ... it was like you could stay that way forever. It was like you fell into a different planet, you fell through a hole in the ground and came to the center of the earth and you were still falling, wondering but not really caring when you were gonna land. Electricity. Like someone put one of them joke handshake-buzzer things up against your mouth and clicked it on.

Booklist said of Joe Hayes's first collection of short stories, This Thing Called Courage: "We impatiently await (his) next effort!" The wait is over. Now Batting for Boston is a worthy successor to Hayes's stunning debut, packed with the same brutal honesty, the same muscular passion, and the same tough-but-tender prose that made his first book an essential read.

From the author: "Tragically, South Boston was the scene of the deaths of over three hundred young men several years ago, due to drug overdose, alcohol-related accidents, violence, and suicide. During an especially painful six-month period, in a community that has known more than its share of pain, seven young men killed themselves. While obviously not all of these young men were gay-we don't even know if any of them were-the National Institutes of Health have said that two-thirds of all teen and youth suicides are committed by gay and lesbian youth. So perhaps it's simply a matter of doing the math.

"South Boston was also the scene of some very ugly anti-gay demonstrations and vociferations during the controversial Irish-American Gay Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston's participation in the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade a decade ago. Some residents opposed this participation because they saw the group as yet another outside force trying to impose its will on a community that traditionally likes to be let alone. But many people viewed the entire affair as a virulent and especially bigoted example of the homophobia that can and does lead to bewilderment, estrangement, and even suicide among gay and lesbian youth. But certainly South Boston has not cornered the market on homophobia, and in that respect my stories could be set almost anywhere. There are many gay men and women from South Boston who have received unwavering support and love from their families, if not from the community at large."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1077808 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 170 pages

Review
"A collection of stories that is, at heart, about the power of storytelling as a vehicle for hope and transformation." -- Kathryn Conrad, Author of Locked in a Family Cell: Gender, Sexuality, and Political Agency in Irish National Discourse

"This collection CAPTURES BOYHOOD SEXUAL AWAKENING IN ALL ITS CONFUSING, FRIGHTENING, AND TENDER ASPECTS." -- James A. Lopata, Editor, In Newsweekly, New England's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender newspaper

Customer Reviews

Forging a Way Through the Labyrinth of Possibilities: More Tales from JG Hayes' South Boston
We knew it was coming when THIS THING CALLED COURAGE was published: JG Hayes had opened a door into his prodigious gifts as a storyteller, a voice while uniquely indigenous to South Boston that could universally address the terrifying and ultimately gratifying journeys of discovering our sexual identity. NOW BATTING FOR BOSTON: More Stories by JG Hayes broadens that expected base of support that comfortably confirms the fact that Hayes has the gift.

What makes these seven short stories unique is their platform. South Boston remains a blue-collar area of that great city of American equality for all - Boston, the beacon for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet South Boston is an historical and current enclave of Irish American immigrants with strong ties to the Catholic Church and braggadocio male/female dichotomy. This is Hayes' neighborhood and root source: the fact that his stories deal with those boys and men who are gay in an unfriendly climate makes them tender, vulnerable, courageous and immensely touching. Hayes chooses not to opt for the easy routes, the obvious tear, or the safety of the closet: his characters struggle through the darkly strange labyrinth that gradually leads to light and to finding the true self.

And he knows how to seduce the reader into stories with few signs of where they are to lead. The title story opening the book deals with a WW II broken father whose sharing his war experiences with his son falter at the brink of truth, and at the end the son lies on the grave of his father uttering the same phrases of confession about his sexuality that earlier protected his father's truths about the war. The effect is stunning. 'There is a Balm in Gilead' visits the reunion of ex-lovers, and bares all the scars and regrets and anxieties that can alter the possibility of new beginnings. `The Golden Apples of the Sun' successfully explores the atrocities of war and its sequelae on Veterans in a manner that dwarfs many tales from true Veteran writers!

'You're always happy when you're rich' finds a young painter trying on the false front of wealth only to discover that career dreams are less important than personal physical realities. In 'Lughead' a blue-collar Irish man longs to be other than his nickname denotes and how he struggles, searches for and finds the one who accepts him as he is sans moniker. 'The West Broadway Academy of Martial Arts' recounts a journey into the homophobic Southern states made by two friends verbally sidestepping their gay proclivities as they bond on their journey. And 'Terry-Love: One Good Thing' follows the nightly Sheherazade-like tales of encountering physical love (apologized as heterosexual) told by a lad in a rehab facility, a tender and frank means of survival among young Southie DUI offenders whose childhood roots bind them.

The stories are varied and ring true and Hayes' writing is picturesque and picaresque and poetically eloquent. Though his style is verismo and redolent of the earthy South Boston accent, when he addresses nature he waxes "..and I was watching the moonlight on the floor, like...spilled silver. Shifting, rolling. Like milk. Then there'd be like a cloud smudge, and the light would fade, it would be pitch-dark in a heartbeat. Then all bright again."

For this reader JG Hayes has found a niche where he excels, fulfills the promises of his first book, and steps fully into the arena of important American authors. And what a joy that this man can write so richly about the souls of gay people. Highly recommended for all readers: required reading for those who thirst for fine gay literature. Grady Harp, July 05

Sons and Lovers
in 2002 J. G. Hayes published THIS THING CALLED COURAGE: SOUTH BOSTON STORIES, one of the very best collections of short stories in a long time. Now he follows that debut with NOW BATTING FOR BOSTON: MORE STORIES BY J. G. HAYES. There are eight stories here-- although one of them barely qualifies ("Once on Christmas Eve") as it is only three pages long. The other seven stories allow the reader to fully engage himself with a group of memorable characters. Michael Nava may know his California, the late John Preston had his finger on the pulse of working-class Maine, but Mr. Hayes clearly understands South Boston. His characters usually have many things in common. Being Southies, they are of course white, Irish Catholic, blue-eyed, rabid Red Sox fans, either high school dropouts or only high school graduates, blue-collar workers-- pipefitters, drywallers, painters' helpers, housecleaners. They detest the gentrifiers moving into their neighborhoods who would make a verb out of "winter." Some of them have criminal records, drinking problems and parents who are deceased. While they may have girl friends, they also have strong, forbidden feelings toward other men although the word "gay" never enters their vocabulary. That is not to say they are of one cloth. To paraphrase Tolstoy, each one of them is unique in his sorrow.

In his "Preface" Mr. Hayes mentions one reviewer of his first book who found the collection "often bleak." He points out that in a five-year period, "over 350 young men had died in South Boston due to a variety of causes--alcohol and drug overdose, violence and suicide" and that he was attempting to "highlight the ill effects of the violence caused by homophobia, whether it comes from family, peers, church, school, media, advertising, or consumerist/corporate culture." Mr. Hayes goes on to say that some of these new stories are "less bleak." Indeed some of them are. These men sometimes improve their lives, find love and a modicum of happiness. Just as in the first collection, however, these characters, to a person, tug at the reader's heart-strings and are more sinned against than sinning.

The title story "Now Batting for Boston" is about a young man's love affair with both his father and with baseball and of course his quest for a lover. His father returned from the military to civilian life a broken man physically. He vowed, however, to marry a woman he would treat as his queen. Since the narrator's name is Joe Hayes, we have to assume that much of this poignant story is autobiographical. One could to a lot worse than have such parents as these. In "There is a Balm in Gilead" taken from the hymn title, two lovers meet after an eight-year separation and in a surpise ending worthy of O'Henry find out that relationships may be possible, at least the hope of one, even in South Boston. Although Danny in "You're Always Happy When You're Rich" will probably never be the architect he dreams of becoming since he cannot get into college, he is loved by his friend Billy, in his own way of course. There is a touching scene where Billy and Danny go on a picnic after Billy has made sandwiches for the two of them, marking Danny's with a red "D." Then they split a "Mountian Dew." They promise to share secrets with each other and maybe even volunteer to work on a Habitat for Humanity house. Not all the characters fare so well. At least two of them in as many stories attempt suicide by slashing their wrists. Another is in detention for a DUI; another steals a car in order to leave South Boston and drive his friend to Florida.

These stories are every bit as good as the first collection and are not to be missed.

Taking A Flyer
I picked up this book and remembered that I had taken a look at an earlier collection by this author, only to put it down because of its ludicrous beefcake cover. This cover is more subdued--I wonder if the book will sell fewer copies being less garish? If so that is sad indeed. Anyhow I have heard some of my friends say good things about JG Hayes, so I took a chance and I'm glad I did. In the introduction to his book says that the first book elicited admiring comments from Jamie O'Neill, author of the wonderful AT SWIM TWO BOYS. Hayes isn't as ambitious, perhaps, as O'Neill, and a book of stories delivers less of an impact than a novel (generally speaking, and specifically thinking of the different betwen NOW BATTING FOR BOSTON and AT SWIM TWO BOYS), but they're working the same ballpark, and at least one of the stories in this book reaches quite delirious heights of feeling and execution. I got sucked into it, and I don't think I'll ever be the same, that is the story called LUGHEAD.

Some of the other pieces I thought were slight, or derived from cliches of "gay writing." LUGHEAD, like something by James Purdy, seems like it's written from a place where writing will be in fifty years from now. It's a recognizable Boston cityscape, but there are prophetic touches, like the angels walking among us in Wenders' film WINGS OF DESIRE. By the end I was just flabbergasted. People have been looking for years for the hoped-for "gay Bruce Springsteen," and this is him, but something more, something extra. For this one tale alone I give the book five stars. I wonder what he is like, J G Hayes, and if I would like him as a man.

But again his publishers are letting him down. Has Southern Tier ever put out a good looking book? Do they all have to be so cheap and tasteless? This one has no naked men on the cover, but what is with that subtitle, "NOW BATTING FOR BOSTON: MORE STORIES BY J G HAYES." Even Chekhov wouldn't have a book that said, "MORE STORIES BY CHEKHOV." It makes Hayes sounds like the vainest man on Planet Earth, and I'm sure he's no such thing.

But that's just a peccadillo. He could have published "Lughead" in smoke signals and it would still stand head and shoulders above most modern American stories.